Freelance Remote Java Backend Developer Jobs in Ashburn, VA

Job number: 777

This is a remote position.

Ad Hoc is a technology company that empowers organizations to deliver scalable, impactful digital services. Using modern, agile methods, our team creates products that meet people’s needs and transform their experience of government.

Work on things that matter

Our collaborations have shaped some of the defining moments in public-sector service delivery. We’ve helped build products that connect Veterans to tailored services, help millions access affordable health care, and support important programs like Head Start. As we work with agencies to deliver critical services, we’re also changing how the government approaches technology.

Built for a remote life

Our culture, communications, and tools are built for remote work, enabling us to bring together top talent nationwide. At Ad Hoc, remote life empowers our teams to design work environments that fit their lives and that foster flexibility and collaboration to achieve positive outcomes for our customers.

Committed to high expectations and a welcoming culture

Ad Hoc values acceptance, accountability, and humility. We aren’t heroes. We learn from our mistakes and improve the process for the next time. We build small, inclusive teams to collaborate closely with our partners to solve the right problems and deliver software that works.

The Federal Civilian business unit supports many customers spanning the federal, commercial, and nonprofit space. Our customers include NASA, the General Services Administration, Office of Personnel Management, the Library of Congress, Health & Human Services, and the FDIC. We partner with these agencies to build new capabilities, deliver products, establish data as a strategic asset for informed decision-making, modernize legacy systems, and build the digital service infrastructure necessary to scale their mission impact.

Primary Responsibilities

Software Engineer III - Back End serves as an emerging individual contributor within a team, expanding your leadership, guidance, and mentoring skills. With the support and guidance of leadership, you will be responsible for supporting the goal of meeting scope, schedule, and delivery requirements. You will interact with stakeholders and utilize influential skills to drive improvements in software engineering processes and practices. Primary expectations of a Software Engineer III - Back End include:

• Develop, test, and deploy server-side components, API services, and data integration logic within a cloud-native, microservice-based architecture
• Write and maintain unit and integration tests, contributing to 90%+ automated test coverage targets for all new and modified code
• Participate in mandatory peer code review; no self-approved merges; four-eyes principle enforced on all commits
• Contribute to CI/CD pipeline hygiene, including SonarQube quality gate compliance and resolving security findings in-sprint rather than deferring them
• Collaborate with frontend engineers, QA, and accessibility specialists to deliver end-to-end features from story refinement through production deployment
• Participate in SAFe ceremonies including sprint planning, standups, reviews, and retrospectives
• Support on-call and triage rotations, gaining cross-system diagnostic exposure
• Author and maintain technical documentation, ADRs, and runbooks as part of the Definition of Done
• Mentor junior developers and support recruiting through technical evaluations

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and 5+ years of engineering experience; relevant experience may substitute for education
• Must meet federal suitability requirements and pass a background investigation as a condition of employment
• Proficiency in Python and/or Java for server-side development
• Experience building and consuming RESTful APIs, including versioned OpenAPI specifications
• Hands-on experience with relational databases (PostgreSQL preferred) and non-relational/search platforms (Elasticsearch)
• Familiarity with containerized deployments using Docker and AWS services (ECS, RDS, S3, Lambda, CloudWatch)
• Experience working in agile environments with CI/CD pipelines and version control via Git/GitLab
• Practice writing automated tests (JUnit, Pytest, or equivalent) and working within quality gate frameworks like SonarQube
• Strong written communication skills for developer-facing documentation

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience with federal agency digital services or government contracting environments
• Familiarity with event-driven architectures using AWS SNS/SQS and Lambda/Step Functions
• Experience with SAFe or scaled Agile delivery frameworks
• Exposure to consumer-driven contract testing (Pact) or API contract governance across microservices
• Experience with third-party integrations such as Pay.gov, login.gov, or identity/authentication platforms
• Terraform or infrastructure-as-code experience

To learn more about working at Ad Hoc, please visit:https://adhocteam.us/join

Benefits:

• Company-subsidized health, dental, and vision insurance


• Flexible PTO


• 401K with employer match


• Paid parental leave after one year of service


• Employee Assistance Program

Ad Hoc LLC is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, age, pregnancy, disability, work-related injury, covered veteran status, political ideology, marital status, or any other factor that the law protects from employment discrimination.

In support of various state and city equal pay transparency laws, Ad Hoc job descriptions feature the starting range we reasonably expect to pay to candidates who would join our team with little to no need for training on the responsibilities we've outlined above. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide range of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, and responsibility. The range of starting pay for this role is $100,000 - $105,000. Our recruiters will be happy to answer any questions you may have, and we look forward to learning more about your salary requirements.