Principal Software Engineer · Colorado Springs, CO

Steve
Boyer

Principal Software Engineer building and owning large-scale Java platforms, and shipping hands-on AI and LLM integrations. 10+ years across enterprise architecture and an active iOS side project on the Anthropic Claude API and MCP.

Java · Spring Boot Jakarta EE Event-Driven Systems Anthropic API MCP CI/CD AWS
About

10+ years.
60 apps.
Owned
end to end.

I'm a Principal Software Engineer at Verizon where I own the full feature lifecycle for an enterprise event-driven platform. That covers architecture, development, deployment, production support, and everything in between. That means 60+ high-availability Java applications, 6 databases, and an 8-engineer team I help keep sharp.

My background runs from a small translation startup to the scale of a national telecom platform. I've driven major infrastructure migrations, built CI pipelines, defined coding standards, and mentored engineers at every level.

Currently pursuing an M.S. in AI & Machine Learning at CSU Global.

Currently Building
MacroScape Proxy

AWS Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, and CDK in TypeScript. Apple Sign-In authentication, per-user rate limiting, Anthropic API forwarding. In active development.

MacroScape (iOS)

Adding new alert rules and tightening the per-call AI observability inspector. Working toward App Store launch once the proxy is in place.

M.S. in AI and Machine Learning

Pursuing at Colorado State University Global. Currently in coursework on foundations.

Experience
Verizon
Oct 2022 – Present
Colorado Springs, CO
Principal Software Engineer
  • Own the full feature lifecycle for an enterprise event-driven platform processing 2M+ daily transactions across 2,000+ users and multiple downstream systems: architecture, development, deployment, production support, and ongoing maintenance.
  • Maintain and evolve 60+ high-availability Java applications built on Spring and Jakarta EE, running on WildFly across on-prem RHEL servers.
  • Drove major platform upgrade from JBoss 5 to WildFly, enabling continued vendor support and unblocking future modernization.
  • Define and enforce engineering best practices and coding standards; conduct thorough code reviews across all experience levels.
  • Mentor engineers through structured guidance, driving measurable improvements to code quality, documentation, and operational practices.
  • Implement CI pipelines using Jenkins and Docker, improving build consistency and early defect detection.
  • Lead an 8-engineer team of contractors and offshore contributors as the only full-time engineer on the platform; define engineering standards, conduct code reviews across all experience levels, and mentor on architecture and operational practices.
  • Lead root-cause analysis and on-call production support across 6 databases and numerous backend services.
  • Integrate and maintain internal and partner-facing APIs exposed through Apigee (GCP).
  • Partner with business stakeholders and end users across global teams to define requirements, prioritize features, and deliver platform improvements aligned with operational needs.
  • Developed Kafka producers and consumers for high-throughput, asynchronous event processing across distributed platform services.
Verizon
May 2019 – Oct 2022
Irving, TX
Senior Software Engineer
  • Designed and implemented backend Java and Spring features, owning components from design through production deployment.
  • Built RESTful APIs and asynchronous, event-driven processing components supporting high-throughput workflows.
  • Optimized Oracle SQL queries and schema design to improve core application performance.
  • Improved logging and observability using the ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana); led Logstash onboarding for 60+ applications, standardizing log ingestion and improving production diagnostics.
  • Developed Bash and Python scripts to automate local workflows and operational tasks.
  • Collaborated closely with product, QA, and operations teams to deliver reliable releases.
Brooksource
Apr 2018 – Apr 2019
Colorado Springs, CO
Software Application Programmer III · Verizon Contractor
  • Extended and debugged enterprise Java web applications using JBoss, MySQL, and Hibernate.
  • Integrated static code analysis and security scanning into build processes.
  • Refactored legacy modules to improve readability and maintainability.
Self-Employed
Nov 2016 – Apr 2018
Green River, WY
Independent Contractor
  • Built RESTful APIs and backend services using Java and Spring for small enterprise clients.
  • Assisted clients migrating legacy systems toward service-oriented architectures.
Language I/O
May 2015 – Nov 2016
Cheyenne, WY
Software Engineer
  • Developed backend Java components and REST endpoints for a cloud-based translation platform (MySQL).
  • Built UI features and internal tools supporting translation workflows.
  • Integrated third-party APIs including Oracle Service Cloud and Salesforce.
Projects
Personal Project · 2025 – 2026
MacroScape

iOS calorie and macro tracker built solo, integrating the Anthropic Claude API for multimodal food-photo analysis, OCR-then-LLM nutrition-label parsing, and refinement passes. Multi-model orchestration across Haiku, Sonnet, and Opus. USDA-grounded evaluation pipeline that falls through to verified data when model output is implausible. Prompt caching with ephemeral cache_control blocks, per-call AI observability, and Keychain-based credential handling.

Swift SwiftUI SwiftData Anthropic Claude API MCP Apple HealthKit USDA Food Data Central Apple Vision OCR
Personal Project · 2026
MacroScape Proxy

AWS Lambda proxy backing the MacroScape iOS app. Built on Node 22 / ARM64 with AWS CDK v2 in TypeScript, fronted by an API Gateway HTTP API with DynamoDB and Secrets Manager. Handles Sign in with Apple JWT verification with cached JWKS, per-user daily rate limiting, sanitized error envelopes that distinguish proxy throttling from upstream throttling, and CI/CD via GitHub Actions assuming an AWS OIDC deploy role.

Node 22 TypeScript AWS Lambda AWS CDK API Gateway DynamoDB GitHub Actions AWS OIDC
View on GitHub
Personal Project · 2026
PuckWatch

Event-driven NHL alert service built with Spring Boot, RabbitMQ, and MySQL. Polls the NHL API on a scheduled interval, detects score changes, deduplicates events, evaluates subscriber alert rules, and persists notifications.

Spring Boot RabbitMQ MySQL REST API Event-Driven Docker
View on GitHub
Apps
Nudge
Budge
MacroScape
Bolt
Sift
Nudge iOS · macOS · watchOS
Reminder and notification app with category-based scheduling, privacy controls, and snooze options.
Budge iOS · watchOS
Strength training tracker with per-set weight logging, live heart rate via Apple Watch, and HealthKit integration.
MacroScape iOS
AI-powered nutrition tracker using Claude vision to identify foods from photos. Tracks macros, micros, and health safety alerts.
Bolt iOS
App locking and screen time management using Apple's ScreenTime API.
Sift iOS
On-device SMS filtering using CoreML. Quietly routes spam without sending anything to a server.
Skills & Stack
Backend
Java · Spring Boot · Spring MVC · Jakarta EE · Hibernate / JPA · JUnit · TDD · Object-Oriented Design · Design Patterns · Python · Swift
AI & LLM Tooling
Anthropic Claude API · Model Context Protocol (MCP) · Claude Code (daily) · Prompt Engineering · LLM Evaluation Pipelines · AI-Assisted Development
Architecture
Service-Oriented Architecture · Event-Driven Architecture · Kafka · RabbitMQ · REST APIs · System Architecture · High-Availability Design · Fault Tolerance · Performance Tuning
Data
MySQL · Oracle DB · SQL Optimization
Platforms
WildFly · JBoss · Linux (RHEL)
DevOps & Tools
Jenkins · GitHub Actions · Docker · Git · Maven · Gradle · CI/CD · DevSecOps · ELK Stack · Bash · AWS (Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, CDK) · Jira · Agile / Scrum
APIs & Gateways
Apigee (GCP) · RESTful API Design · Third-Party Integrations
Cloud & Infrastructure
GCP · Apigee · On-Prem RHEL · WildFly Cluster · Linux Server Admin
Leadership
Tech Lead · Mentorship · Code Review · Arch Review · Cross-Functional Collaboration · Agile / Scrum · Roadmapping
Education
M.S. in Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
Colorado State University — Global
In Progress
B.S. in Computer Engineering
University of Wyoming · Laramie, WY
2015
Contact

Let's connect
on LinkedIn.

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