Principal Software Engineer · Colorado Springs, CO

Steve
Boyer

10+ years of Java development across large-scale enterprise platforms. Owning full feature lifecycles, maintaining 60+ high-availability applications, and building the systems, and the teams, that keep them running.

Java · Spring Boot Jakarta EE Event-Driven Systems High-Availability CI/CD Apigee · GCP
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.

Experience
Verizon
Oct 2022 – Present
Colorado Springs, CO
Principal Software Engineer
  • Own the full feature lifecycle for an enterprise event-driven platform supporting 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.
  • Took on additional ownership and coordination responsibilities following team reductions, supporting an 8-engineer team (previously 12).
  • 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 · 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
Skills & Stack
Backend
Java · Spring Boot · Spring MVC · Jakarta EE · Hibernate / JPA · JUnit · TDD · Object-Oriented Design · Design Patterns · Python
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 · Docker · Git · Maven · Gradle · CI/CD · DevSecOps · ELK Stack · Bash · 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.

LinkedIn GitHub