Backend • Distributed Systems • AWS

John Noecker Jr.
I build systems that don’t wake you up at 3am.

Backend-focused engineer with 15+ years designing and operating scalable, fault-tolerant services. JVM-heavy (Java/Kotlin), AWS-first, reliability-minded, and cost-aware.

Email me Resume (PDF)

AWS: Lambda, S3, DynamoDB, API Gateway, EC2

Spring Boot (Java/Kotlin)

Node.js (TypeScript)

Observability-first: logs • metrics • alerting

Mentor/interviewer: 3,000+ interviews • 500+ mentored

Selected work

A few themes that show up repeatedly in my projects.

Cloud-native backend modernization

Migrated monolithic workloads to AWS-managed services with incremental delivery, backward compatibility, and operational safety as first-class constraints.

Serverless + managed components (Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3)
Observability-first instrumentation from day one
Clear data contracts and evolutionary boundaries

Linguistic attribution systems

Backend services supporting forensic linguistics workflows where correctness, explainability, and reproducibility are mandatory — not “nice to have.”

Testable, reproducible methodologies built for scrutiny
Defensible systems for legal + investigative contexts
Open-source contributions (JGAAP)

High-volume transaction systems

Performance and cost improvements in production systems under real load: caching strategies, latency reduction, and data vendor optimization.

Throughput/latency improvements via caching + perf tuning
~$100K/month recurring cost reduction via better data sources

Timeline

Where I’ve been, and the kinds of problems I’ve owned.

Noecker & Associates

Staff Software Engineer (Independent) • Aug 2020 — Present

Staff-level scope: architecture, delivery, production support.
AWS backend + serverless with Spring Boot (Java/Kotlin) and Node.js (TypeScript).
Legacy-to-cloud migrations aligned to AWS Well-Architected practices.
Deployment time reduced by 60% via Jenkins + Docker pipeline improvements.

Enzyme

Senior Software Engineer • Jan 2019 — Jul 2020

Greenfield platform (TypeScript, React, Node.js) for FDA 510(k) data extraction workflows.
Document processing systems with correctness + auditability requirements.

Signifyd

Software Engineer • Aug 2016 — Dec 2018

Backend throughput/latency improvements via caching + performance tuning.
~$100K/month recurring data cost reduction via vendor evaluation.

Juola & Associates

Software Engineer • Aug 2010 — Jul 2016

Forensic/legal analysis systems with reproducibility + defensibility under scrutiny.
Peer-reviewed research, $1.6M grant contribution, and two U.S. patents co-authored.

EVLL (Applied Research)

Software Engineer • Aug 2010 — Oct 2014

Authorship attribution for high-profile cases; tooling + open-source work (JGAAP).

PROTEUS Technologies

Software Engineer • May 2009 — Aug 2010

Unified data processing system achieving 1000× reduction in processing time.

Stack

Tools I reach for when building backend systems.

Languages

Java, Kotlin, TypeScript, Python

Backend

Spring Boot, Node.js, REST, HTTP, JSON, microservices

AWS

Lambda, EC2, S3, DynamoDB, API Gateway, CloudFormation

Dev + Delivery

Jenkins, CI/CD, Docker, Git

Quality

JUnit, Mockito, Jest • unit/integration testing

Ops

Logging, metrics, monitoring, alerting • Kubernetes/Terraform (working knowledge)

Education & credentials

Duquesne University

B.S. Computer Science • B.A. Mathematics

Graduated summa cum laude; valedictorian in Liberal Arts, Computer Science, and Mathematics.

Georgia Tech

Graduate coursework (CS)

Advanced coursework in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and robotics.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Associate

Aug 2023 — Present

Patents

Authorship Technologies

U.S. Patents: US-11605055-B2, US-10657494-B2

Contact

If you’re hiring for backend/distributed systems work, I’m easy to reach.

linkedin.com/in/jnoecker