Joshua Hicks

Sr Manager, Software Development & Engineering (technical lead / IC track) in Phoenix. Army veteran. Java/Spring · Go · TypeScript · Kubernetes · MCP. Decade of enterprise BPM/workflow architecture (Pega CSSA). Also Lead Software Engineer for American Veterans Rebuilding (avrnpo.org).

[email protected]

https://jbhicks.dev https://github.com/jbhicks https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabhicks Phoenix, AZ

Skills

Platform / backend

Java 21 Spring Boot Go OAuth2/OIDC PostgreSQL Kafka Camunda (BPMN) Pega CSSA

Infrastructure / delivery

Kubernetes/GKE Docker GitHub Actions MCP

Frontend

TypeScript/React Playwright/Vitest

Side / local-first

PocketBase HTMX Fyne Linux

Experience

Sr Manager, Software Development & Engineering Lead — Charles Schwab · Phoenix · Jan 2022 – Present

(technical lead / IC track)

Enterprise BPM / workflow case-management for regulated brokerage and wealth-transfer ops; next-gen Spring BFF + React ops workflow platform replacing a legacy commercial BPM suite. Schwab tenure: Feb 2015 – Present (contract to hire; employee Nov 2015).

  • Built and shipped a Go MCP (Model Context Protocol) server exposing ~60 tools across Jira, Confluence, and Zephyr to AI coding assistants (VS Code / IntelliJ); prototype to governed deploy in 12 months (~14k prod / ~15.5k test Go lines; 279 tests).
  • Eliminated a class of production failure by replacing a legacy background-agent pattern with a queue-processor architecture (removed record-lock collisions during concurrent child-record creation).
  • Led or supported six platform migrations (BPM suite upgrade, SCM to GitHub, CI/CD re-platform, BPMN on Kubernetes, logging→cloud observability, FE framework conversion).
  • Drove a multi-year platform code-quality program to completion (~two years).
  • Carried two new technologies through full internal architecture and security review.
  • Lead a four-engineer onshore/offshore delivery pod; author engineering standards and onboarding curriculum adopted across multiple delivery teams.
  • Owned WCAG/ARIA accessibility remediation workstream.

Java 21 · Spring Boot · OAuth2/OIDC · Go · TypeScript/React · PostgreSQL · Kafka · Camunda (BPMN) · Kubernetes/GKE · Docker · GitHub Actions · Playwright/Vitest

Software Engineer / Pega Senior System Architect — Charles Schwab · Phoenix · Nov 2015 – Jan 2022

On-site contractor from Feb 2015; employee Nov 2015. Leading engineers since Apr 2018 (before formal title).

  • Domains: account opening; enterprise BPM case-management; options-supervision compliance; work-prioritization/SLA engine; wealth-transfer ops modernization; FE web components standards; Node.js service virtualization.
  • Authored enterprise solution architecture within ~18 months of joining.
  • Wrote org-adopted engineering standards and ~14-guide developer onboarding path.
  • Designed succession for the lead role.

Lead Software Engineer — American Veterans Rebuilding (501c3) · Phoenix · Parallel

Build and run the nonprofit’s public site and donation stack.

  • Built and operate avrnpo.org on Go / PocketBase CMS with donations.

Information Assurance Specialist — DISA · Jun 2014 – early 2015

Hardened classified server fleets and automated patching for DISA.

  • Managed security posture of 500+ AIX/Solaris/Linux servers and VMs against DoD STIGs.
  • Automated patching pipeline for sustained compliance.

Research Assistant — UTEP · Jan 2012 – Apr 2014

Web and Semantic Web research with Drupal, PHP, Groovy, OWL, and XML.

  • Drupal/PHP modules importing 20,000+ user profiles over REST; Groovy transforms of XML/relational data into semantic-web formats.

Infantry Team Leader — U.S. Army · Oct 2003 – Nov 2009

  • Led a four-person team; primary instructor/advisor in tactics, personnel management, and junior leader development.
  • Earlier service as infantry rifleman within the same enlistment.

Projects

  • Atlassian MCP — Go MCP server exposing ~60 tools (Jira, Confluence, Zephyr) to AI coding assistants; ~14k prod / ~15.5k test Go lines; 279 tests; prototype to governed deploy in 12 months (internal tooling; no public repo).
  • avrnpo.org — Go / PocketBase CMS and donations for American Veterans Rebuilding.
  • media-manager — desktop media management app.
  • sound-cistern — SoundCloud feed filter.
  • clai — open side project.

Certifications

  • Pega CSSA — May 2016
  • Pega CSA — May 2015 (credential S-128275)

Education

University of Texas at El Paso — B.S. Computer Science, 2014; Honors Cum Laude