Java application experiences 'FileNotFoundException: secmod.db' starting with FIPS

Issue

• Trying to start our java application with FIPS, we see the following error:

java.security.ProviderException: Could not initialize NSS
    at jdk.crypto.cryptoki/sun.security.pkcs11.SunPKCS11.<init>(SunPKCS11.java:222)
    at jdk.crypto.cryptoki/sun.security.pkcs11.SunPKCS11$1.run(SunPKCS11.java:117)
    at jdk.crypto.cryptoki/sun.security.pkcs11.SunPKCS11$1.run(SunPKCS11.java:114)
    at java.base/java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at jdk.crypto.cryptoki/sun.security.pkcs11.SunPKCS11.configure(SunPKCS11.java:114)
    at java.base/sun.security.jca.ProviderConfig$3.run(ProviderConfig.java:251)
    at java.base/sun.security.jca.ProviderConfig$3.run(ProviderConfig.java:242)
    at java.base/java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.base/sun.security.jca.ProviderConfig.doLoadProvider(ProviderConfig.java:242)
    at java.base/sun.security.jca.ProviderConfig.getProvider(ProviderConfig.java:222)
    at java.base/sun.security.jca.ProviderList.getProvider(ProviderList.java:266)
    at java.base/sun.security.jca.ProviderList.getService(ProviderList.java:379)
    ...
Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: /path/to/nssdb/secmod.db
    at jdk.crypto.cryptoki/sun.security.pkcs11.Secmod.initialize(Secmod.java:223)
    at jdk.crypto.cryptoki/sun.security.pkcs11.SunPKCS11.<init>(SunPKCS11.java:217)
    ... 36 common frames omitted