Full Stack Engineer

About the role

The TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health (TMW Center) develops, tests, and implements evidence-based interventions designed to promote very young children’s cognitive and social-emotional development, with emerging technologies that enhance—rather than replace—the pivotal role that caregivers play in building healthy young brains. Although there is a rich body of research demonstrating the importance of the early language environment for maximizing early learning, there are very ways to assess the quality of those environments. As a result, when it comes to nurturing their children’s brains, parents often feel like they are in a maze without a map. The TMW Center has launched a wearable device and an accompanying app that uses machine learning to measure and analyze a child’s language environment and provide real-time information as well as personalized feedback and guidance for enhancing that environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and maintenance of backend services and APIs in Django (primary) and .NET (secondary).
• Collaborate with front-end engineers to design and implement effective interfaces between the backend and the React.js client.
• Architect scalable data models, services, and integrations with third-party APIs.
• Contribute to system architecture decisions and help guide best practices in backend and full-stack development.
• Write clean, maintainable, and well-tested code across multiple systems.
• Participate in code reviews, technical design sessions, and cross-functional collaboration with product and design teams.
• Support CI/CD pipelines and ensure smooth deployments and system reliability.
• Mentor other engineers and contribute to improving development processes.
• Utilizes technical knowledge of existing and emerging technologies, including public cloud offerings from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
• Investigates, analyzes and resolves day-to-day technical problems using standard procedures.
• Works with stakeholders to gather and analyze requirements for developmental programs.

Requirements

Knowledge and skills developed through 7+ years of work experience in a related job discipline, with a strong emphasis on backend systems.

Proven experience building web applications with Python/Django.

Working knowledge of C# / .NET frameworks and services.

Comfortable working with React.js and modern front-end tooling.

Experience designing and consuming RESTful APIs; understanding of web performance and security principles.

Strong database skills with PostgreSQL and/or SQL Server.

Familiarity with cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or similar).

Qualifications

Education: Advanced Degree in data science, data analytics, computer science, software engineering or related fields strongly preferred.

Skills

Experience with containerization and orchestration tools (Docker, Kubernetes).

Exposure to TypeScript, GraphQL, or other modern web technologies.

Familiarity with CI/CD systems (GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, etc.).

Prior experience in a startup or rapidly scaling environment.

Benefits

The University of Chicago offers a wide range of benefits programs and resources for eligible employees, including health, retirement, and paid time off. Information about the benefit offerings can be found in the Benefits Guidebook.