Senior Software Engineer (Limited-Term)

Job Summary

We're seeking a thoughtful, collaborative engineer to join our team and help us design, develop, and maintain a comprehensive financial forecasting and grant management application used by grant holders and administrators across the university.

About the role

This web-based tool supports projected and actual expense tracking, what-if scenario modeling, employee and fund distribution management, automated salary and benefits calculations, burn rate analysis, and forward financial projections using integrated data feeds from university financial and HR systems.

Responsibilities

• Develop moderately complex features, enhancements, and data integrations, accounting for edge cases and corner cases in implementation.
• Write and maintain automated unit and integration tests to ensure appropriate coverage and that code meets acceptance criteria.
• Diagnose and solve moderately complex issues, identify root causes, and develop fixes for existing applications.
• Maintain and update application dependencies and libraries to maintain security and compatibility.
• Identify and implement performance improvements, including optimizing data access and network operations.
• Mentor and support junior developers through code reviews, pair programming, and day-to-day technical guidance.
• Manage source control workflows, including maintaining branching strategies and resolving merge conflicts independently.
• Contribute as an active member of an agile development team, delivering incremental value through iterative development cycles.
• Perform application deployments and maintain automated CI/CD pipelines, developing new pipelines as needed.
• Develop and manage applications using container technologies and virtual machines.
• Maintain application monitoring, dashboards, and alerting to ensure system health and performance.
• Collaborate with partner teams and interested parties, such as Platform and System Engineering, UX, service owners, and business analysts, to accomplish application and project goals.
• Interpret moderately complex business requirements, asking clarifying questions to ensure accurate understanding before accepting work.
• Communicate technical concepts clearly to developers and non-technical partners, using appropriate analogies and examples.
• Write and update documentation for application support and sharing knowledge.
• Provide constructive, actionable feedback during code reviews and team discussions.
• Research and analyze business requirements and recommend technical solutions for moderately complex subsystems and applications.
• Research and evaluate new application frameworks, development tools, and technologies, and make recommendations on adoption.
• Analyze disparate information systems and contribute to technical plans for data integrations.
• Analyze and take appropriate steps to identify and mitigate application security vulnerabilities.
• Evaluate and recommend improvements to existing development processes and workflows.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field.
• A combination of education and/or relevant experience may be substituted for the degree on a year-for-year basis.
• 3 years of software development experience.

Requirements

• Due to requirements to access export-controlled data and information, only U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (green cards), or other protected individuals (i.e., persons designated as an asylee, refugee, or a temporary resident under amnesty provisions) may apply.

What You Will Need

• Accept the university's mission and demonstrate commitment to positively impacting the experience of students, faculty, researchers, and colleagues.
• Proactively find opportunities for improvement and constructively challenge existing approaches to drive better outcomes.
• Advocate for ideas with conviction while remaining open to and thoughtfully considering differing perspectives.
• Collaborate effectively in team settings while also demonstrating the ability to work independently and manage responsibilities with minimal direction.
• Demonstrate adaptability by taking on unfamiliar challenges and responsibilities beyond core engineering disciplines.
• Approach complex problems with curiosity and persistence, seeking thorough and well-reasoned solutions.
• Prioritize the needs of the team, organization, and customers served when making decisions and recommendations.
• Lead with confidence while remaining receptive to feedback and acknowledging the contributions of others.
• Demonstrate self-awareness and emotional intelligence, navigating interpersonal dynamics with professionalism and care.

What We Would Like You To Have

• Proficiency in object-oriented languages (e.g., Java, C#) and modern frameworks (e.g., Spring Boot, .NET).
• Proficiency in scripting languages (e.g., Python, Bash, PHP).
• Expertise in front-end technologies: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript or TypeScript.
• Proficiency with modern JavaScript frameworks, particularly Angular.
• Expertise in relational databases such as MySQL, Oracle, or PostgreSQL, including database design, optimization, and query performance tuning.
• Familiarity with RESTful API design and development.
• Familiarity with GraphQL API design and development.
• Proficiency with CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment practices.
• Proficiency with containerization and environment management tools (e.g., Docker).
• Proficiency with version control systems, particularly Git.
• Proficiency in software architecture and system design principles.
• Proficiency in application security standard processes (e.g., OWASP Top 10, input validation, authentication/authorization).
• Expertise in testing methodologies, including unit, integration, and end-to-end testing.
• Expertise in troubleshooting and debugging across the full stack.
• Familiarity with Agile/Scrum development methodologies.
• Proficiency with command-line and shell environments.
• Experience with higher education enterprise systems such as student information systems, learning management systems, or financial/HR platforms.
• Proficiency with AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot or similar coding agents.