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Northwestern University

Developer Senior

Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, us, 60208

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Overview Department:

IT AS App Dev & Ops

Salary/Grade:

ITS/81

Job Summary:

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Senior Developer to oversee both application development and operations, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, scalable, and secure web applications.

The ideal candidate will have a deep understanding of web development best practices, strong expertise in PHP, modern frameworks (such as Laravel), application integration, and cloud technologies (AWS preferred). This role requires a strategic thinker who can advise on architecture and optimize application performance, and oversee deployment and operational stability.

As a Senior Developer, you will collaborate with your manager to provide technical expertise in the design, development, testing, and debugging of new and existing software. You will also handle complex operations tasks and assist with troubleshooting technical issues. Key responsibilities include guiding junior staff on best practices in design, coding, and development and providing resource estimates, prioritizing work for project work.

This is an exciting opportunity to be in a growing and thriving higher education environment.

Specific Responsibilities

Strategic Planning: Provides application development leadership for new and existing software applications

Strategic Planning: Partners with analyst and user in designing new features and functionality

Strategic Planning: Provides recommendation on how to enhance systems for future growth

Strategic Planning: Advises/recommends project and activities as related to system/architectural direction and strategy

Strategic Planning: Stays informed about new technologies and changes to existing technologies

Development and Administration: Designs, codes, tests, debugs and documents all phases of application development

Development and Administration: Assists with the development and deployment of code releases

Development and Administration: Participates as an individual contributor in projects

Development and Administration: Develops and implements procedures for data security, management and compliance

Development and Administration: Delivers system presentations and overviews

Development and Administration: Evaluates feature/upgrade/change requests and recommends action

Development and Administration: Researches new technologies to enhance current system

Development Enablement & Operations: Provides technical leadership on projects and performs code reviews

Development Enablement & Operations: Acts as subject matter expert (SME) in appropriate technologies and business domain

Development Enablement & Operations: Rapidly develops proof-of-concept for new systems and technologies

Development Enablement & Operations: Codes software applications adhering to designs supporting internal business requirements or external users

Development Enablement & Operations: Develops and implements standards and best practices for application development including security, maintenance, logging, testing, deployment, compliance, etc

Development Enablement & Operations: Assists with troubleshooting complex technical challenges

Development Enablement & Operations: Determines project feasibility and how to integrate with systems

Development Enablement & Operations: Shares in operational and support duties

Supervises: Provides work direction to team members

Supervises: Coaches and mentors staff

Supervises: Manages projects ensuring timelines and deliverables are met and meet expectations

Supervises: Provides input to staff assignments

Supervises: Provides input to performance evaluations for junior team members

Miscellaneous: Performs other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor’s or higher degree in computer science, information technology, or related; OR appropriate combination of education and experience.

Minimum of 3+ years of relevant experience required and significant hands-on experience in building and designing complex applications.

Areas and Skills

Enterprise Applications: Cloud

Infrastructure: Amazon Web Services (AWS); Microsoft Office tools; NoSQL (DynamoDB, MongoDB, CouchDB); SOA; SQL/MySQL/Postgres

Programming Languages and Frameworks: CSS, HTML 5, Java, JavaScript, JQuery, Node.js, PHP, XML, WEB API

Analytical: critical thinking, debugging, decision making, enterprise architecture, judgment, metadata creation and management, problem solving, tracing and troubleshooting, use-case analysis

Project: agile environment, code documentation, collaboration and teamwork, facilitate collaboration, iterative & incremental development, planning, workflow development & documentation, proposals

Minimum Competencies

Strong expertise in application development using PHP, Java, Node.js, and Laravel

Proficient in web development best practices and front-end technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, Vue.js, React)

Database management with SQL (PostgreSQL, Oracle) and NoSQL (DynamoDB)

Ability to troubleshoot performance and security issues, optimize server configurations, and enhance scalability

Proven leadership in managing development teams, code reviews, and mentoring

Experience managing multiple projects and coordinating cross-functional teams

Strong problem-solving with architectural and development decision-making aligned to business objectives; monitoring and logging

SDLC best practices: coding standards, source control, builds, testing, and operations

Excellent organizational, collaboration, and communication skills

Unix/Linux familiarity, Git, and automated testing strategies

Preferred Qualifications

Experience in higher education environment and understanding of industry-specific challenges

Strong Agile experience (Scrum, Kanban, etc.) and ability to lead Agile processes

Preferred Competencies Ability to adapt to a constantly changing environment and technologies.

UX/UI principles for web application design

Cloud-native application design, preferably on AWS

CI/CD experience (GitHub Actions, Terraform desired)

Automated testing frameworks for unit, integration, and end-to-end testing

Application integration (RESTful APIs, event-driven architectures, message queues)

Project management experience including cost-benefit analysis and drafting charters

Microservice architecture design

Strong presentation and interpersonal skills with stakeholders

Target hiring range: $99,825 - $104,000 per year. Salary offered based on education, experience, and market data.

Benefits and Work-Life

Benefits: health care plans, retirement benefits, tuition discounts, and more (see Northwestern benefits)

Work-Life and Wellness: flexible work arrangements where possible; childcare and elder care support

Professional Growth & Development: career development resources and opportunities

Northwestern University is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applicants may request accommodations in the application process.

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