IT Software Architect - .NET/Web

Nelnet•Lincoln, NE

3d•$110,000 - $150,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Nelnet is a diversified and innovative company committed to enriching lives through the power of service. We are looking for IT Software Architects who can work collaboratively within IT Delivery and across Business Operational areas to help design and deliver pragmatic solutions based on business value and NDS IT technology direction. This role provides technical leadership to agile teams and is also expected to pull work from the product backlog periodically.

Requirements

Minimum 6 years of experience in software development with a strong expertise in at least one key competency.
2 to 3 years of experience as a technical or development leader with a demonstrated ability to deliver medium to large scale technology solutions.
BS / MS in Computer Science, Engineering, related discipline or equivalent experience
Solid grounding in architecture practice that transfers across languages and platforms, organizing code and systems in a way that makes sense, integration patterns, and technology-agnostic design judgment.
Working depth in the predominant application stack: Microsoft .NET frameworks (C# and ASP.NET), Microsoft IIS, RESTful web services, service-based architecture, message-based processing, SQL Server and/or other relational databases, and full stack development.
Secure development practices; knowledge in the area of NIST compliance, ISSO2 strongly desired.
Source control and CI/CD practice (GitLab or equivalent), including managing architecture artifacts and ADRs as code.
Understanding of best practices, standards and methods to integrate applications within the organization and with external partners.
In-depth knowledge of the full software development lifecycle; with exposure to agile or iterative approaches to delivery preferred.
Working knowledge of developer experience practices ,build and deployment pipelines, local development setup, feedback loops, and the process friction that slows teams down.
Understanding of technical debt: how it accumulates, how to quantify it, and how to plan post-implementation cleanup.
Understanding of application and platform cost drivers, with the ability to optimize spend without compromising reliability.
Hands-on fluency with AI development tooling and a track record of driving adoption across engineering teams.
Collaboration tools including JIRA, Confluence and/or Microsoft Teams.
Strong verbal and written communication skill; with the ability to communicate at all levels of the organization.
Ability to quickly learn new technologies and business functions.
Strong analytical skills to determine effective approaches to business solutions.
Lateral thinking, inspects and reframes the question before solving it, rather than resolving the immediate problem and moving on.
Builds trust and credibility across distributed groups and partner organizations; influences technical direction without direct authority.
Good understanding of how the business operates, with the ability to connect technical decisions to business outcomes.
Microsoft .net frameworks C# and ASP .net
Microsoft IIS
Restful Web Services
Service Based Architecture
Message Based Processing
SQL Server and/or other relational databases
Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS)
Full Stack Development Experience
Secure Development Practices
Collaboration tools including JIRA, Confluence and/or Microsoft Teams.

Nice To Haves

US Citizenship and the ability to obtain a 6C Federal security clearance are required for this role.

Responsibilities

Provides overarching architectural leadership across a portfolio of related applications, partnering with application architects, site reliability engineers, and delivery teams to maintain technical alignment and departmental consistency.
Establishes and sustains the overall architecture practice, design standards, reference patterns, and a shared design language, and captures decisions as Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) maintained in source control.
Serves as a consulting architect to delivery teams: reviews designs, facilitates architectural decisions, and guides teams toward pragmatic solutions rather than owning delivery for them.
Owns and continuously improves the developer experience, identifying and removing technology and process impediments at the team level so engineers can do their best work.
Builds bridges across organizational boundaries, aligning groups that plan, prioritize, and deliver work differently toward shared technical outcomes.
Develops durable partnerships with infrastructure and platform teams, understanding their priorities and constraints and aligning delivery and platform roadmaps so teams are unblocked rather than escalated around.
Leads adoption of AI-assisted engineering practices across development roles, serving as a power user, setting expectations for responsible use, and coaching teams on where AI adds leverage.
Drives cost optimization for both application and platform spend, making architectural trade-offs with total cost of ownership in view.
Identifies, quantifies, and sequences technical debt remediation and post-implementation cleanup as an explicit part of the delivery plan.
Provides architectural leadership during incident management and post-incident review, ensuring systemic causes are addressed at the design level.
Understands the business domain of products supported and the business drivers behind the work, so teams understand the “why” behind technical direction.
Ensures technology solution architecture and design principles are aligned with NDS IT Delivery technology direction.
Knowledgeable of all existing services, components and technologies to ensure maximum technology reuse.
Understands and exhibits skills to protect data, systems and networks and maintains secure, reliable, redundant, and accessible systems.
Independently identifies and pursues opportunities to improve solution architecture across the enterprise.
Engages with Agile teams to deliver high quality, working software solutions in alignment with team commitments.
Explores and pursues technical skills outside of current job family; actively seeks to remain technically current and increase expertise and abilities.
Strives to align personal passion and career desires with opportunities and company needs.
Works in concert with Solution Architects to drive Nelnet technology solution architecture.