Senior Software Engineer

Western Governors University•Salt Lake, UT

About The Position

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career. Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families. The Senior Software Engineer is responsible for the research, design, development, analysis, testing, and implementation of software operating or application systems. They communicate project information to client, project manager, or other design personnel working on projects. They maintain good working relationships with clients and staff. They write and maintains complete documentation. They support team members and ensures established goals and deadlines are met. They keep management informed of status and significant problems.

Requirements

Strong foundation in software development, system design, and scalable architecture.
Experience designing and building distributed, service-oriented, or modular systems.
Proficiency in API design and system integration (e.g., REST).
Experience with modern application development using Java, Node.js, JavaScript, and Angular.
Understanding of event-driven and asynchronous architectures.
Ability to design for scalability, reliability, and performance in cloud environments.
Knowledge of cloud-native development practices.
Experience with observability tools (logging, monitoring, tracing).
Ability to translate complex requirements into effective technical solutions.
Strong understanding of SDLC and modern development practices.
Ability to influence technical direction without direct authority.
Strong communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences.
Proven ability to mentor engineers and strengthen team performance.
Strong ownership mindset with the ability to manage risk and dependencies.
Ability to operate in ambiguous environments and adapt to new challenges.
Track record of identifying and delivering high-impact solutions end-to-end.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field.
6+ years of experience building and delivering scalable software systems.
Experience developing web applications and APIs using Java or similar languages.
Experience with cloud platforms (preferably AWS).
Experience with service-oriented or modular architectures.
Experience contributing to or leading system design and architectural decisions.

Nice To Haves

Experience with system modernization (e.g., monolith to microservices or similar transformations).
Experience with Spring Boot, Node.js, or similar backend frameworks.
Experience with event-driven systems (e.g., Kafka or messaging platforms).
Experience with AWS services (e.g., Lambda, ECS).
Experience with CI/CD pipelines and modern deployment practices.
Experience with observability tools (e.g., Dynatrace, CloudWatch).
Experience in Agile/Scrum environments.
Experience mentoring engineers or acting as a technical lead.
Experience with API design and system integration.
Familiarity with GitHub, JIRA, VS Code, and IntelliJ.
Experience with SQL and data modeling.
Familiarity with enterprise or higher education platforms (nice to have).

Responsibilities

Acts as a technical leader in software engineering, focusing on distributed systems and modular architecture.
Leads or influences the decomposition of legacy systems into scalable, cloud-native architectures, including service boundaries, APIs, and data flows.
Owns the quality, scalability, and reliability of systems within their domain.
Serves as a technical lead for cross-functional initiatives, including the Orc Modularization effort.
Provides technical leadership across initiatives, adapting to new systems and priorities as needed.
Leads design discussions and reviews, establishing best practices for maintainable, scalable systems.
Mentors engineers and contributes to overall team effectiveness.
Partners with engineering, product, and business stakeholders to solve system-level challenges.
Identifies risks early and drives mitigation strategies.
Designs and builds solutions using API-first and service-based architectures, including event-driven patterns where appropriate.
Improves observability, performance, and system reliability through monitoring and optimization.
Leads rapid diagnosis and resolution of production issues.
Balances speed and quality using pragmatic engineering practices.
Translates requirements into scalable, maintainable solutions.
Drives continuous improvement in technical debt, tooling, and engineering practices.
Applies engineering principles across evolving initiatives, ensuring long-term adaptability.