Software Developer IV for Information Services

Liberty University

4d•$115,000 - $135,000•Remote

About The Position

The Software Developer IV serves as the Student Information Services (SIS) Team Lead within IT Development, leading a dedicated development team that delivers and supports strategic SIS initiatives advancing the university’s long-term student systems roadmap. Anticipated focus areas include Identity Management (IDM) and core SIS application capabilities. The role contributes to the design, development, and maintenance of high-quality software solutions across diverse and technically challenging projects, with technical scope and ownership expanding over time. The team lead guides technical direction and delivery for Liberty’s SIS and related product suite, making decisions that support scalable, secure, maintainable, high-quality solutions aligned with business and architectural goals. The position is the team’s primary technical authority and is responsible for architectural governance, code quality, testing standards, technical risk management, compliance, security, and development practices. It works with Tech Leads, Project Managers, stakeholders, and leadership to set priorities and strategy, deliver outcomes, manage complex systems and workflows, and communicate technical vision and progress to both technical and non-technical audiences. The role also develops technical talent through mentoring, training support, and resolution of technical challenges, and partners with leadership on department direction and engineering culture. It ensures appropriate team coverage for investigating and responding to incidents, including potential High or Critical incidents reported outside normal business hours, and takes ownership of project, request, and high-impact incident deliverables. The position may supervise a team of three or more developers and is remote. The employee must adhere to Liberty University policies and represent the University professionally, while embracing and fostering its Christian model and mission.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field.
At least 8 years of software development experience.
Deep understanding of software architecture and design patterns, including microservices and service-oriented architecture (SOA).
Comprehensive knowledge of multiple programming languages, frameworks, and tools across the full stack.
Ability to analyze and optimize application performance across front-end, back-end, and database layers.
Proven ability to lead teams, manage complex projects, and drive technology adoption.
Experience designing and implementing solutions in containerized environments.
Strong skills in designing scalable, maintainable systems and understanding design patterns.
Proficiency with unit, integration, and end-to-end testing frameworks.
Clear and professional verbal and written communication skills, and proficiency in English for professional correspondence and collaboration.
Strong ownership and personal accountability for technical outcomes; ability to explain technical decisions and build alignment across developers, technical teams, and leadership.
Ability to mentor developers, share knowledge, establish standards, and raise team technical capability.
Ability to balance technical excellence with practical delivery and make decisions as requirements, priorities, or constraints evolve.
Ability to establish patterns and standards for a new product and team in an environment that is not fully defined.
Ability to work across teams and departments on architecture, APIs, integrations, security, data, testing, and deployment concerns.
Adaptability in a large, complex, multi-year effort where the solution evolves as the organization learns.
Strong analytical and critical-thinking skills, including evaluating trade-offs, challenging assumptions, and driving technical decisions to resolution.
Ability to make architectural decisions with long-term maintainability in mind and guide scalable, reliable, secure, high-quality solutions across complex systems.
Ability to perform desk-based work, including computer use and data entry, and communicate effectively in meetings and collaborative settings, with or without reasonable accommodation.

Responsibilities

Lead the design, development, and delivery of Liberty’s SIS and related product suite, making technical decisions that support scalable, secure, maintainable, high-quality solutions.
Collaborate with Tech Leads, Project Managers, and cross-functional stakeholders to establish technical direction, align priorities, shape long-term strategy, and deliver high-impact outcomes on time.
Serve as the team’s primary technical authority, overseeing architectural governance, code quality, testing standards, technical risk management, compliance, security, and development best practices.
Evaluate, recommend, and implement technologies, methodologies, and development approaches to improve team effectiveness and product quality.
Lead the structure and evolution of complex systems, codebases, and development workflows; balance priorities, reduce technical debt, mitigate risk, and support sustainable productivity.
Communicate technical vision, strategy, tradeoffs, and progress to executives, stakeholders, and non-technical audiences; serve as a liaison across teams and leadership.
Mentor team members, support training and personnel initiatives, resolve technical challenges, and partner with leadership to shape department direction and engineering culture.
Ensure appropriate team coverage to investigate and respond to incidents, including potential High or Critical incidents reported outside normal business hours.
Own project and request deliverables and high-impact incidents, working with the team to resolve technical challenges swiftly and minimize disruption.
Adhere to Liberty University policies and represent the University professionally.
Work effectively as a team member and foster LU’s Christian model and mission.
May supervise a team of three or more developers.