Staff Software Engineer - Salesforce

Western Governors University•Salt Lake, UT

About The Position

The Staff Software Engineer is a position of technical expertise, influence, and leadership in the technology realm. The position will be required to apply their expert knowledge to ensure best practices and well-engineered architecture across the department. They will also be a key stakeholder and initiator of major changes to processes, engineering practices, and system administration. This position will be required to work in a space of solving critical issues and initiatives across multiple teams. It will require an extensive and deep understanding of cutting-edge practices and innovative approaches to problems. Principal Software Engineers are also tasked with establishing and maintaining a positive and productive culture based on the WGU Leadership Principles. As a Staff Software Engineer (Salesforce), you’ll lead the evolution of WGU’s Salesforce ecosystem, shaping systems that power our student experience, enrollment processes, and operational excellence. This is a high-impact role where your technical leadership will directly improve the lives of thousands of students.

Requirements

10+ years of software engineering experience with deep Salesforce core engineering expertise — or equivalent depth in another enterprise stack (Java, C#/.NET, or similar OOP + API-driven systems) with a track record of ramping quickly onto new platforms
Mastery of async Apex / event-driven patterns at a governance level — choosing and standardizing approaches across teams, not just applying them
Experience designing (not just building) multi-system integration architecture — API strategy, event-driven decisions, vendor evaluation
Track record of setting technical standards adopted beyond your own team
Deep understanding of security architecture and compliance frameworks in a regulated environment (FERPA or equivalent)
Demonstrated ability to mentor and shape technical direction through influence
Strong communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences
Comfort operating in ambiguity — partnering with architects on platform capabilities before established patterns exist

Nice To Haves

Application Architect or System Architect certification (or equivalent depth without the cert)
Experience with Data Cloud, Agentforce, Marketing Cloud, or Tableau Next
Experience with large-scale Salesforce orgs (100+ objects, 300+ automation components)
Higher education or large-scale SaaS platform experience
Experience with Copado (or equivalent) at the pipeline/governance level

Responsibilities

Split time between hands-on engineering/mentoring within the team and serving as the Salesforce architects' implementation partner — turning architecture decisions for emerging platform capabilities (Data Cloud/Data 360, Agentforce, Marketing Cloud, Tableau Next) into working solutions
Set automation, integration, security, and DevOps standards adopted across multiple teams, not just your own
Own org-wide security posture and compliance-framework decisions for the platform (including FERPA-aware design)
Govern enterprise data model decisions — cross-system data contracts, org split/merge strategy, legacy automation tech-debt strategy
Lead architectural reviews and platform health assessments — governance-limit forecasting, remediation planning
Mentor SE I/II/Senior engineers and shape technical direction through influence — no formal management/headcount responsibility
Represent the technical perspective to non-technical stakeholders (Product, Operations, Academic leadership) and drive alignment on platform strategy