Staff Software Engineer - Site Reliability
About The Position
At Western Governors University (WGU), we’re reimagining education for the 21st century. As a nonprofit, accredited, online university serving over 150,000 students nationwide, our mission is to expand access to quality, affordable education for everyone. Our technology teams are at the heart of this mission—building innovative systems that empower students, faculty, and staff to succeed at scale. We don’t just build software—we build the future of higher education. As a Staff Software Engineer at WGU, you’ll be a hands-on technical leader and innovator, shaping the architecture, performance, and scalability of systems that directly impact the learning journey of thousands of students. You’ll guide teams through complex challenges, mentor engineers, and pioneer new technologies and processes that make education more accessible and effective. This role sits at the intersection of engineering excellence and social impact—ideal for someone who thrives in solving critical problems and designing systems that truly matter.
Requirements
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
- Experience: 10+ years in software development, with proven success architecting and delivering large-scale, cloud-based applications.
- Technical Mastery: Deep hands-on experience with:
- Java, RESTful APIs, Spring/Spring Boot
- SQL and database design
- Modern front-end frameworks (Angular 2+, React, or similar)
- Version control (GIT) and CI/CD pipelines
- AWS services and cloud architecture principles
- Leadership: Strong ability to guide teams, influence cross-functional decisions, and set technical direction.
- Mindset: A growth-oriented innovator who values clarity, mentorship, and building systems that scale with purpose.
Nice To Haves
- Master’s or Ph.D. in Computer Science or related field
- Salesforce development experience (including understanding of governor limits)
- Background in contact center technologies (CTI, SIP/VoIP, IVRs, call recording, etc.)
- Experience with SaaS, distributed systems, or higher education technology
- Technical certifications (AWS, Salesforce, etc.)
Responsibilities
- Lead with expertise: Serve as a technical authority across multiple teams, setting the standard for engineering excellence and system design.
- Architect for scale: Design, build, and maintain enterprise-grade applications and services that support WGU’s growing digital ecosystem.
- Drive innovation: Identify emerging technologies and strategies to continuously evolve WGU’s platforms and infrastructure.
- Mentor and empower: Coach engineers across teams, elevate technical skills, and foster a collaborative, high-performing culture.
- Champion quality: Define and implement best practices for code quality, testing, automation, and system reliability.
- Ensure resilience: Drive operational excellence through scalable architecture, proactive risk mitigation, and performance optimization.
- Collaborate cross-functionally: Partner with product, data, and operations teams to translate vision into measurable, impactful outcomes.
Benefits
- medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare
- health savings account and flexible spending account
- basic and voluntary life insurance
- disability coverage
- accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages
- legal and identity theft coverage
- retirement savings plan
- wellbeing program
- discounted WGU tuition
- flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
