Technical Lead - Community for Rigor (C4R) - Penn Engineering

University of Pennsylvania

80d • $100,000 - $125,000

About The Position

The Community for Rigor (C4R) is a growing and innovative team at the University of Pennsylvania dedicated to changing research culture by providing comprehensive educational materials, promoting best practices, and fostering a community committed to improving research reliability. Community for Rigor is a 5-year funded project from NIH NINDS, and operates as a hub that coordinates the efforts of multiple partner institutions. We are seeking a Technical Lead to guide the development of our web-based educational platform. This role combines technical leadership, team leadership, and hands-on development, providing vision and mentorship for a team of two programmers while actively contributing to code and architecture. The ideal candidate will balance building complex interactive educational applications with managing a small, highly collaborative development team in a startup-like environment.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and 5+ years of experience.
• Demonstrated strong experience developing products and completing projects with JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Next.js, HTML/CSS.
• Full-stack expertise with Node.js and MongoDB.
• Proven experience leading or managing a development team.
• Knowledge of Agile/Scrum workflows.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, GitHub/GitLab, Docker, and deployment platforms (Vercel, AWS).
• Ability to communicate effectively with non-technical stakeholders, balancing and prioritizing feedback from multiple stakeholders with transparency.
• Experience building highly interactive web applications (e.g. educational software, puzzles, games design, simulations).
• Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Copilot, Cursor, Claude, etc.).

Nice To Haves

• Strong UI/UX design sense for creating intuitive, responsive, user-friendly web applications.
• Proven ability to translate non-technical requirements and design goals into technical specifications.
• Experience integrating LLMs into web applications.
• Familiarity with Webflow CMS and cloud hosting platforms (AWS, Vercel).
• Familiarity with Python.
• Educational technology or e-learning platform experience.
• Knowledge or experience in academic/research settings.

Responsibilities

• Architect scalable and interactive web applications using React, Next.js, TypeScript/JavaScript, Node.js.
• Guide database design and optimization (MongoDB preferred).
• Oversee backend development including authentication, APIs, and integrations.
• Ensure responsive, accessible, and visually engaging UI/UX.
• Manage deployments and CI/CD workflows (Vercel, GitHub/GitLab, AWS).
• Troubleshoot and optimize applications for performance, scalability, and security.
• Lead weekly team meetings, track progress, and align priorities with organizational goals.
• Assign tasks, monitor progress, and ensure timely delivery of high-quality software.
• Mentor and support two developers, conduct code reviews, and maintain best practices in modern web development.
• Facilitate decision-making and provide final guidance on technical directions.
• Collaborate with curriculum designers to understand educational goals and translate them into technical specifications.
• Implement findings and integrate feedback into technical solutions.
• Contribute directly to frontend and backend codebases.
• Build interactive, game-like learning web applications and features.
• Collaborate with the team on testing, debugging, and deployment.
• Maintain and extend our public-facing Webflow CMS site.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, prescription, behavioral health, dental, vision, and life insurance benefits.
• Tuition assistance for employees, spouses, and dependent children.
• Generous retirement plans with a variety of investment options.
• Substantial time away from work for personal needs.
• Long-term care insurance.
• Wellness and work-life resources.
• Professional and personal development resources.
• Access to University resources and cultural activities.
• Discounts and special services for faculty and staff.
• Flexible work options.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees