Senior Application Developer

North Dakota Department of Water Resources; Bismarck (ND); On-site; USD 95,000 - 106,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental coverage (optional)

Vision coverage (optional)

Retirement plan options

Leave accruals and new-hire leave

Job summary

The North Dakota Department of Water Resources is seeking a Senior Application Developer to design, develop, and maintain enterprise applications that support state water management. You will work with 4D and PostgreSQL, coordinate between developers and stakeholders, and implement AI coding tools while ensuring security and data integrity.

On-site in Bismarck, ND. Ideal candidates will have extensive experience with relational databases, system integration, and cross-functional collaboration,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in CS/IS or related field with relevant experience; or equivalent professional experience.

Responsibilities

• Maintain and document the department's business applications.
• Understand agency processes and coordinate across applications and developers.
• Assess performance of existing applications and recommend improvements.
• Manage existing 4D database applications.
• Build and maintain data ingestion pipelines and document workflows.
• Code, compile, and sign applications.
• Serve as liaison between developers, end users, and leadership.
• Coordinate with users to create documentation for application use.
• Implement and manage AI coding tools and ensure security compliance.
• Maintain web dissemination services and apply security patches.

Skills

Communication

Team collaboration

Requirements translation

Time management

Technical liaison

Security best practices

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field

Associate degree in related field

Tools

4D platform

PostgreSQL

Git

macOS server administration

Job description

Are you passionate about the management and development of natural resources? Do you understand that water is one of our most valuable and important resources? If you want to be part of a dedicated and talented team that works to responsibly manage North Dakota's water resources for a resilient future - then this employment opportunity might be for you. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is looking for a Senior Application Developer to serve the citizens of our state as a part of Team ND.

• fully paid family health insurance for employes and their families
• optional dental and vision coverage
• retirement plan options
• voluntary insurance programs
• accrued annual and sick leave

The State of ND offers 40 hours of new hire leave at the beginning of employment, in addition to standard monthly leave accruals. Team members who were previously employed with a state agency and are eligible for reinstatement, as defined in NDAC § 4-07-05-01.1, or who are granted an interagency transfer are not eligible for new hire leave.

The salary range for this position is $8500 – $9500 per month (dependent upon experience).

Location: On-site -Bismarck, ND

Summary of Work

The purpose of this position is to architect, design, develop, implement, and maintain business applications that support the Department of Water Resources in carrying out various aspects of its mission. This position requires a thorough understanding of the agency’s complex scientific and business processes and the ability to apply that knowledge to use 4D, PostgreSQL, and other tools to develop, build, implement, and maintain the applications and data systems that support those processes. This position is responsible for managing large scale complex custom business applications built using 4D and coordinating how all applications work as a system to facilitate the agency’s business workflow. This position provides critical subject matter insight and will serve as the primary liaison between other developers, end users, and leadership for complex, multi-component business applications. This role requires clear communication, effective requirement translation, and operational continuity across systems involving web dissemination, automated and manual data ingestion, document management workflows, and multiple user interfaces.

Duties and Tasks

Maintain, develop, compile, and document the business applications developed by the Department of Water Resources.

Responsibilities include:

• Develop a deep understanding of the business processes of the agency.
• Coordinate processes and best practices across applications and developers.
• Assess the performance and effectiveness of existing applications and workflows, and recommend corrective action, redesign, or direction changes if needed.
• Manage existing 4D database applications.
• Build and maintain automated and manual data ingestion pipelines and document management workflows.
• Coding, compiling, and signing applications.
• Serve as liaison to other agency divisions for requirements gathering, stakeholder updates, and training on affected applications.
• Coordinate with application users to create documentation related to application intended use.

Implement and manage the agency’s AI coding tools and resources, ensuring compliance with security, privacy, and licensing requirements.

Responsibilities include:

• Implement and configure AI coding platforms.
• Maintain shared instructions, context files, and coding standards.
• Manage user access, onboarding, and permissions for AI coding platforms.
• Tracking AI tooling usage and related resource needs.

Maintain, develop, and document the web dissemination services related to the agency’s business applications, including implementing and testing for security vulnerabilities and remediating any vulnerabilities identified.

Coordinate upgrades to the business applications, to ensure they are maintained and kept up to date with security patches and software updates.

Administer, design, and test the backup solutions for business applications. This includes mirroring, incremental, and offsite backups, as well as providing air-gapped solutions.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information systems, or a related and relevant field with at least 5 years of experience; or an associate degree in one of these fields with at least 7 years of relevant experience; or an equivalent amount of relevant professional work experience in application development, including design, implementation, and maintenance of complex business applications.
• Demonstrated experience with relational database design and management (e.g., 4D, PostgreSQL, or similar RDBMS platforms).
• Experience with git or other version control systems in a team development environment.
• Experience translating business/scientific requirements into technical specifications and working solutions.
• Demonstrated experience acting as a technical liaison between developers, end users, and leadership on multi-component systems.
• Working knowledge of macOS server administration and/or application deployment on macOS environments.
• Experience with backup and disaster recovery planning, including offsite and/or air-gapped solutions.
• Excellent time management and organizational skills.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively and collaborate with individuals and teams across the agency, including those with varying levels of technical expertise.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience developing and maintaining applications on the 4D platform.
• Experience administering macOS server infrastructure in a production environment.
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted coding tools/platforms in a professional software development workflow.
• Experience establishing governance, shared instructions, or usage standards for AI coding tools within an organization or team.
• Experience using AI tools to support technical documentation, user manual creation, or knowledge base development.
• Familiarity with building or integrating Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems or other custom AI/LLM-based tools.
• Experience in a government, scientific, or natural-resources agency environment.
• Knowledge of secure software development practices and vulnerability testing/remediation.
• Project leadership experience on large-scale, multi-stakeholder technical initiatives.