Senior Web Platform Engineer

The University of Chicago; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

The Senior Web Platform Engineer at The University of Chicago Advancement Technology leads the technical ownership of web platforms, architecture, integrations, security, and long‑term health. This role blends hands‑on backend development with strategic oversight to deliver scalable, accessible digital experiences for alumni and constituents.

You will collaborate with Communications and Advancement teams to translate needs into concrete solutions, manage WordPress/Drupal ecosystems, coordinate

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and professional experience.
• 5+ years of experience developing, administering, or leading production web platforms.
• Experience with WordPress and Drupal environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical ownership of Advancement’s web platforms and related technologies.
• Design, develop, and maintain back-end of university websites and applications.
• Ensure accessibility, security, performance, and compliance standards.
• Collaborate with stakeholders and manage vendor relationships.

Skills

HTML

CSS

JavaScript

APIs

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and professional experience

Tools

WordPress

Drupal

Job description

Department ADV Business Application Management

Department ADV Business Application Management About the Department The University of Chicago Advancement team cultivates lifelong connections with more than 220,000 alumni, current students, parents, and friends worldwide, building community through intellectual, professional, and other meaningful experiences on campus, around the world and online. Advancement empowers every division, school, department, and institute to thrive, generating support for esteemed faculty, pioneering researchers, visionary practitioners, and ambitious students. During the Chicago Minds campaign, Advancement seeks to raise over $1 billion annually. This unprecedented philanthropic effort is designed to stretch the boundaries of what is possible, fueling bold discovery and amplifying the University’s global impact. Our work is rooted in the belief that meaningful connection and lasting experiences inspire ambassadorship and enduring commitment. We champion a culture of innovation and excellence, inviting every member of our community to participate in a future defined by creativity, intellectual rigor, and shared purpose. Through collaborative partnerships, strategic stewardship, and investment in talent, Advancement is reimagining alumni and donor engagement while ensuring UChicago remains a catalyst of impact for generations to come. The Advancement Technology team delivers the data, systems, tools, and technology strategy that power UChicago Advancement’s ambitious fundraising and engagement goals. Taking an enterprise approach to data and systems, the team develops and supports systems and tools that are consistent, scalable, and adaptable. In close collaboration with stakeholders across Advancement and the broader University, Advancement Technology translates program strategies into innovative, integrated solutions that enable, enhance, and accelerate fundraising and engagement outcomes. The team is committed to continuous innovation, centralized governance, and building partnerships that ensure technology investments are secure, future facing, and optimized for Advancement goals.

Job Summary

The Senior Web Platform Engineer is the technical lead and co-owner of Advancement's web platforms and supporting technologies. This role combines hands‑on back‑end web development and platform administration with responsibility for architecture, integrations, security, reliability, releases, and long‑term platform health. This job leads and provides expertise to the development of programs for activities relating to software support and/or development. Analyzes, designs, develops, debugs, and modifies computer code for end user applications, beta general releases, and production support. Manages development and implementation of applications, web pages, and user‑interfaces using a variety of software applications, techniques, and tools. Solves complex problems in administration, maintenance, integration, and troubleshooting of code and application ecosystem currently in production. This position works closely with Communications, which leads business and digital experience requirements, and with other Advancement teams to translate approved needs into practical technical solutions. It serves as a technical advisor, recommending approaches, alternatives, and tradeoffs based on business needs, technical requirements, risk, and long‑term supportability. The role determines the technical architecture and implementation approach, manages delivery and ongoing support, and coordinates with central IT Services, vendors, and managed service providers where work depends on enterprise infrastructure or services.

Responsibilities

• Serves as the technical lead and co‑owner of Advancement’s web platforms, websites, web applications, and supporting technologies, with responsibility for their development, administration, reliability, security, and long‑term supportability.
• Designs, develops, configures, and maintains the back‑end of Advancement websites and web applications, including Alumni Weekend, the University Magazine, campaign websites, and other external‑facing digital resources for alumni and constituents, along with the features, components, templates, integrations, and technical improvements that support Advancement’s fundraising, constituent engagement, and digital communications needs.
• Establishes and maintains architecture, development, platform, and technical design standards, and determines the technical architecture and implementation approach for approved work.
• Translates approved business and digital experience requirements into technical solutions, prototypes, proofs of concept, and implementation plans as appropriate.
• In partnership with business owners and partners, evaluates and selects web platforms, technical tools, and supporting technologies based on requirements, integration needs, security, maintainability, and long‑term supportability.
• Manages the lifecycle of Advancement’s WordPress, Drupal, and other approved web platforms, including configuration, upgrades, maintenance, technical debt, performance, monitoring, and future platform needs.
• Builds and maintains integrations with approved Advancement and University systems, including APIs, data flows, consent tools, and identity services, and assesses and manages related technical impacts involving platform configuration, data models, migrations, URLs, and data flows.
• Implements and maintains the technical capabilities required for digital measurement, including analytics, tagging, conversion tracking, and related data collection, based on approved measurement requirements.
• Ensures web platforms and code meet established accessibility, usability, user‑centered design, SEO, responsive design, browser compatibility, security, performance, and technical quality standards, and lead testing, deployment, release readiness, and production implementation of web changes.
• Maintains platform reliability, recovery procedures, operational readiness, and technical incident resolution, including management of web platform security, access controls, vulnerability response, privacy controls, user provisioning, and related technical compliance requirements.
• Maintains reusable components, technical documentation, and operational procedures needed to support consistent development and ongoing platform operations, and define and maintain supported web services, service expectations, support boundaries, and technical incident classifications.
• Represents Advancement Technology in shared intake and planning, assessing feasibility, effort, dependencies, risk, sequencing, and support implications before scope or delivery commitments are made; identifies when demand, risk, or technical complexity exceeds available capacity and recommend changes to scope, sequencing, or resourcing.
• Leads the technical evaluation and management of web technology vendors and service providers, and coordinates technical dependencies with managed service providers, central IT Services, and other University technology teams.
• Evaluates emerging technologies, including AI and automation, for opportunities to improve Advancement’s digital platforms, development practices, user experiences, and operational efficiency, and leads technical experimentation and implementation of approved AI‑enabled and innovative solutions, ensuring appropriate architecture, integration, security, privacy, accessibility, and long‑term supportability.
• Seeks opportunities for professional development that will enhance job performance, including building networks within the University and with colleagues at peer institutions and with an eye toward broadly diversifying the advancement profession.
• Designs new systems, features, and tools.
• SOLVES complex problems and identifies opportunities for technical improvement and performance optimization.
• Reviews and tests code to ensure appropriate standards are met.
• Acts as a technical consultant and resource for faculty research, teaching, and/or administrative projects.
• Performs other related work as needed.

Minimum Qualifications

Education: Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.

Work Experience: Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 5-7 years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Certifications: ---

Preferred Qualifications

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and professional experience.

Experience

Minimum of five years of professional experience developing, administering, or leading production web platforms, web applications, or CMS‑based environments.

Minimum of three years of hands‑on experience with WordPress and Drupal environments, including configuration, upgrades, maintenance, and troubleshooting.

Serving as the technical lead or primary technical owner for an enterprise web platform or portfolio of websites.

Managing the technical lifecycle of production websites or web platforms, including development, testing, deployment, upgrades, monitoring, release management, incident resolution, and ongoing maintenance.

Implementing or supporting web integrations involving APIs, data flows, identity, marketing, CRM, Salesforce Experience Cloud, or other enterprise systems.

Familiar with source control, automated testing, deployment automation, monitoring, and the design or development of web automation.

Establishing development standards, reusable components, documentation practices, quality assurance processes, or platform governance.

Project management experience supporting complex websites, web applications, or platform initiatives, including independently planning, documenting, prioritizing, and delivering complex web technology work from requirements through production support.

Evaluating technical options and communicating effort, dependencies, risks, constraints, and tradeoffs to technical and non‑technical stakeholders.

Operating web platforms in environments where hosting, infrastructure, identity, or security services are provided by centralized technology teams or managed service providers, including coordinating work across vendors, service providers, infrastructure teams, and other technology partners.

Background in higher education, advancement, fundraising, nonprofit, or another complex organization with multiple stakeholders and enterprise technology dependencies.

Technical Skills or Knowledge

Demonstrated proficiency with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, along with working knowledge of server‑side web technologies, databases, APIs, and system integrations.

Demonstrated knowledge of web security, privacy, access management, accessibility, responsive design, browser compatibility, analytics implementation, SEO, and web performance practices.

Working knowledge of web infrastructure fundamentals, including web hosting, DNS, SSL/TLS certificates, content delivery and caching, databases, cloud or managed hosting environments, and dependencies between application platforms and underlying infrastructure.

Proficiency with design and prototyping tools such as Figma, Adobe Photoshop, or comparable tools in support of web development and collaboration with design teams.

Preferred Competencies

Outstanding interpersonal and communications skills characterized by the ability to listen, speak, and write effectively.

Explain complex ideas clearly and simply.

Manage confidential information with discretion and tact.

Act with integrity, professionalism, and confidentiality.

Work collegially and collaboratively in a team setting.

Self‑motivated and take initiative.

Prioritize multiple projects and independently follow through with detail.

Working Conditions

This position has a hybrid work schedule which includes weekly in office presence. Standard office environment. Travel to campus and/or non‑campus locations for University business. Work evenings and weekends as needed. This position is located in Hyde Park at 5235 South Harper Court. This position is not eligible for employer-sponsored employment authorization.

Pay Range $90,000.00 - $130,000.00

Benefits Eligible Yes

Posting Statement

The University of Chicago is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or expression, national or ethnic origin, shared ancestry, age, status as an individual with a disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, or other protected classes under the law. For additional information please see the University’s Notice of Nondiscrimination. Job seekers in need of a reasonable accommodation to complete the application process should call 773‑702‑5800 or submit a request via Applicant Inquiry Form. All offers of employment are contingent upon a background check that includes a review of conviction history. A conviction does not automatically preclude University employment. Rather, the University considers conviction information on a case‑by‑case basis and assesses the nature of the offense, the circumstances surrounding it, the proximity in time of the conviction, and its relevance to the position.

The University of Chicago’s Annual Security & Fire Safety Report (Report) provides information about University offices and programs that provide safety support, crime and fire statistics, emergency response and communications plans, and other policies and information. The Report can be accessed online at: http://securityreport.uchicago.edu. Paper copies of the Report are available, upon request, from the University of Chicago Police Department, 850 E. 61st Street, Chicago, IL 60637. The University of Chicago is an urban research university that has driven new ways of thinking since 1890. Our commitment to free and open inquiry draws inspired scholars to our global campuses, where ideas are born that challenge and change the world. Students in the College develop critical, analytic, and writing skills in our rigorous, interdisciplinary core curriculum. Through graduate programs, students test their ideas with UChicago scholars, and become the next generation of leaders in academia, industry, nonprofits, and government.

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