Software Engineer Lead

asu; Scottsdale (AZ); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

ASU EdPlus is seeking an experienced Software Engineer Lead to design and implement scalable, secure software solutions that support transfer learners in higher education. You will guide architecture, mentor engineers, and drive modern engineering practices in a hybrid in‑person Scottsdale setting.

The role focuses on building AI-assisted, cloud-native solutions, integrating with university platforms, and delivering robust, auditable systems while advancing secure, accessible experiences for

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and seven (7) years of experience appropriate to the area of assignment/field; OR, Any equivalent combination of experience and/or training.
• Design, develop, and troubleshoot complex software and applications for scalable institutional tech infrastructure.
• Lead design and development of digital solutions using AI, automation, and cloud technologies.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and support secure, scalable digital services for transfer learners.
• Provide technical leadership across backend services and web applications.
• Architect end-to-end transfer workflows including AI-assisted extraction and articulation systems.

Skills

RESTful APIs

Microservices

Node.js/TypeScript

Vue 3 frontend

AWS cloud

CI/CD practices

Security/FERPA awareness

Education

Bachelor’s degree or higher

Tools

NestJS

PostgreSQL

TypeORM

AWS (S3/SQS/Textract/ECR/ECS)

Docker

GitHub Actions

Job description

Job Profile:

Applications Developer 4

Job Family:

IT Applications

Time Type:

Full time

Apply before 11:59 PM Arizona time the day before the posted End Date.

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree and seven (7) years of experience appropriate to the area of assignment/field; OR, Any equivalent combination of experience and/or training from which comparable knowledge, skills and abilities have been achieved.

Job Profile Summary:
Designs, develops, and troubleshoots complex software and applications in support of establishing a sustainable institutional technological infrastructure. This individual also conducts non-routine system analysis, contributes to strategy development, and may provide training.

Job Description:

Are you an experienced software engineer who excels at creating and enhancing technology solutions for a variety of learner needs? Do you enjoy working in collaborative, mission-driven, innovative environments? Then apply today for this Software Engineer Lead opportunity!

ASU EdPlus is a dynamic unit of Arizona State University focused on the design and scalable delivery of digital teaching and learning models to increase student success and reduce barriers to achievement in higher education. We advance the economic, social, cultural, and overall health of the local, national, and international communities served by ASU.

Curious about what it’s like to work at EdPlus? Watch this short video, then explore more stories on the EdPlus at ASU YouTube channel.

We are seeking a motivated, self-directed Software Engineer Lead to join our Solutions Engineering team. Every day you will make a difference in the lives of others by helping solve some of the most complex challenges facing transfer learners in higher education.

You will lead the design and development of digital solutions that simplify the transfer experience, from transcript ingestion and course-equivalency evaluation to articulation, review, and learner-facing reporting. These solutions will use artificial intelligence, automation, and modern cloud technologies to reduce friction, improve transparency, and shorten a learner’s path to completing a degree.

This role extends beyond traditional software development. You will provide technical direction, guide architectural decisions, mentor engineers, and help advance modern engineering practices across the organization, including the responsible use of AI-assisted development tools and agentic workflows.

The EdPlus Solutions Engineering team creates and enhances technology solutions for a variety of learner challenges. Working collaboratively across disciplines, the team develops thoughtful, forward-looking experiences that support the strategies and goals of ASU and EdPlus.

Essential Duties:

• Design, develop, and support secure, scalable digital services that improve the experience and outcomes of transfer learners.
• Provide technical leadership across backend services, integration layers, asynchronous processing systems, and learner- and administrator-facing web applications.
• Architect end-to-end transfer workflows, including document ingestion and storage, AI-assisted extraction, queued processing, equivalency evaluation, articulation-system integration, human review, reporting, and document generation.
• Own and evolve HTTP and event-driven contracts between services and client applications, including API versioning, payload design, compatibility, and coordinated delivery across repositories.
• Design durable integrations with University platforms and third-party services, accounting for availability, data consistency, retries, idempotency, auditability, and operational failure modes.
• Collaborate with product managers, designers, architects, institutional stakeholders, and engineering teams to translate learner needs and organizational goals into effective technical solutions; lead technical planning and architectural discussions to clarify scope, integrations, risks, dependencies, and implementation approaches.
• Establish and promote engineering practices for architecture, code quality, test-driven development, documentation, observability, security, accessibility, and production support; ensure appropriate handling of student academic records and other sensitive information in accordance with ASU data-governance requirements, security policies, and FERPA obligations.
• Maintain clear technical documentation, including domain glossaries, architecture decision records, API contracts, operational runbooks, and repository guidance for engineers and AI-assisted development tools.
• Mentor engineers, provide thoughtful technical direction, and support effective delivery within a collaborative, inclusive, agile working environment; maintain technical currency, pursue professional development opportunities, and contribute to the broader information technology and engineering community across Arizona State University.
• Define responsible approaches for building and operating AI-powered and multimodal applications, and evaluate emerging technologies for alignment with organizational needs, security requirements, and technical standards.
• Assume or coordinate additional duties or projects as assigned.

NOTE: This is an in‑person, hybrid position. You must be able to reliably commute to Scottsdale, Arizona.

Desired Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in a related field.
• Strong experience designing and developing RESTful APIs, microservices, and web applications using JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, HTTP, and JSON; and experience with a modern Node.js backend framework, including dependency injection, modular architecture, request validation, and API contract documentation. NestJS is preferred.
• Strong front‑end development experience with Vue 3 or a comparable modern single‑page application framework; experience with the Composition API, Vue Router, Pinia, and Vite is preferred.
• Demonstrated strong knowledge of relational databases, transactional processing, and data‑persistence tooling, including schema design, ORM patterns, and managed migrations; PostgreSQL and TypeORM are preferred.
• Strong experience building secure, resilient cloud applications on AWS, using services such as S3, SQS, Textract, ECR, ECS, CloudFront, and IAM.
• Experience designing asynchronous and event‑driven systems, including message queues, worker consumers, long‑running jobs, retries, idempotency, error handling, and operational failure recovery.
• Demonstrated knowledge of application security, federated identity, authentication, and authorization using technologies and standards such as IAM, JWT, OAuth, API keys, and cloud access policies.
• Experience designing durable integration and anti‑corruption layers that protect internal applications from the complexity, availability constraints, and evolution of external systems.
• Evidence of expertise in CI/CD and infrastructure‑as‑code practices using technologies such as GitHub Actions, Terraform, Docker, container registries, OIDC‑based cloud authentication, automated testing, and gated environment releases.
• Demonstrated strong testing discipline grounded in test‑driven development, including unit, integration, and end‑to‑end testing using tools such as Jest, Supertest, and Vitest.
• Practical experience using AI‑assisted development and agentic engineering practices to improve planning, implementation, testing, documentation, code review, and delivery quality.
• Experience applying accessibility standards, including WCAG 2.1 AA, to public‑facing digital applications, and working in agile or Scrum environments, including participation in planning, refinement, reviews, retrospectives, and delivery tracking using Jira or comparable tools.
• Demonstrated ability to provide technical leadership, exercise sound judgment, mentor engineers, solve complex problems, and communicate effectively with technical and nontechnical partners.

NOTE: Please answer the following questions in your cover letter:

• Describe you experience leading the development of secure, cloud‑native workflow platforms that integrate multiple systems and process sensitive user records or documents.
• Describe a production system you helped lead that involved complex workflows, external integrations, asynchronous processing, or sensitive data. What was your technical role, what architectural decisions did you own, and how did you ensure the system was reliable, secure, and maintainable?

Salary & Benefits:

$120,000 - $130,000 per year; DOE

ASU offers a total compensation package that includes valuable employee benefits. See the ASU Benefits website to explore options.

• Healthcare
• Financial Security
• Retirement
• Family Resources
• Tuition Reduction (eligible ASU Employee, their dependents and spouse)
• Discounts

Working Environment:

Your desk will be in the beautiful, cutting-edge, and collaborative workspace at SkySong, the ASU Scottsdale Innovation Center. The Center houses a diverse business community that links technology, research, education, and entrepreneurship to position ASU and Greater Phoenix as global leaders in the knowledge economy.

ASU EdPlus supports flexible work options, ranging from alternate work schedules to hybrid remote work schedules, subject to approvals per ASU policy. (This is an in‑person, hybrid position.)

Applicant must be eligible to work in the United States. ASU EdPlus will not be a sponsor for this position.

Department Statement:

As a central enterprise unit for ASU, ASU EdPlus supports the university charter by focusing on the design and scalable delivery of digital teaching and learning models to increase student success and reduce barriers to achievement in higher education.

ASU EdPlus defines itself through a culture of curiosity, risk‑taking, and refusing to accept the status quo. Our employees are valued, respected, and encouraged to be their unique selves. We know that our ability to deliver high‑quality services and educational experiences is strengthened by our culture of innovation, driving outcomes through serving learners, achieving milestones, striving for excellence, solving problems, embracing urgency, and being bold.

Driving Requirement:

Driving is not required for this position.

Location:

Off‑Campus: Scottsdale

Funding:

No Federal Funding

ASU Statement:

Arizona State University is a new model for American higher education, an unprecedented combination of academic excellence, entrepreneurial energy and broad access. This New American University is a single, unified institution comprising four differentiated campuses positively impacting the economic, social, cultural and environmental health of the communities it serves. Its research is inspired by real world application blurring the boundaries that traditionally separate academic disciplines. ASU serves more than 100,000 students in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, the nation's fifth largest city. ASU champions inclusive excellence, and welcomes students from all fifty states and more than one hundred nations across the globe.

ASU is a tobacco‑free university. For details visit https://wellness.asu.edu/explore-wellness/body/alcohol-and-drugs/tobacco

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other basis protected by law.

Notice of Availability of the ASU Annual Security and Fire Safety Report:

In compliance with federal law, ASU prepares an annual report on campus security and fire safety programs and resources. ASU’s Annual Security and Fire Safety Report is available online at https://www.asu.edu/police/PDFs/ASU-Clery-Report.pdf. You may request a hard copy of the report by contacting the ASU Police Department at 480-965-3456.

Relocation Assistance:

For information about schools, housing child resources, neighborhoods, hospitals, community events, and taxes, visit https://cfo.asu.edu/az-resources.

ASU’s comprehensive benefits package is a key part of your total compensation. Visit the ASU Compensation Estimator

Employment Verification Statement:

ASU conducts pre‑employment screening which may include verification of work history, academic credentials, licenses, and certifications.

Background Check Statement:

ASU conducts pre‑employment screening for all positions which includes a criminal background check, verification of work history, academic credentials, licenses, and certifications. Employment is contingent upon successful passing of the background check.

Fingerprint Check Statement:

This position is considered safety/security sensitive and will include a fingerprint check. Employment is contingent upon successful passing of the fingerprint check.