Staff Software Engineer - Academic Delivery

Western Governors University; Salt Lake City (UT); On-site; USD 161,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Dental benefits

Vision benefits

Telehealth

Life insurance

Disability coverage

Retirement savings plan

Tuition benefits

Paid time off

Job summary

Western Governors University seeks a Staff Software Engineer to shape the future of education technology. You will drive architecture across distributed systems, partner with leaders to define roadmaps, and mentor engineers to raise engineering standards.

The role emphasizes cloud-native practices, scalability, and delivering impactful student experiences. You will lead strategic initiatives across platforms and services, collaborate with product, security, and operations, and influence

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
• 10+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Experience designing and developing modern web applications, APIs, and services.
• Strong experience with technologies such as Java, Angular 12+, REST APIs, SQL, Git, and third-party integrations.
• Proven success delivering large-scale technical initiatives and influencing engineering strategy.

Responsibilities

• Drive architecture and technical strategy across distributed systems.
• Partner with engineering leaders to define technical roadmaps and long-term technology plans.
• Identify technical risks, architectural gaps, and dependencies early, and develop solutions.
• Lead and mentor engineers; influence architecture across teams and domains.
• Elevate engineering standards with cloud-native approaches, automation, and observability.

Skills

Java

Angular

REST APIs

SQL

Git

Distributed systems

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/IT

Master's degree

Tools

AWS

Spring

Spring Boot

Angular 12+

Job description

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career. Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

Grade: Technical 411 Pay Range: $161,000.00 - $249,500.00

Job Description

Shape the Future of Education Through Technology At WGU, our technology powers life-changing educational experiences for hundreds of thousands of students. As a Staff Software Engineer, you'll play a critical role in defining the technical direction, architecture, and engineering practices that enable us to scale, innovate, and deliver exceptional experiences across the university. This is a high-impact technical leadership role for an engineer who thrives on solving complex problems, influencing architecture across multiple teams, and driving engineering excellence. You'll work on strategic initiatives that span platforms, services, and business domains while helping teams adopt modern engineering practices, cloud technologies, and scalable system designs. You'll be trusted as a technical authority, mentor, and thought leader, helping guide some of the most important technology decisions at WGU. If you're passionate about building resilient systems, modernizing platforms, improving developer productivity, and mentoring engineers, we'd love to talk with you.

What You'll Do

Drive Architecture and Technical Strategy

Lead the design and evolution of scalable, secure, and highly available distributed systems.

Partner with engineering leaders, architects, and product teams to define technical roadmaps and long-term technology strategies.

Identify technical risks, architectural gaps, and system dependencies early, and proactively develop solutions.

Influence technology decisions across multiple teams and domains.

Solve Complex Technical Challenges

Serve as a subject matter expert across multiple engineering disciplines and platforms.

Lead the investigation and resolution of critical production issues and complex cross-team initiatives.

Evaluate emerging technologies, architectural patterns, and engineering practices to improve platform capabilities and efficiency.

Balance technical excellence with pragmatic delivery decisions to maximize business impact.

Elevate Engineering Excellence

Champion modern software engineering practices, including cloud-native architectures, automation, observability, testing strategies, and security.

Drive improvements in system reliability, performance, scalability, and operational excellence.

Establish and promote engineering standards, architectural best practices, and design principles.

Help teams optimize development processes and improve software delivery effectiveness.

Mentor and Develop Engineers

Provide technical leadership and mentorship to engineers across multiple teams.

Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, accountability, and continuous learning.

Support teams in adopting new technologies and expanding their technical capabilities.

Act as a trusted advisor and technical resource for engineers, managers, and leaders.

Partner Across the Organization

Collaborate with Product, Operations, Security, and Engineering teams to deliver business-critical solutions.

Translate complex technical concepts into actionable recommendations for technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Advocate for solutions that improve the experience of students, faculty, and staff.

What Makes You Successful

Technical Expertise

Deep understanding of software engineering principles, system architecture, and software development best practices.

Strong experience designing and building large-scale, distributed, and cloud-based applications.

Expertise in software design patterns, system decomposition, fault tolerance, security, and performance optimization.

Proven ability to design solutions that satisfy both functional and non-functional requirements.

Engineering Leadership

Ability to influence technical direction without direct authority.

Experience leading cross-functional initiatives and aligning multiple teams around technical solutions.

Strong mentoring skills with a track record of helping engineers and teams grow.

Ability to identify systemic issues and drive meaningful, long-term improvements.

Operational Excellence

Experience building and operating highly available production systems.

Strong understanding of observability, reliability engineering, incident management, and performance monitoring.

Ability to use metrics and data to drive engineering decisions and platform improvements.

Communication & Collaboration

Exceptional communication skills with the ability to engage effectively at every level of the organization.

Skilled at translating technical complexity into clear business value.

Brings solutions, builds consensus, and creates momentum around change.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).

10+ years of professional software engineering experience building and delivering complex software systems.

Experience designing and developing modern web applications, APIs, and services.

Strong experience with technologies such as Java, Angular version 12+, REST APIs, SQL, Git, and third-party integrations.

Demonstrated success delivering large-scale technical initiatives and influencing engineering strategy.

Preferred Qualifications

Modern Technology Experience: Experience with Java, Spring, Spring Boot, Angular (12+), SQL, Git, and AWS services.

Strong understanding of cloud-native application design and microservices architecture.

Experience with SaaS platforms and engineering solutions for scalability, reliability, and cost optimization.

Specialized Experience

Experience architecting and operating enterprise-scale customer engagement platforms.

Experience supporting online learning, education technology, or digital learning environments.

Additional Qualifications

Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.

Relevant cloud, architecture, or software engineering certifications.

Why Engineers Choose WGU

Influence technical strategy and architecture at enterprise scale.

Solve meaningful problems that directly impact student success.

Work with modern cloud technologies and evolving platforms.

Drive innovation, modernization, and engineering excellence.

Mentor talented engineers and shape the future of the organization.

Be part of a mission-driven company where your work creates measurable social impact.

Job Description Disclaimer

This position description provides the major duties/responsibilities, requirements and working conditions for the position. It is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current position, however management reserves the right to revise or change as necessary to meet organizational needs. Other responsibilities may be assigned when circumstances require.

This position requires occasional travel of up to 20%, including required attendance at designated company summits (typically one to two per year). Additional travel may include conferences, visits to company locations, and other business-related events as needed. Additional travel may be assigned as needed to support business requirements.

Position & Application Details

Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses and a comprehensive benefits package including the following:

• 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
• other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave

Accommodations

Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at [e-mail].

Equal Employment Opportunity

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.

In 1997, a coalition of 19 U.S. governors founded Western Governors University with a singular vision: to make higher education more accessible by offering full degree programs online. Starting small, we quickly expanded. Today, we’re one of the largest accredited online universities in the U.S.

Additional Information Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It’s not all-inclusive.