Technical Lead, Learning Platforms at Altarum

Altarum; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental & Optical plans

Paid time off + holidays

Tuition assistance

401K with employer match

Life, AD&D & Disability insurance

Flexible work environment

Job summary

Altarum is seeking a Technical Lead, Learning Platforms to provide hands‑on technical leadership for the DCC platform, a multi‑tenant workforce platform connecting direct care workers with employers across states. You will design, code, review, and improve production software while guiding the engineering team.

You will partner with product and platform leadership to translate needs into technical solutions, ensure scalability, security, and accessibility, and promote AI‑assisted development

Qualifications

• 7+ years of professional software development experience.
• Hands-on coding in modern web applications.
• Experience with PHP and LMS integrations (APIs, SSO, data flows).
• Experience leading developers and contributing to codebase.
• Experience with APIs, third‑party integrations, and identity technologies (OIDC or SAML).
• Experience in multi-tenant environments.
• Experience with automated testing, version control, CI/CD, and Agile practices.
• Bachelor’s degree in CS or related field.

Responsibilities

• Write, review, test, and ship production‑quality code as a senior, hands‑on engineer.
• Lead day‑to‑day technical work of developers through code reviews and mentoring.
• Design, build, and maintain LMS integrations (SSO, APIs, content standards).
• Implement platform features and multi-client configurations.
• Guide technical architecture decisions with stakeholders.
• Promote good development practices (CI/CD, testing, security, WCAG).
• Facilitate Agile ceremonies and backlog management.
• Break work into estimable stories with product owners.

Skills

Mentoring

Code reviews

Agile

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field

Tools

PHP

Auth0

APIs

Job description

About The Role

Altarum is seeking a Technical Lead, Learning Platforms to provide hands‑on technical leadership for the Direct Care Careers (DCC) platform, a multi‑tenant workforce platform connecting direct care workers with employers across participating states. This is a senior, hands‑on engineering role for an experienced developer with strong web application development skills and meaningful experience working with learning management systems (LMS).

You will spend significant time designing, coding, reviewing, and improving production software while guiding the day‑to‑day technical work of the engineering team.

You will partner closely with product and platform leadership to translate business needs into technical solutions, improve development practices, and ensure the platform remains scalable, maintainable, secure, and accessible. You will also help the team make effective use of AI‑assisted development tools and modern engineering workflows.

What You'll Do

• Write, review, test, and ship production‑quality code as a senior, hands‑on member of the engineering team.
• Lead the day‑to‑day technical work of developers through code reviews, technical guidance, mentoring, and engineering standards.
• Design, build, and maintain integrations involving learning management systems, including SSO, APIs, learning content standards, and related data flows.
• Implement and maintain platform features, state‑specific configurations, and reusable functionality within a shared multi‑client environment.
• Partner with platform leadership on technical architecture and implementation decisions, raising risks, dependencies, and tradeoffs early.
• Lead strong development practices around branching, releases, automated testing, CI/CD, documentation, performance, security, and accessibility, including WCAG2.1AA and Section508 requirements.
• Facilitate Agile team practices, including sprint planning, backlog refinement, stand‑ups, and retrospectives, while helping manage sprint commitments, team capacity, and delivery goals.
• Partner with product owners and product managers to break work into clear, estimable stories and maintain a ready, prioritized backlog.
• Help remove technical blockers and identify practical solutions that keep delivery moving.
• Use AI‑assisted development tools for coding, testing, review, documentation, automation, and other appropriate development workflows.
• Help establish responsible and effective standards for the team’s use of AI development tools.
• Integrate identity and access solutions using technologies and standards such as Auth0, OIDC, SAML, or similar approaches.
• Clearly communicate and present technical decisions, implementation progress, risks, tradeoffs, and recommendations to technical and non‑technical stakeholders, including product, program, executive, client, and state‑agency audiences.
• Contribute technical input to estimates, solutioning, build‑versus‑buy decisions, and future platform capabilities.
• Document technical decisions and implementations so knowledge is shared across the team and does not depend on any one individual.

What You'll Bring

7+ years of professional software development experience, with significant recent hands‑on coding experience.

Strong experience developing and maintaining production web applications using modern development technologies and frameworks.

Hands‑on experience with PHP and the ability to work effectively across multiple technologies and languages as needed.

Strong experience building, extending, or integrating learning management systems (LMS), including APIs, SSO, learning content standards, and related data flows.

Experience leading developers technically while continuing to contribute directly to the codebase.

Strong experience with APIs, third‑party integrations, and identity and access technologies such as OIDC or SAML.

Experience working in a multi‑tenant, multi‑client, or shared‑platform environment.

Demonstrated experience with automated testing, version control, CI/CD, and modern software development practices.

Experience working in Scrum, Agile, or a similar iterative delivery model.

Practical experience using AI‑assisted development tools, such as AI coding assistants, LLM‑based automation, or agentic development workflows, with sound judgment about where these tools add value.

Ability to explain technical concepts, implementation decisions, risks, and tradeoffs clearly to both technical and nontechnical audiences.

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

What Will Set You Apart

• Experience with Moodle, including custom plugins, integrations, configuration, or platform extensions.
• Experience with Drupal or another PHP‑based CMS, including custom module or theme development.
• Experience building or integrating AI/LLM capabilities into production applications, including considerations related to evaluation and responsible use.
• Experience with reporting, business intelligence tools, analytics, or data pipelines.
• Experience supporting government, health care, human services, or public‑sector technology programs.
• Familiarity with long‑term services and supports (LTSS), home‑and‑community‑based services (HCBS), or direct care workforce programs.
• Experience working with state agencies or cross‑functional teams that include product, program, policy, data, security, and vendor partners.
• Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Professional Scrum Master (PSM), or similar Agile certification.

Why Join Our Team?

In this role, you will have the opportunity to combine hands‑on engineering with technical leadership while helping evolve a platform designed to strengthen the direct care workforce. You will work closely with a collaborative, mission‑driven team and have meaningful influence over how the platform is built, how the engineering team works, and how modern development practices, including AI‑assisted development, are adopted responsibly and effectively.

Where You'll Work

Remote with occasional in‑person collaboration days. If you’re near one of our offices (Silver Spring, MD; or Novi, MI), you’ll be Hybrid and will join us in person one day every other month (6 times per year) for a fun, purpose‑driven Collaboration Day.

These days are filled with creative energy, meaningful connection, and team brainstorming. Non‑local employees will join these days virtually and may be asked to join us occasionally in‑person.

Compensation

Individual compensation packages are based on numerous factors unique to each candidate, including skill set, experience, qualifications, and other job‑related reasons. This salary range is not a guarantee of compensation, as the final offer amount will vary based on these factors.

In addition to base salary compensation, Altarum Enterprise employees enjoy the following benefits:

• Competitive Medical, Dental and Optical plans
• Generous Paid Time Off, 8 Company observed holidays plus 3 floating holidays
• Tuition Assistance
• 401K Plan (3% employer contribution plus opportunity for gainsharing)
• Life, AD&D & Disability coverage
• A flexible work environment and more!

Altarum is a nonprofit organization focused on improving the health of individuals with fewer financial resources and populations disenfranchised by the health care system. We work primarily on behalf of federal and state governments to design and implement solutions that achieve measurable results. We combine our expertise in public health and health care delivery with technology development and implementation, practice transformation, training and technical assistance, quality improvement, data analytics, and applied research and evaluation. Our innovative solutions and proven processes lead to better value and health for all.

Altarum is an equal opportunity employer that provides employment and opportunities to all qualified employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.