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.
The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.
At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:
Pay Range: $140,200.00 - $217,200.00
Job Description
The Staff Software Engineer will have deep expertise in Java, Angular, and Python and drive technical excellence within Western Governors University’s (WGU) technology teams. You’ll maintain and enhance internal libraries, ensuring reliability through proactive testing and active code contribution. You will lead new internal projects from start to finish with significant code development. A key responsibility is to teach and mentor junior engineers at WGU through guidance and practical examples.

Key Responsibilities:

• Maintain and improve internal libraries through active code development.
• Proactively identify and implement tests for WGU’s systems.
• Lead new projects (planning, design, development with significant coding, deployment)
• Collaborate with diverse teams, actively contributing code as needed.
• Teach and mentor junior engineers on best practices and technologies through practical coding examples.
• Resolve critical technical challenges within systems through active debugging.
• Contribute to strategic initiatives while also being able to spend time focusing on hands on coding.
• Prototype and develop new technologies through implementation.
• Identify and address inefficiencies in systems through code refactoring.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Proven experience maintaining internal Java, Angular, and Python libraries within a university or similar environment through active code contributions.
• Demonstrated ability to design and implement tests for enterprise systems.
• Strong track record leading projects with substantial code development
• Extensive experience teaching and mentoring junior engineers, including practical coding guidance.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills (code reviews, pair programming).

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field.
• 10+ years software development, including significant library maintenance and project leadership, preferably within an educational institution.
• Proven experience teaching and mentoring with practical coding guidance.
• Proficiency in Java, Angular, Python, REST, SQL, and Git with strong coding skills.
• Experience integrating third-party products through implementation.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree or higher.
• Cloud platform experience (e.g., AWS, including implementation).
• Familiarity with Spring/SpringBoot (practical coding experience).
• Experience with Salesforce development lifecycle and governor limits (a plus), particularly within an educational context.

• Maintain and improve internal libraries through active code development.
• Proactively identify and implement tests for WGU’s systems.
• Lead new projects (planning, design, development with significant coding, deployment)
• Collaborate with diverse teams, actively contributing code as needed.
• Teach and mentor junior engineers on best practices and technologies through practical coding examples.
• Resolve critical technical challenges within systems through active debugging.
• Contribute to strategic initiatives while also being able to spend time focusing on hands on coding.
• Prototype and develop new technologies through implementation.
• Identify and address inefficiencies in systems through code refactoring