Software Engineer

Position Summary

This position provides technical and analytical work to develop, design, and/or support applications for research and clinical functions of scientists and clinicians. Employees participate in the design and development of informatics solutions using software engineering expertise to include maintenance, modification, or novel implementation of complex inter-related applications/solutions. Solutions link technical knowledge with research and/or clinical solutions and involve participating in design and development, and implementation of simple single systems or interfaces that inter-connect enterprise applications. Duties include participating in designs, developing code based on the architecture and technical design finalized and approved by more senior technical staff, creating and performing unit tests, mentoring junior software engineers and other technical staff and students, and playing a more active role in test case planning for components and functions developed by the employee. Employees should be able to work independently with minimal supervision.

In this role, the employee applies the above to the XNAT platform, an open-source medical imaging informatics platform used across research and clinical imaging programs, with direct responsibility for implementing core XNAT functionality and overseeing XNAT software releases.

Location

Remote, US

Scheduled Hours

40

Job Description

Primary Duties & Responsibilities

• Applies advanced knowledge of software engineering principles (e.g., object-oriented programing and n-tiered application design) and core concepts (e.g., data structures, algorithms, computer architecture, operating systems and databases) to develop and write original software to meet research-based needs.
• Utilizes experience of scientific and mathematical concepts in the design of single software applications or interfaces.
• Applies scientific and mathematical concepts to ensure sound implementation of software based on design and architecture approved by more senior technical personnel.
• Applies core computer science concepts in the development, testing and documentation of software units.
• Implements client and web-based applications using enterprise scale languages, including Java, Javascript, and Python.
• Determines when to employ other programming languages (e.g., PHP, Python and Perl) as required to implement application components or interfaces.
• Identification of and comprehension of new technologies to develop prototypes or working code in existing applications using such novel technologies.
• Mentors junior software engineers and other technical staff and students in computer science-related tasks.
• Participates as a member of the technical team in the review of new features of an existing application or of requirements and use cases of a novel application or interface.
• Participates as a member of the testing team to plan test cases within components developed by the employee and review test cases proposed by more junior technical staff.
• May lead code reviews of more junior technical staff.
• Designs, implements, and maintains core XNAT platform functionality, including DICOM workflows, computational pipelines, data management infrastructure, and user productivity tools.
• Owns end-to-end release management for XNAT: branching and versioning strategy, release candidate builds, regression and upgrade testing, release notes, and coordination of deployment to production research and clinical environments.
• Triages, reproduces, and resolves defects reported by the XNAT open-source community and institutional users, balancing platform stability with the pace of feature development.
• Contributes upstream to the open-source XNAT codebase and participates in XNAT community governance, code review, and roadmap discussions.
• Evaluates and integrates XNAT with adjacent platform components (e.g., data lake/medallion architecture, JupyterHub, DICOM modalities, BI/dashboarding tools) to extend clinical and research data workflows.
• Documents architecture decisions, upgrade procedures, and administrator/user-facing release guidance for institutional IT and research teams.

Working Conditions

Job Location/Working Conditions

• Normal office environment.

Physical Effort

• Typically sitting at desk or table.
• Repetitive wrist, hand or finger movement.
• Occasional lifting (25 – 50 lbs).

Equipment

• Office equipment.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all job duties performed by the personnel so classified. Management reserves the right to revise or amend duties at any time.

Education

Bachelor’s degree or combination of education and/or experience may substitute for minimum education.

Certifications /Professional Licenses

No specific certification/professional license is required for this position.

Work Experience

Relevant Experience (5 Years)

Skills

Data Migrations, Data Modeling, Gap Analysis, Java (Programming Language), Perl Programming, PHP (Programming Language), Proof of Concept (POC), Shell Scripting, Writing Test Plans

Driver’s License

A driver's license is not required for this position.

Preferred Qualifications

More About This Job

• Deliver stable, well-tested XNAT releases on a predictable cadence, minimizing downtime and data-integrity risk for research and clinical users.
• Reduce the backlog of open XNAT defects and technical debt in core modules year over year.
• Grow the platform's overall capabilities to maintain relevance as a leading edge research platform.
• Serve as a technical point of contact for institutional partners integrating with or extending XNAT.
• Direct experience developing on or administering the XNAT platform, or a comparable medical imaging informatics/PACS-adjacent research platform, strongly preferred.
• Experience with DICOM standards and medical imaging data formats and workflows.
• Experience owning or contributing significantly to release management for a production software platform (versioning, CI/CD, regression testing, rollout coordination).
• Experience contributing to or maintaining an open-source project, including community code review and issue triage.
• Gap Analysis.
• Data Modeling.
• Data Migrations.
• Java (Programming Language).
• Writing Test Plans.
• Proof of Concept (POC).
• Computer Engineering, Computer Programming, IT Solution Design, Written Communication, Organizational Planning, Systems Development, Computer Hardware, Oral Communications, Software Testing, Information Systems Analysis, Bioinformatics, Technical Support, Interpersonal Communication, Hardware Setup, Systems Management, Technical Knowledge, Change Management, Technical Consulting, Technical Architecture, IT Problem Solving, Project Administration, Computer Science
• XNAT platform architecture and internals.
• DICOM / DICOMweb standards (QIDO-RS, WADO-RS, STOW-RS).
• Java-based enterprise web application development (Spring, REST services).
• Release engineering / CI-CD (e.g., GitHub Actions, Bitbucket/GitHub migration, versioning strategy).
• Infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform) and container orchestration (e.g., AWS EKS).
• Linux server administration, including RHEL deployment environments.
• Open-source project contribution and community collaboration.
• Relational database design (PostgreSQL) as used in the XNAT data model.

Education

Preferred Qualifications

Master's degree

Certifications /Professional Licenses

No additional certification/professional licenses unless stated elsewhere in the job posting.

Work Experience

No additional work experience unless stated elsewhere in the job posting.

Skills

Bioinformatics, Change Management, Computer Engineering, Computer Hardware, Computer Programming, Computer Science, Gas Analysis, Hardware Setup, Information Systems Analysis, Interpersonal Communication, IT Problem Solving, IT Solution Design, Oral Communications, Organizational Planning, Project Administration, Software Testing, Systems Development, Systems Management, Technical Architecture, Technical Consulting, Technical Knowledge, Technical Support, Written Communication

Grade

G14

Salary Range

$75,200.00 - $128,800.00 / Annually

The salary range reflects base salaries paid for positions in a given job grade across the University. Individual rates within the range will be determined by factors including one's qualifications and performance, equity with others in the department, market rates for positions within the same grade and department budget.

Questions

For frequently asked questions about the application process, please refer to our External Applicant FAQ.

Accommodation

If you are unable to use our online application system and would like an accommodation, please email View email address on click.appcast.io or call the dedicated accommodation inquiry number at View phone number on click.appcast.io and leave a voicemail with the nature of your request.

All qualified individuals must be able to perform the essential functions of the position satisfactorily and, if requested, reasonable accommodations will be made to enable employees with disabilities to perform the essential functions of their job, absent undue hardship.

Pre-Employment Screening

All external candidates receiving an offer for employment will be required to submit to pre-employment screening for this position. The screenings will include criminal background check and, as applicable for the position, other background checks, drug screen, an employment and education or licensure/certification verification, physical examination, certain vaccinations and/or governmental registry checks. All offers are contingent upon successful completion of required screening.

Benefits Statement

Personal

• Up to 22 days of vacation, 10 recognized holidays, and sick time.
• Competitive health insurance packages with priority appointments and lower copays/coinsurance.
• Take advantage of our free Metro transit U-Pass for eligible employees.
• WashU provides eligible employees with a defined contribution (403(b)) Retirement Savings Plan, which combines employee contributions and university contributions starting at 7%.

Wellness

• Wellness challenges, annual health screenings, mental health resources, mindfulness programs and courses, employee assistance program (EAP), financial resources, access to dietitians, and more!

Family

• We offer 4 weeks of caregiver leave to bond with your new child. Family care resources are also available for your continued childcare needs. Need adult care? We’ve got you covered.
• WashU covers the cost of tuition for you and your family, including dependent undergraduate-level college tuition up to 100% at WashU and 40% elsewhere after seven years with us.

For policies, detailed benefits, and eligibility, please visit:

EEO Statement

Washington University in St. Louis is committed to the principles and practices of equal employment opportunity. It is the University’s policy to provide equal opportunity and access to persons in all job titles without regard to race, ethnicity, color, national origin, citizenship (where prohibited by federal law), age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, protected veteran status, or genetic information.