Full Stack Engineer

Department BSD SUR - OHNS: Thirty Million Words - Tech About the Department The TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health at the University of Chicago develops, tests, and implements evidence‑based interventions designed to promote very young children’s cognitive and social‑emotional development. TMW Center interventions are designed to be embedded into existing health, education, and social service systems working at scale in a given community in order to meet families where they already are. The TMW Center has a robust research and development strategy that includes further development and testing of TMW interventions; harnessing technology to support behavior change, intervention engagement, and analysis; and furthering strategies to engage parents in the TMW Center’s interventions across the health, early learning, and social service sectors. Job Summary The Full Stack Engineer performs a variety of activities relating to software support and/or development. Provides analysis, design, development, debugging, and modification of computer code for end‑user applications, beta general releases, web pages, and production support. Troubleshoots problems using existing procedures to find a possible solution. We are looking for a Senior Full Stack Engineer with a strong focus on backend development to join our growing engineering team. Our ideal candidate will work primarily within our Django system, with additional contributions to a .NET platform that shares a React.js front end. In this role, our ideal candidate will collaborate closely with other engineers, and the CTO to build, enhance, and maintain scalable software systems. While front‑end engineers handle most UI development, our ideal candidate will bring a full‑stack perspective—understanding how backend decisions affect the user experience and the overall system architecture. Responsibilities Lead the development and maintenance of backend services and APIs in Django (primary) and .NET (secondary). Collaborate with front‑end engineers to design and implement effective interfaces between the backend and the React.js client. Architect scalable data models, services, and integrations with third‑party APIs. Contribute to system architecture decisions and help guide best practices in backend and full‑stack development. Write clean, maintainable, and well‑tested code across multiple systems. Participate in code reviews, technical design sessions, and cross‑functional collaboration with product and design teams. Support CI/CD pipelines and ensure smooth deployments and system reliability. Mentor other engineers and contribute to improving development processes. Utilize technical knowledge of existing and emerging technologies, including public cloud offerings from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Investigate, analyze and resolve day‑to‑day technical problems using standard procedures. Work with stakeholders to gather and analyze requirements for developmental programs. Receives a moderate level of guidance to design applications to meet University and business requirements. Perform code testing on components and work to ensure that appropriate implementation standards are met. Evaluate design alternatives for development cost and solutions using various methods. Support and maintain existing applications. Work with web developers and respond to requests from users. Perform other related work as needed. Minimum Qualifications Education: Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in a related field. Work Experience: Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 2–5 years of work experience in a related job discipline. Preferred Qualifications Advanced Degree in data science, data analytics, computer science, software engineering or related fields strongly preferred. Knowledge and skills developed through 7+ years of work experience in a related job discipline, with a strong emphasis on backend systems. Proven experience building web applications with Python/Django. Working knowledge of C# / .NET frameworks and services. Comfortable working with React.js and modern front‑end tooling. Experience designing and consuming RESTful APIs; understanding of web performance and security principles. Strong database skills with PostgreSQL and/or SQL Server. Familiarity with cloud environments (AWS, Azure, or similar). Preferred Competencies Experience with containerization and orchestration tools (Docker, Kubernetes). Exposure to TypeScript, GraphQL, or other modern web technologies. Familiarity with CI/CD systems (GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, etc.). Prior experience in a startup or rapidly scaling environment. Working Conditions Office Environment. Benefits Benefits Eligible: Yes. The University of Chicago offers a wide range of benefits programs and resources for eligible employees, including health, retirement, and paid time off. Pay Pay Rate Type: Salary Pay Range: $80,000.00 – $120,000.00. The included pay rate or range represents the University’s good faith estimate of the possible compensation offer for this role at the time of posting. Posting Statement The University of Chicago is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or expression, national or ethnic origin, shared ancestry, age, status as an individual with a disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, or other protected classes under the law. For additional information please see the University’s Notice of Nondiscrimination. 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