Lead Web Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

ABOUT ULIThe Urban Land Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and education organization supported by its members. Founded in 1936, the Institute has more than 48,000 members worldwide representing the full spectrum of land use and real estate development disciplines across private enterprise and public service. ULI's mission is to shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide.ABOUT THE TEAMULI's Data & Digital Products team builds the data, apps, and web platforms that ULI members and staff use every day. It is a small, engineering-led team organized around three areas: data, applications, and web. This role leads the web side.THE ROLEULI's web presence has grown to more than 100 sites, mostly on WordPress and hosted in Azure. Over the years it has become a tangle of microsites with inconsistent look and feel, dated navigation, and no shared design system, and the member experience has not kept pace. ULI is now rebuilding its web portfolio in phases, with the goal of bringing uli.org and its many connected sites together into a single, modern platform.The Lead Web Engineer is the hands-on engineer at the center of that work. During the rebuild, expect to spend the large majority of your time, around 85 to 90 percent, writing code, building prototypes, and shipping. You won't be chasing stakeholders for requirements. ULI's in-house project management team handles requirements gathering and stakeholder alignment. They bring you the business objective, for example a dynamic homepage that serves members, non-members, and staff differently, and you decide how to deliver it: the technical approach, the architecture, the scope, and the timeline.Alongside the rebuild, you will own ULI's Azure web hosting and security layer, oversee the web services ticket queue with the support of one direct report, and become the primary developer on a growing set of digital products for members and staff. Much of the day-to-day site maintenance that ULI currently sends to outside contractors will come in-house through this role.This role suits someone who enjoys taking a complicated system apart, working out how it really works, and putting it back together better.WHAT YOU WILL DOThe uli.org rebuild

• Work out how uli.org and its connected sites function today, and lead the technical work to consolidate them into one site for members, non-members, and staff
• Turn business objectives from the project management team into technical solutions: recommend the approach, scope the work, estimate timelines, and design the architecture
• Build prototypes and present them to stakeholders to test ideas early
• Implement the information architecture and content models, and build the templates behind them
• Plan and run content migration, redirects, and search continuity so nothing is lost at launch
• Set up measurement for the new site, including GA4, Google Tag Manager, and Core Web Vitals targets
• Help ULI decide whether to move to a single CMS, including options such as Umbraco, and explain the trade-offs clearly

• Write, review, and maintain production code across ULI's web properties, including custom themes, templates, plugins, and integrations
• Build and maintain WordPress implementations, including the block editor, custom post types, taxonomies, and multisite
• Design and build REST APIs and integrations so web properties can read from and write back to ULI's databases and other systems, including netFORUM
• Build to WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility standards as a default, not an afterthought
• Put version control, testing, code review, and documentation practices in place across ULI's web codebases

• Own ULI's Azure web hosting, including App Services, storage, and networking
• Own the edge and security layer: CDN, WAF rules, bot and DDoS mitigation, DNS, and TLS certificates
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines, staging environments, and deployment workflows
• Monitor site health, set uptime and performance targets, and respond to incidents

• Act as primary developer on digital products for members and staff, working from direction and scope set by your manager, with code review support
• Support the launch and hosting of new platforms, such as ULI's research and knowledge tools, and make sure they connect cleanly with uli.org, the member app, and other web properties
• Keep the look, feel, and flow consistent across ULI's digital products

• Oversee the web services ticket queue, taking on the more complex requests and larger properties, from Google Analytics to website changes
• Bring ongoing site maintenance and updates in-house, reducing reliance on outside contractors
• Manage and mentor one direct report, the Senior Administrator, Web Services, and agree together how work is shared
• Review work delivered by outside agencies and developers, and hold it to agreed standards
• Work closely with ULI's software, data, and project management colleagues on shared standards and delivery

We care more about what you can build than how many years you've been doing it. If you have the skills below and can show us your work, we want to hear from you, whatever stage of your career you're at. 

Required

• Progressive, hands-on experience in web development and web platform ownership
• A portfolio, GitHub, or other examples of production web work you personally built
• Deep WordPress expertise, including the block editor, custom post types, taxonomies, and multisite
• Experience building and running websites and web applications on Microsoft Azure
• Experience designing and consuming REST APIs and building integrations between systems
• Experience building accessible websites to WCAG 2.2 AA
• The ability to explain technical options, trade-offs, and risks clearly to non-technical colleagues
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, information systems, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience

Preferred

• Experience leading or working on a CMS migration from one platform to another, not just an upgrade
• Experience with Umbraco or another .NET CMS (solid experience with any major CMS is a good start)
• Experience consolidating many websites into a single platform
• Experience mentoring or supervising technical staff
• Experience working with external development agencies or contractors
• Familiarity with association management or CRM systems such as netFORUM or iMIS
• Experience with headless or decoupled CMS implementations
• Association, membership organization, or nonprofit experience

In your first 90 days, you will have got to grips with how uli.org and its connected sites work today and started to untangle them. You'll have a clear view of what's technically possible, and you'll be scoping the work and sharing early prototypes with stakeholders. You'll also be learning how staff use ULI's web properties through the ticket queue and helping to resolve their requests.

By six months, the rebuild is moving at full speed with your technical direction behind it, and you're starting to contribute to ULI's other digital products.

Looking further ahead, success is a fully rebuilt web portfolio, delivered in phases: one consolidated uli.org that is faster, more secure, accessible, and easier for members to use, with ongoing maintenance handled in-house rather than by contractors.

The salary range for this position is $120,281 to $140,000. Actual compensation will be based on experience, education, skills, and other job-related factors. 

ULI offers a comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, and life insurance; generous vacation leave; and retirement plan with employer match.

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) is committed to shaping the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide, and we embrace our core values of integrity, collaboration, inclusion, and excellence in service to our members. In alignment with the Board of Directors' strong commitment to in-person collaboration, our roles require regular on-site presence to foster teamwork, innovation, and organizational effectiveness. ULI's primary workplace remains its offices, where in-person collaboration supports our mission and service to members.

ULI is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion/creed, sex, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, veteran or active military status, non-citizenship or citizenship status, arrest or conviction record, credit history, caregiver status, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or partnership status, familial status, unemployment status, or any other status protected by applicable law.