Overview:

St. Edward’s University of Austin, Texas seeks a skilled, creative, passionate Web Developer to join its dynamic User Experience / Web Team.  Reporting to the Middleware & User Experience Architect in the Office of Information Technology, the UX/Web Team provides mission critical services to multiple constituencies both internal and external to the university.  The successful candidate will work as a member of a dedicated, professional team charged with imagining, designing, developing and maintaining multiple complex web sites and applications. The team recently completed the first rollout of the University’s mobile application, and is currently working on revising the University’s web presence in the mobile context.  The team provides leadership in the arenas of design, development, application integration, identity management, and user experience as it partners with the university’s administrative application developers to implement a comprehensive set of services unified within a web portal. 

Responsibilities:

The Web Developer has many key responsibilities including:

• Web application maintenance and development

Performing complex web systems/software analysis; assisting and advising team members in solving highly technical web programming problems; designing test data; performing quality assurance to ensure that web applications work and are run efficiently; conducting code reviews; writing standard code; implementing and maintaining highly reliable, available, secure web applications; configuring and maintaining web server middleware, including CMS themes and modules; and maintaining proficiency in all toolsets required to support assigned clients.

• Web application maintenance

Fixing bugs; developing and/or implementing application updates required to accommodate changes in needs, laws, or policy; proactively identifying and suggesting software upgrades; analyzing existing systems; reviewing business processes; and reviewing existing systems and procedures for consistency.

• Web application development

Following basic SDLC steps; designing new web systems and procedures; designing for effective presentation in the mobile context; designing appropriate interfaces with the university’s ERP; documenting design with technical diagrams and specifications; writing efficient code to integrate/interface web services or to provide new functionality; and developing test plans and strategies.

• Collaboration and professionalism

Contributing to committees and workgroups as appropriate; communicating effectively with peers, clients, and managers; collaborating with others in the context of software upgrades, patches and enhancements with a sharp focus on end user experience; showing confidence in one’s own skill while understanding the need for continued professional development and education; showing initiative in application development and maintenance; demonstrating commitment to system uptime, reliability and customer service; and working with the team to ensure software quality and to develop standards and best practices for web application support.

• Project management

Adhering to standard PM methodologies; determining scope of effort and organizing time estimates and tasks; planning, scheduling and meeting deadlines; producing a high volume of work; and managing tasks in accordance with departmental priorities.

• Professional development

Actively seeking opportunities to improve technical skills and business knowledge; participating in the delivery of user training on new or modified web applications; serving as a technical subject matter expert; and mentoring others and sharing knowledge.

Qualifications:

• A minimum of two years experience as a web developer primarily working with PHP or similar object-oriented web scripting language.  Ruby, Python, and/or Java a plus.
• Expertise using standards-compliant XHTML and CSS.  Experience with HTML5 and CSS3 a plus.
• Experience with Javascript.  Experience with jQuery preferred.  Experience with jQuery Mobile a plus.
• Experience with Drupal or similar CMS, including theming and module development.
• Experience with web services and API’s, such as REST and SOAP using XML and JSON.
• Experience with CakePHP, or similar web application frameworks.
• Experience with version control tools, such as Subversion or Git.
• Experience with Eclipse, Espresso, or similar IDEs.
• Experience with web analytics tools.
• Experience with Linux/Unix environments.  Experience with the installation, configuration, and maintenance of the LAMP stack is preferred.  Other open web server platforms a plus.
• Exposure to mobile web design and development.  Experience developing mobile web applications a plus.
• Exposure to cloud services.  Exposure to Rackspace cloud servers a plus.
• Strong understanding and appreciation of web standards, the semantic web, usability and accessibility.
• Demonstrated ability to rapidly learn and apply new technologies, tools, techniques, programming languages and methodologies.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct analysis to achieve efficiency and effectiveness of both new and existing systems.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing to both technical and nontechnical audiences, and to effectively engage clients in a collaborative manner.
• Self motivation and self direction, ability to work independently, ability to work effectively in a team environment, willingness to take direction, ability to participate in group planning processes, ability to prioritize and coordinate multiple assignments and initiatives, commitment to team work processes, ability to meet deadlines.
• College level coursework in a relevant field.  A degree in computer science, management information systems, or other information technology field is preferred.
• Experience working in higher education with an understanding of higher education business practices is preferred.
• Successful completion of an employment and/or criminal history background check is required.
   

About St. Edward's University:

Founded in 1885 by the Congregation of Holy Cross, St. Edward’s University is a private, Catholic liberal arts institution of approximately 5,100 diverse students located in Austin, Texas. It is an exciting time to be part of the St. Edward’s community as the university increases its global engagement to educate students for the opportunities and challenges of a 21st century world.

About the St. Edward’s Web Environment

The university’s web architecture runs on virtualized servers utilizing the LAMP stack.  Our main web properties, including the primary university website, reside on servers in the Rackspace cloud.  Other sites are housed within the university’s on-site VMware infrastructure.  The UX/Web Team has standardized on Drupal as our content management system, CakePHP as our application framework, and jQuery as our javascript framework.  The group maintains a handful of existing applications outside of the standard toolset as well.  Day-to-day development is carried out in various IDEs and a variety of repositories held offsite at Beanstalk.
 

How to Apply:

Qualified applicants are invited to submit a cover letter and resume to:  Web Developer Search Committee, St. Edward’s University, Campus Mail Box 1064, 3001 S. Congress Avenue, Austin, TX  78704.

Staff Application (PDF) »

Operating Principles (PDF) »

Posted on:02/01/2013

<p>St. Edwards University is an equal opportunity employer and hires only U.S. citizens and documented workers.</p>