Senior Software Engineer

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:
 

Grade: Technical 410

Pay Range: $140,200.00 - $217,200.00

Job Description

The Senior Software Engineer is responsible for the research, design, development, analysis, testing, and implementation of software operating or application systems. They communicate project information to client, project manager, or other design personnel working on projects. They maintain good working relationships with clients and staff. They write and maintains complete documentation. They support team members and ensures established goals and deadlines are met. They keep management informed of status and significant problems.

 

Job Duties 

 

• Acts as a technical leader in software engineering, focusing on distributed systems and modular architecture. 

• Leads or influences the decomposition of legacy systems into scalable, cloud-native architectures, including service boundaries, APIs, and data flows. 

• Owns the quality, scalability, and reliability of systems within their domain. 

• Serves as a technical lead for cross-functional initiatives, including the Orc Modularization effort. 

• Provides technical leadership across initiatives, adapting to new systems and priorities as needed. 

• Leads design discussions and reviews, establishing best practices for maintainable, scalable systems.  

• Mentors engineers and contributes to overall team effectiveness.  

• Partners with engineering, product, and business stakeholders to solve system-level challenges.  

• Identifies risks early and drives mitigation strategies.  

• Designs and builds solutions using API-first and service-based architectures, including event-driven patterns where appropriate.  

• Improves observability, performance, and system reliability through monitoring and optimization.  

• Leads rapid diagnosis and resolution of production issues.  

• Balances speed and quality using pragmatic engineering practices.  

• Translates requirements into scalable, maintainable solutions.  

• Drives continuous improvement in technical debt, tooling, and engineering practices.  

• Applies engineering principles across evolving initiatives, ensuring long-term adaptability

Knowledge, Skill, and Abilities: 

 

• Strong foundation in software development, system design, and scalable architecture.  

• Experience designing and