Lead Django Developer

Department

BSD SUR - OHNS: Thirty Million Words

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, with a priority placed on that of children living in poverty. TMW Center interventions are designed to be overlaid onto 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 TMW Center is seeking a highly experienced and proactive Python and Django Developer to contribute to the design and development of our web and mobile applications. In this role, you will be responsible for creating robust backend systems that seamlessly integrate with frontend components to ensure efficient and effective data transactions. You will also serve as technical team lead to establish best-in-class observability and support functions.

Responsibilities

• Develops and maintains the architecture of applications to ensure scalability and performance.

• Writes clean, reusable, and efficient code while adhering to best practices.

• Builds and implements high-performance, low-latency, and highly available applications.

• Collaborates with frontend developers to integrate user-facing components with server-side logic.

• Implements security measures and data protection protocols to safeguard sensitive information.

• Integrates and manages data storage solutions, ensuring seamless data flow and accessibility.

• Serves as team lead to proactively identify issues prior to end user impact as well as coordinates and advises on issue resolution

• Designs new systems, features, and tools. Solves complex problems and identifies opportunities for technical improvement and performance optimization. Reviews and tests code to ensure appropriate standards are met.

• Utilizes technical knowledge of existing and emerging technologies, including public cloud offerings from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

• Acts as a technical consultant and resource for faculty research, teaching, and/or administrative projects.

• Performs other related work as needed.

Minimum Qualifications

Education:

Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.

Work Experience:

Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 5-7 years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Certifications:

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Preferred Qualifications 

Technical Skills or Knowledge:

• Proficiency in Python with substantial experience in Django.

• Knowledge of Python threading constraints and multi-process architecture.

• Familiarity with AWS and Docker for building scalable applications.

• Basic understanding of frontend technologies including JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS3.

Preferred Competencies

• Skilled in combining multiple data sources and databases into a cohesive system.

• Experience processing large amounts of data logs using spark, ray or similar technologies.

• Awareness of security and accessibility regulations.

• Experience with user authentication and managing authorization across various systems.

• Understanding of core design principles for scalable applications.

• Ability to differentiate between mobile and desktop delivery platforms and optimize accordingly.

• Experience in developing database schemas to support business operations.

• Strong unit testing and debugging skills.

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively with frontend engineers, product owners, and QA teams.

• Strong analytical skills and the ability to troubleshoot and resolve issues efficiently.

• Self-starter with the ability to work independently and take ownership of projects.

Application Documents

• Resume/CV (required)

• Cover Letter (required)

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