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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 411Pay Range: $157,000.00 - $243,400.00At Western Governors University, we are scaling our engineering organization by investing deeply in internal platforms, developer tooling, and software delivery systems that accelerate how teams build, test, and deploy software. We’re seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the design and evolution of these systems and help define the future of developer experience across the organization.
This is a senior technical leadership role focused on backend systems and internal platforms. You will architect and drive the development of core developer infrastructure—including CI/CD systems, internal APIs, service frameworks, automation tooling, and developer-facing platforms that improve productivity and reliability at scale.
You will operate across teams and domains, influencing architecture, engineering standards, and platform strategy while remaining hands-on in designing and building critical systems.
What You’ll Do
Lead the architecture and development of internal developer platforms, tooling, and backend services
Define technical strategy for developer experience (DevEx), including CI/CD, build systems, and deployment automation
Design and implement scalable backend services and APIs using Java and Python
Establish engineering standards and patterns for internal tooling, service development, and platform integrations
Partner with DevOps and platform teams to evolve infrastructure automation and cloud-native delivery systems
Drive improvements in observability, monitoring, logging, and system diagnostics across engineering platforms
Build and enhance self-service tooling for service provisioning, environments, and deployments
Collaborate with engineering leadership to identify systemic bottlenecks in software delivery and resolve them through platform solutions
Lead cross-team initiatives that improve engineering velocity, reliability, and operational efficiency
Mentor senior and mid-level engineers, providing architectural guidance and technical leadership
Influence long-term platform roadmap and contribute to organizational engineering strategy
Participate in design reviews, technical governance, and large-scale system planning
Required Qualifications
8+ years of professional software engineering experience
Deep expertise in backend development with Java and/or Python
Proven experience building internal platforms, developer tooling, or large-scale infrastructure systems
Strong background in distributed systems, microservices, and API design
Experience designing and scaling CI/CD systems and software delivery pipelines
Strong understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
Experience with Docker and Kubernetes in production environments
Experience building and operating high-reliability backend services
Familiarity with frontend integration using Angular and TypeScript for internal tools
Experience with relational and NoSQL databases
Strong systems thinking and ability to operate across multiple technical domains
Proven ability to influence without authority across engineering organizations
Excellent communication skills and technical leadership capabilities
Preferred Qualifications
Experience in Staff or Principal-level roles in platform engineering or DevEx organizations
Experience building developer portals, internal PaaS systems, or self-service infrastructure
Strong experience with event-driven architectures and message queues
Experience with API gateways, GraphQL, or service mesh technologies
Deep knowledge of observability platforms and SRE practices
Experience with infrastructure-as-code (Terraform or similar)
Experience improving large-scale monorepos or multi-team engineering environments
Background in release engineering or build system optimization
Passion for improving developer productivity at organizational scale
What Success Looks Like
Engineering teams across the organization ship faster with reduced friction
CI/CD and release systems are reliable, scalable, and largely self-service
Developer experience improvements measurably increase engineering productivity
Internal platforms reduce operational burden and eliminate repetitive engineering work
Observability and system insight are standardized across services
Strong alignment between platform engineering and product engineering teams
Architectural consistency and engineering standards improve across the organization
Staff engineer leadership raises the technical bar across multiple teams
Why Join Us?
Opportunity to define and scale internal developer platforms at enterprise level
High-impact role shaping how hundreds of engineers build and ship software
Modern cloud-native architecture with strong investment in platform engineering
Collaborative, engineering-led culture with autonomy and technical ownership
Competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits
Flexible work environment
Significant influence over technical direction and engineering strategy
Mission-driven organization expanding access to education through technology
Position & Application Details
Full-Time Regular Positions (classified as regular and working 40 standard weekly hours): This is a full-time, regular position (classified for 40 standard weekly hours) that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.
How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.
Additional Information
Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It’s not all-inclusive.
Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at recruiting@wgu.edu.
Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.
