Senior Developer and Team Lead

Date Posted: 03/17/2025
Req ID: 41589
Faculty/Division: Office of Governing Council
Department: Office of the Governing Council
Campus: St. George (Downtown Toronto)

Description:

Reporting to the Director, Operations, the Senior Developer and Team Lead supports the Office of the Governing Council (OGC) through planning, directing, and coordinating the portfolio’s technology initiatives. In collaboration with the Director, the Team Lead will ensure that IT goals, objectives and activities are aligned to the long-term objectives and strategic direction of the OGC while being transparent about benefits, costs and risks.

This is a hands-on position that plays an integral role in the planning, development, implementation, and management of the portfolio’s technology roadmap. It requires current experience in programming languages in order to perform regular code reviews and occasionally write code. The role directly manages a small team of technical staff who work on website development, content management, and business and quality analysis.

The incumbent provides leadership and technical expertise in the planning, design, production, evaluation, management and maintenance of digital products, websites, databases, case management systems, and other technological enhancements. The Team Lead establishes technical work plans, develops project frameworks and reviews project plans to ensure all milestone events and project deliverables are met. The position requires in-depth knowledge of: website best practices; full website development lifecycle; production of multimedia assets; gathering and analyzing technical requirements, and project management, as well as, experience with/knowledge of database development, physical and logical database design, and data conversion (e.g. PostgreSQL, SQL, MySQL); programming languages and frameworks (e.g.MERN, Javascript, , CSS, SASS, Twig, PHP, YAML, Symfony, Drupal, VBA, MS Power Automate, and MS Dynamics 365); and experience with search technologies like Apache Solr. Experience in creating headless environments required. The incumbent is also responsible for overseeing and maintaining accurate information in the governance portal.

The OGC is comprised of the Secretariat, Appeals, Discipline & Faculty Grievances Office, Office of the Ombudsperson, and Internal Audit. The incumbent will have access to confidential and sensitive information related to all areas of the University’s functioning, and interact with a variety of people including governors, senior administrators, faculty, and staff. Sound judgment, consultative skills, initiative, a solution-oriented mindset, and the ability to maintain confidentiality are a must. 2.

Qualifications Required:

Education: 

• University Degree, in information technology or computer science, and/or a focus on web development, database management or a related field, and/or relevant combination of education and experience.
• PMP certification preferred.
• Agile and Scrum certification preferred.

Experience:

• Five (5) or more years of progressively more responsible work in the field of Information Technology and web production environments; including 4-6 years of technical business requirements analysis experience, and 4-6 years of software project management experience in an Agile environment.
• Team lead experience a strong asset.
• Excellent knowledge of data structures and the impacts of data decisions, using databases such as MS SQL, and other like tools. 
• At least 3 years of hands-on expertise with NodeJS, React, the MERN stack, and MongoDB.
• Proven 3+ years of experience in building and deploying applications using DevOps pipelines. 
• Exceptional communication and negotiation skills, with strong strategic storytelling and presentation capabilities.

Technical Skill: 

• Must have a demonstrated understanding of user-centric design and principles and experience with user focus groups and user needs assessments, AODA accessibility guidelines and mobile-friendly design.
• Experience developing Drupal websites, preferably at an enterprise level. This includes custom theme development and custom module development.
• Experience with digital analytics, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and social media tactics.
• Knowledge of database development/maintenance, physical and logical database design, and data conversion, as well as SharePoint.
• Demonstrated project management and staff/stakeholder management skills, a strong working knowledge and demonstrated experience of NodeJS, React, the MERN stack, TWIG, CSS/Sass, JavaScript, Gulp, Drupal, PHP, Symfony, Git, Gitlab, YAML, Apache Solr, RESTFul Web Service integration, especially on the consumer end, MySQL database design and complex queries, Jira Service Desk and Software, the Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere, After Effects).
• Experience with relational and non-relational databases, specifically including DB2, MongoDB, Microsoft SQL required.
• Experience conducting code reviews.
• Experience with Dynamics 365 and Power Automate or similar systems and/or demonstrated ability to quickly come up to speed on these systems.

Skill: 

• Strong people leadership skills.
• Strong problem-solving, facilitation, communication and collaboration skills.
• Expert strategic planning and project management skills.
• Ability to pay careful attention to detail and work under tight deadlines.
• Detailed knowledge of full website lifecycle development and deployment (including user needs assessment, exploration and discovery, design and production, ongoing maintenance and measurement).
• Ability to analyze requirements, risks, and resources to plan projects and solutions.
• Ability to assess and navigate complex governance structures and stakeholder groups.
• Strong knowledge of accessible design guidelines, best practice in Drupal theme development and cross-browser compatibility.
• Demonstrated skills to simultaneously lead multiple complex projects, with multiple interruptions and conflicting deadlines.

Other: 

• Able to develop effective relationships with all OGC staff, internal and external technology service providers, and be recognized as providing a supporting role.
• Able to identify opportunities to leverage solutions for the OGC and be aware of the associated risks.
• Able to anticipate and understand customer expectations and ensure customer requirements are met and expectations appropriately managed.
• Excellent communication - oral, written and presentation skills.
• Excellent at planning and implementing courses of business action to achieve goals.
• Able to solve problems in a measured and creative way.
• Capable of independently assessing a wide variety of tasks and be proactive in relation to identifying and undertaking activities that are to the benefit of the OGC.
• Be responsible for own decisions.
• Act in a professional manner and exhibit the required behaviour that should act as an example to other employees.
• Good at identifying goals and objectives, and motivating others towards their achievement.
• Must exercise considerable judgment in balancing the competing requirements of the position and in delivering timely advice and service to stakeholders.
• Discretion, tact, sensitivity, political skill and diplomacy are requirements of the job, as are creative problem solving, innovation and process management capability.
• Ability to learn continually under pressure, on own initiative, often without prior training or instructions, to keep abreast of the rapid changes in technologies.

NOTE: Candidates must include a cover letter along with the application. 

This role is currently eligible for a hybrid work arrangement, pursuant to University policies and guidelines, including but not limited to the University of Toronto's Alternative Work Arrangements Guideline.

Closing Date: 03/30/2025, 11:59PM ET
Employee Group: Salaried
Appointment Type: Budget - Continuing
Schedule: Full-Time
Pay Scale Group & Hiring Zone: PM 3 -- Hiring Zone: $91,937 - $107,259 -- Broadband Salary Range: $91,937 - $153,227
Job Category: Information Technology (IT)