A cover letter is required for consideration for this position and should be attached as the first page of your resume. The cover letter should address your specific interest in the position and outline skills and experience that directly relate to this position. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.

The School of Information is looking for an Intermediate Research Programmer (Full Stack) to support the research activities of the Educational Technology Collective. The ideal applicant has a strong software engineering background and understands how back-end systems are supported by and connected to relational databases to form innovative, responsive, and usable web applications. This position is both an excellent opportunity for a career programmer to work in an independant fast paced innovative environment as well as for technical individuals who aim to gain further experience in research and co-authorship on scientific publications.

The Educational Technology Collective is a research lab within the School of Information led by Dr. Christopher Brooks and made up of a breadth of interdisciplinary postdoctoral fellows, PhD students, Master’s and undergraduate students, and other collaborators. 

For more information on the Educational Technology Collective, please visit our website.

The lab’s focus is on building data-driven educational experiences, largely in the area of data science education, and the successful applicant will work as part of the loosely coupled team to design, build, deploy, and maintain novel web-based educational technologies to support a variety of research initiatives. Current projects in the lab include web-based collaborative data science editors, machine learning models of student activity and success, and large scale data collection and processing environments. The candidate hired into this position will support these projects and more through software development and support, including the architecting of complex full stack applications, contributions to open source projects (e.g. Jupyter), and maintenance of research servers (cloud and on prem).

• A Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent combination of education, certification and experience

• Strong knowledge and demonstrated experience with front-end web technologies (e.g. JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Typescript), back-end service technologies (e.g. python, node), and supporting database technologies (e.g. MySQL, Postgres, Redshift, Mongo)

• Understanding of software development methods (e.g. git, versioning, releasing, bug tracking) and core software engineering functions (e.g. APIs, refactoring)

• Demonstrated organizational, interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills

• Able to problem solve effectively with minimum guidance

• 1-3 years of professional experience

• Advanced degree in related field

• Either on-premise or cloud dev-ops experience

• Experience contributing to open source software

• Experience handling sensitive data

• Experience supporting or engaging in academic publishing

• Applicants are encouraged to highlight specific experience they may have with the following technologies: docker, AWS, kubernetes, and linux/system shell programming.

• 3-5 years of professional experience

Punctual, regular, and consistent attendance is required.  May require working during non-business hours and on weekends.

This position may work with and/or support systems that maintain or process sensitive institutional data as defined by university policy.  Successful candidates must comply with federal, state, and local law, and/or university policies or agreements that require the university to implement specific privacy and security safeguards, including but not limited to ITAR, EAR, HIPAA, FERPA, and FISMA.  This position is responsible for protecting data and information from unauthorized release or from loss, alteration, or unauthorized deletion; and following applicable regulations and instructions regarding access to computerized files and release of data internally or externally to the University of Michigan.  

NOTE:  This is a one-year term limited appointment with the anticipation of extension pending funding, availability of work, and satisfactory job performance.

The University of Michigan conducts background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer and may use a third party administrator to conduct background checks.  Background checks are performed in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Job openings are posted for a minimum of seven calendar days.  The review and selection process may begin as early as the eighth day after posting. This opening may be removed from posting boards and filled anytime after the minimum posting period has ended.

The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

U-M COVID-19 Vaccination Policy

COVID-19 vaccinations, including one booster when eligible, are required for all University of Michigan students, faculty and staff across all campuses, including Michigan Medicine.  This includes those working remotely and temporary workers.   More information on this new policy is available on the U-M Health Response website or the UM-Dearborn and UM-Flint websites.

About University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

A great university is made so by its faculty and staff, and Michigan is recognized as one of the best universities to work for in the country. The Michigan culture is known for engaging faculty and staff in all facets of the university to create a workplace that is vibrant and stimulating.For two consecutive years, the Chronicle of Higher Education has placed U-M in its "Great Colleges to Work For" survey. In particular, the university earns high marks for strong relations between faculty and administrators, a collaborative system of governance, strong pay and benefits, and a healthy work/life balance.

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