Front-end Web Developer

Location: Madison, Wisconsin
Department: COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL & LIFE SCIENCES/OFFICE OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
Category: Information Technology
Employment Type: Partially Remote
Employment Type: Staff-Full Time
Application Period Opens: Aug 16 2024 at 2:35 PM CDT
Apply By: Sep 9 2024 at 11:55 PM CDT
Job Number: 303324-AS
Job Summary:
The Office of External Relations in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) is seeking a Front-end Web Developer to join our team and play a key role in developing, supporting and optimizing the college's web service offerings (web hosting, web development, user support, and project management) in support our mission to deliver high-quality, accessible and engaging web experiences.

Under the direction of the Web Services Manager, the position will work both independently and collaboratively to develop, implement, support and maintain web services for the college, including the web hosting platform, design systems, user web support, and priority web projects for the Dean's office and throughout CALS. This position is highly collaborative and requires strong communication and organizational skills.

The work of the web services team benefits faculty, researchers, staff, and students within the college. This encompasses design, development, and code maintenance of themes, plugins, web components (blocks) and design patterns, as well as the operation of the CALS WordPress web hosting platform in collaboration with WiscWeb. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to learn while working as part of a team to design, develop and maintain high quality, accessible and performant web experiences.

The day-to-day work is varied and includes design, development and improvement of WordPress themes, plugins, web components, design/UX projects, building and curating our UI web pattern library, and other design systems. Core responsibilities also involve WordPress multisite platform management, technical web support, consultation with site owners, technical project management, assisting with code maintenance and security updates using GitLab CI/CD, and participating in the continuous improvement of team workflows, web platform support processes, and user experience of CALS websites across the college. Additional opportunities may include helping to facilitate our web content creators community, and supporting digital accessibility initiatives.

The College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) is committed to maintaining and growing a culture that embraces diversity, inclusion, and equity, believing that these values are foundational elements of our excellence and fundamental components of a positive and enriching learning and working environment for all students, faculty, and staff. At CALS, we acknowledge that bias, prejudice, racism, and hate have historically occurred in many forms that cause significant and lasting harm to members of our community. We commit to taking actions each day toward a college that is inclusive and welcoming to all.

Responsibilities:
Assists in design, development, testing, debugging, operating, and troubleshooting of software and applications to support information technology business operations.
20% Reviews application design specifications, codes new applications, and makes enhancements to existing applications
20% Tests and debugs programs, and prepares systems test data
10% Prepares program documentation and training requirements
20% Maintains and troubleshoots applications, systems, or websites
10% Implements data structure and systems performance strategies
10% Serve as a subject matter expert for web clients (via meetings, email, or support ticketing system) to design and/or recommend technical solutions that meet business needs and maintains brand standards
5% Stay current with innovations in areas of interest around web design, development, WordPress, and accessibility in order to strategize for the continuous improvement of user experiences and web service workflows and processes
5% Ensures web services quality, performance, and compliance with accessibility (WCAG compliance), security, privacy, brand and other university requirements and laws
Institutional Statement on Diversity:
Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.

For more information on diversity and inclusion on campus, please visit: Diversity and Inclusion

Education:
Preferred
Bachelor's Degree

Qualifications:
Required Qualifications:
-Minimum 2 years of web development/design experience
-Demonstrated front-end development with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP
-Experience developing WordPress themes and plugins
-User-centered design principles and website development processes, particularly those that enhance user experience and website
-Experience debugging and troubleshooting complex technical problems to find effective solutions
-Customer service or technical consulting experience
-Developing and improving web solutions that meet WCAG (Web Content Accessibility) guidelines
-Demonstrated experience optimizing websites and web applications for performance and responsiveness, and security
-Modern front-end web tooling and developer workflows such as git version control, GitHub/GitLab, CI/CD, npm, Webpack, Parcel, Babel, gulp, or similar tooling
-Experience designing sites that adhere to brand standards

Preferred Qualifications:
-Experience with building and maintaining WordPress Gutenberg blocks and block-based themes
-Experience administering WordPress sites and/or multisite installations
-Experience with RESTful APIs
-Managing and prioritizing projects from start to finish
-Accurately turning design concepts into working, responsive interfaces and web components with essential web technologies
-Experience with web hosting, server management, and cloud services
-Working experience with digital marketing tools for the web
-Experience using Git version control as part of a team to manage a codebase and collaborate with other developers.

Work Type:
Full Time: 100%

This position may allow for some work to be performed remotely, at an offsite, non-campus work location. The selected candidate may choose to work fully on-site.

Appointment Type, Duration:
Ongoing/Renewable

Salary:
Minimum $60,000 ANNUAL (12 months)
Depending on Qualifications
The minimum salary for this position is $60,000. However, final salary will depend on experience and qualifications. Employees in this position can expect to receive benefits such as generous vacation, holidays, and paid time off; competitive insurances and savings accounts; retirement benefits. Additional benefits information can be found at: https://www.wisconsin.edu/ohrwd/benefits/download/fasl.pdf.

Additional Information:
-Criminal Background Check may be required
-Evaluation Period may be required
-The successful applicant will be responsible for ensuring eligibility for employment in the United States by the start of the appointment. University sponsorship is not available for this position.

How to Apply:
Click on the "Apply Online" button to start the application process. You will be prompted to upload the following documents/Application Materials:

Resume (required) - Detail your educational and professional background.

Cover letter (required) - Refer to your related work experience.

Document reflecting your related web work (required) - Provide a document with 3-5 links to recent web development projects, or coding/design artifacts that demonstrate your work. Also please provide a sentence describing your contributions to each project within the document.

It's important that your cover letter and resume reflect your experience for this position related to the Qualifications section. Your application materials will be used during our evaluation to determine your qualifications as they relate to the job. The most qualified applicants will be invited to participate in the next step of the selection process.

We recognize that qualified applicants come from a variety of backgrounds, life experiences, and levels of educational access. We encourage you to apply even if you don't match all preferred qualifications listed above.