Job Description

About JMU:

James Madison University is a publicly funded university with a beautiful campus and a supportive community that is committed to preparing students for the future. The university offers excellent comprehensive benefits which include paid vacation, sick, parental, and community service leave in addition to 19 paid holidays a year; affordable health insurance; retirement through the Virginia Retirement System. We also offer a work-life balance and integration program, Balanced Dukes, that is designed to support the overall wellbeing of our employees and a Tuition Waiver Program that allows employees to have tuition waived for undergraduate and graduate level courses taken at JMU.

Visit our Prospective Employee site to learn more about what makes JMU a great place to work: bit.ly/JMUEmployment



General Information:

Chief Objective:
Lead the web presence development of the University, focusing on web-based applications and technologies, surfaced via a Content Management System (CMS), and incorporating multiple applications created with Python, Java, HTMS, SQL and other technologies. Promote inclusive and accessible design, compatible with State and Federal Standards. Contribute to creation and implementation of hosting and cloud strategies. Manage staff by communicating job expectations, planning, monitoring, and appraising performance.

Primary Purpose:
Partner with university stakeholders to design, develop, and maintain multiple, complex, web-delivered applications and sites, including performing integrations, creating user acceptance tests and documentation of solutions. Partner with the user community to analyze existing web-based business processes and identify areas for process improvement. Provide expertise in collaboration tools and certain communication tools.

This position can be in-person or hybrid and is full telework eligible.



Duties and Responsibilities:

Management:

Provides leadership, day- to-day supervision, performance evaluation, guidance, and encouragement to the assigned staff .

Motivates staff and supports the efforts of the department in development and successful delivery of departmental goals, and all relevant goals in the broader context of web technologies at JMU.

Responsible for vendor management and liaison as the key JMU contact for web (Cascade), web compliance tool (Dubbot), and video meetings (Zoom), conducting troubleshooting, managing license issues, and preparing for contract changes as needed.

Leadership for Development of Web Applications:

Takes the technology lead on developing web applications and selecting the right technology for the work. Determines the best code platform from Python, Java, HTML, SQL and other languages, based on extensive knowledge of the benefits of each.

Uses expertise in CMS to present all applications. Specifies and delivers system designs, enhancements, and integrations. Leads developments using the Software Development Life Cycle model.

Takes a lead role in applying Accessibility standards, and using accessibility tools, across campus, ensuring the university maintains Accessibility compliance with federal, state and industry best practices/standards such as WCAG and Section 508.
During development, give attention to an excellent user experience, innovative features, and consistent look and feel.

Designs and prepares comprehensive user acceptance tests with input from the user community. Full responsibility is taken for complete and thorough testing, both functional and technical.

Serves as a subject matter expert to developers, other technical staff, and users, including knowledge contributions to any enterprise system with web components or presentation layers, including Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and ERP systems. Works across all of IT.

Stakeholder relationships and business process analysis:

Builds effective relationships with key stakeholders by developing a strong understanding of business processes and desired business objectives.

Partners with Information Systems Business Analysts and the relevant user community to document, analyze, communicate, and validate new application/system requirements. Analyze existing business processes and identify areas for applying additional/new application functionality.

Strive for efficiency in application development, encourage re-use of application methodology where feasible, as well as taking advantage of all new functionality.

Articulates Web platform and Web applications capabilities in consultation with Information Systems management.

Customer Support:

Works closely and communicate often with customers when developing new applications.

Provides timely feedback on the progress of projects.

Creates user documentation in support of complex application functions, and share as part of training on use of new applications

Maintains application and functional business process knowledge to quickly resolve production issues.

Provides expert support to IT Training.



Qualifications:

Required Qualifications:
- Advanced knowledge and extensive experience of web content management platform technologies, including Cascade
- Advanced knowledge and extensive experience in web application development with a range of tools and languages
- Advanced knowledge of the entire software development life cycle
- Advanced knowledge of information systems/information technology and cloud hosting trends
- Knowledge of customer service best practices
- Knowledge of online video meeting platforms, including Zoom
- Experience managing a technical IT Team

Additional Considerations:
- Substantial experience designing, developing, and maintaining web-based applications with web languages such as Python, PHP, HTML, CSS, Perl, JavaScript, and PostgreSQL / MySQL.
- Familiarity with web application testing and debugging.
- Substantial experience with content management platform delivery and maintenance
- In-depth understanding of the entire web development process (design, development, and deployment).
- Understanding of layout aesthetics, usability across multiple device types, and accessibility standards
- An ability to perform well in a fast-paced environment with strong analytical and multitasking skills.
- Willingness to troubleshoot and solve complex problems.
- Strong communication skills to effectively collaborate with designers, developers, peers, stakeholders, and vendors