Software Engineer - Automation

Job Description

Job Description

About CENIC :

Join the team that connects California to the world advancing education and research statewide by providing the world-class computing network essential for innovation, collaboration, and economic growth.

Our organization operates the California Research and Education Network (CalREN), a high-capacity computer network with more than 8,000 miles of optical fiber.

The network serves over 20 million users across California, including the vast majority of K-20 students together with educators, researchers, and individuals at other vital public-serving institutions.

POSITION SUMMARY :

CENIC's Software Engineer - Automation designs, implements, tests, documents, troubleshoots, and maintains process automations such as CI / CD pipelines and cloud-based application infrastructure, supporting development of software solutions to advance CENIC’s organizational goals and objectives, including support of the CENIC network.

Working as an integral part of an Agile development team, the engineer in this role engages in close and continuous collaboration with the team lead, project managers, subject matter experts, and fellow team members to translate user stories and functional requirements into resilient and secure working solutions.

As needed, the Software Engineer - Automation also works on software development. The engineer in this role keeps abreast of technology trends, participates in technical discussions, contributes to the overall architectural design, and is a key player in the software team’s support of its production applications.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY : None

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS :

In a team environment, develop applications, services, and features, using technologies such as Python, PostgreSQL, Kubernetes, OIDC, and GraphQL

Plan and provision cloud infrastructure for the team’s applications, and maintain deployed applications (e.g. backups, patches, upgrades, monitoring, logging)

Build, maintain, and document CI / CD pipelines to facilitate processes for development and deployment

Participate in on-call for the software engineering team’s production applications

Engage in team efforts on the use of best practices and continuous improvement of processes within our team

Create and maintain appropriate documentation to provide understanding of our designs to readers outside the software engineering team as well as inside, especially documentation needed for support of production applications

Evaluate and plan (in collaboration with the team) software architecture, assessing and recommending appropriate technologies for applications and services with maintainability, scalability, and user experience in mind

Work with end users and other stakeholders on requirements gathering, to participate in translation of basic user stories and functional requirements into resilient and secure technical designs

Engage effectively with other departments to facilitate coordination

Participate in code reviews, providing useful feedback

KEY SUCCESS FACTORS :

Experience in architecting, provisioning, and managing services within a major cloud platform, preferably AWS (or GCP, Azure, etc.),

Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and cloud infrastructure provisioning tools such as Terraform or Pulumi

Familiarity with Docker and container orchestration systems such as Kubernetes

Proficiency in at least one back-end server language such as Python, Java, C++, C#, or Go

Experience in creating pipelines with CI / CD tools such as GitLab or Jenkins

Experience with and understanding of object-oriented design principles

Experience with relational database systems such as PostgreSQL (NoSQL experience such as ElasticSearch, CouchDB, MongoDB, or Redis a plus)

Familiarity with REST APIs and Microservices; GraphQL familiarity is a plus

Emphasis on testing and writing testable code

Ability and motivation to create quality documentation as well as quality software

Aptitude for understanding technical information, and interest in learning about networking concepts

Strong skills in analysis and problem-solving

Ability to prioritize tasks in a dynamic environment is valuable

Strong interpersonal skills, providing ability to work well in a diverse team-oriented environment and to mentor less experienced engineers

REQUIRED EDUCATION AND / OR EXPERIENCE :

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field

At least 3 years of full-time software engineering experience

One or more years of cloud infrastructure management experience

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE :

Experience working in Agile / SCRUM teams

Experience working with version control systems, preferably git

Experience with Unix-like operating systems such as Linux or MacOS

Experience working with package managers such as Maven, PyPI, and NPM

Familiarity with front-end web technologies (HTML, JS, CSS)

Familiarity with authentication / authorization technologies such as LDAP, OAuth2 / OIDC, SAML

WHY WORK AT CENIC?

Company Culture : Small teams and a collaborative environment provide the opportunity to make a large impact in a small organization.

Workplace Flexibility : We understand that the world is changing and we're open to remote and hybrid work options.

Community Engagement : We work with research and education institutions in the largest state economy in the United States.

The work you do has meaning.

Health Benefits : We have generous medical benefits as well as dental, vision, and life insurance.

Paid Time Off : We offer liberal vacation, holiday, and sick leave.

Investment in Your Future : CENIC contributes to your 403(b) even if you don't. We also offer matching contributions on top of that.

WORK ENVIRONMENT :

This position operates in a professional office environment with standard office equipment including computers, telephones, photocopiers and filing cabinets.

WORK AUTHORIZATION :

Documented Proof of identity and legal eligibility to work in the United States.

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.