"Technical Lead - Community for Rigor (C4R) - Penn Engineering"

Job Description Summary

The Community for Rigor (C4R) is a growing and innovative team at the University of Pennsylvania dedicated to changing research culture by providing comprehensive educational materials, promoting best practices, and fostering a community committed to improving research reliability. Community for Rigor is a 5-year funded project from NIH NINDS, and operates as a hub that coordinates the efforts of multiple partner institutions.

We are seeking a Technical Lead to guide the development of our web-based educational platform. This role combines technical leadership, team leadership, and hands-on development, providing vision and mentorship for a team of two programmers while actively contributing to code and architecture. The ideal candidate will balance building complex interactive educational applications with managing a small, highly collaborative development team in a startup-like environment.

Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Architecture

• Architect scalable and interactive web applications using React, Next.js, TypeScript/JavaScript, Node.js.
• Guide database design and optimization (MongoDB preferred).
• Oversee backend development including authentication, APIs, and integrations.
• Ensure responsive, accessible, and visually engaging UI/UX.
• Manage deployments and CI/CD workflows (Vercel, GitHub/GitLab, AWS).
• Troubleshoot and optimize applications for performance, scalability, and security.

Team Leadership & Management

• Lead weekly team meetings, track progress, and align priorities with organizational goals.
• Assign tasks, monitor progress, and ensure timely delivery of high-quality software.
• Mentor and support two developers, conduct code reviews, and maintain best practices in modern web development.
• Facilitate decision-making and provide final guidance on technical directions.
• Cross-functional collaboration:
  • with curriculum designers to understand educational goals and translate them into technical specifications
  • with user experience and research to implement findings and integrate feedback into technical solutions

Hands-On Development

• Contribute directly to frontend and backend codebases.
• Build interactive, game-like learning web applications and features.
• Collaborate with the team on testing, debugging, and deployment.
• Maintain and extend our public-facing Webflow CMS site.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and 5+ years of experience
• Demonstrated strong experience developing products and completing projects with JavaScript/TypeScript, React, Next.js, HTML/CSS
• Full-stack expertise with Node.js and MongoDB.
• Proven experience leading or managing a development team.
• Knowledge of Agile/Scrum workflows.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, GitHub/GitLab, Docker, and deployment platforms (Vercel, AWS).
• Ability to communicate effectively with non-technical stakeholders, balancing and prioritizing feedback from multiple stakeholders with transparency.
• Experience building highly interactive web applications (e.g. educational software, puzzles, games design, simulations)
• Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Copilot, Cursor, Claude, etc.).

Preferred / Nice-to-Have

• Strong UI/UX design sense for creating intuitive, responsive, user-friendly web applications.
• Proven ability to translate non-technical requirements and design goals into technical specifications.
• Experience integrating LLMs into web applications.
• Familiarity with Webflow CMS and cloud hosting platforms (AWS, Vercel).
• Familiarity with Python.
• Educational technology or e-learning platform experience
• Knowledge or experience in academic/research settings.

Job Location - City, State

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Resume and Cover Letter Description

Please provide a resume and cover letter in your application. We use these documents to understand your experience and who you are as an individual. Your resume should include recent positions, descriptions of what you did in each role, and any relevant skills. Your cover letter should describe why you are interested in joining C4R, your connection to its mission, how your prior experience has prepared you for the various aspects of this role (technical background, leadership experience, etc), and your vision for leading a development team. Please keep cover letters to two pages or less. Applications without a cover letter will not be considered.

Please submit both a resume and a cover letter as part of your application. These documents help us understand your experience and who you are as an individual. Applications without a cover letter will not be considered.

• Your resume should include recent positions, descriptions of your responsibilities and achievements in each role, and any relevant technical skills.
• Your cover letter should also explain why you are interested in joining C4R, how your prior experience has prepared you for this role (technical expertise, leadership background, etc.), and your vision for leading a development team. Cover letters should be no more than two pages. Applications without a cover letter will not be considered.
• We strongly encourage applicants to share a portfolio, GitHub account(s), or other examples of previous work. A cover letter that explains what is included in your portfolio/GitHub/examples of work is sufficient. If you cannot provide a portfolio or code samples, your cover letter should instead describe the work you've done, your successes, and the technical challenges you've faced and how you solved them. We are particularly interested in detailed examples of projects built with Next.js, Node.js, and related technologies, including performance optimizations and problem-solving approaches.

Timeline

We intend to have the position start in early to mid November. Please indicate when you are able to start in your application materials.

Department / School

School of Engineering and Applied Science

Pay Range

$100,000.00 - $125,000.00 Annual Rate
Salary offers are made based on the candidate's qualifications, experience, skills, and education as they directly relate to the requirements of the position, and in alignment with salary ranges based on external market data for the job's level. Internal organization and peer data at Penn are also considered.

Equal Opportunity Statement

The University of Pennsylvania is an equal opportunity employer. Candidates are considered for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, creed, national origin (including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics), citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status or any class protected under applicable federal, state or local law.

Special Requirements

Background checks may be required after a conditional job offer is made. Consideration of the background check will be tailored to the requirements of the job.