Manager, IT Software Development

Information Technology Services Department

Position Description

Supervised by:Director of Information Technology Services

Supervises:Application / Web Development Team / Software Development Contractors

Status:Full-Time / Exempt

Location:National Service Center, Madison, WI

To advance the purpose of InterVarsity, this position will provide leadership, hands-on knowhow, and management to deliver IT Software projects and technology systems to empower the operational and strategic goals of the Fellowship in alignment with InterVarsity technology strategy. The role will collaborate closely with the IT Services Director to accelerate the mission of InterVarsity through leading and inspiring the software development function of IT.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

Spiritual Growth:

  • Be a maturing disciple of Jesus Christ: growing in love for God, God’s Word, God’s people of every ethnicity and culture, and God’s purposes in the world.
  • Be a lifelong learner who prizes the discipleship of the mind; particularly staying current on issues of IT software development, web-based software security best practices, and business practices within ministry.
  • Participate in the spiritual life of the NSC, such as chapels, prayer sessions and community events.

Leadership:

  • Lead and inspire the IT software development team, and assist the IT Services Director in developing a highly effective and unified team that clearly understands its mission and purpose within the context of InterVarsity’s mission and purpose.
  • Establish, monitor, and encourage behaviours and processes to ensure software system reliability, stability, security, and accessibility with the target goal of no business impacting outages; only scheduled maintenance outages; target metric 100% uptime.
  • Model good stewardship of organizational resources (e.g., people, time, money, systems, andmaterials).
  • Establish and maintain the standards for software development, testing and deploymentby creating and implementing appropriate policies and procedures, in coordination with IT Services Director and management.
  • Serve on the Information Technology Services Leadership Team and provide input and direction into the IT Services planning, management, and processes.
  • Work closely with the IT Services Director on system architecture and technology strategy.

Supervision:

  • Recruit, hire, train, develop, supervise, and retain qualified staff.
  • Provide regular encouragement, accountability, and ongoing feedback on individual performance.
  • Train all appropriate employees, contractors, partners, and other third parties with software development processes and on the information security policies and procedures.
  • Ensure performance reviews are conducted for each supervisee annually.
  • Ensure cross-training for all team functions, and advance personal and staff learning and competency by encouraging and helping facilitate study, training, conferences, research and experimentation.
  • Ensure compliance with all InterVarsity policies and procedures.
  • Manage and leverage relationships with 3rd party vendors to ensure achievement of team goals. In addition, responsible for vendor management activities including service agreements and staff augmentation SOWs.

Applications Development Manager:

  • Lead and coordinate the efforts of software / application developers.
  • Manage development projects according to budgets, schedules, personnel and objectives.
  • Understand and recommend effective business solutions in terms of benefits versus costs, and custom development versus use of open source or purchase of commercial applications based on business requirements.
  • Advocate for solutions that best reflect the needs of the appropriate users and InterVarsity.
  • Proactively ensure stablity by supervising efforts to determine root cause of software related issues, and ensure that risk mittigation efforts are completed for recurring problems until permanent solutions are found.
  • Maintain detailed working knowledge of the underlying data flow, structure, and processes of key business systems.
  • Stay current on technology and security and their appropriate uses in ministry through study, training, conferences, research and experimentation.
  • Ensure appropriate testing strategies and plans and effectively manage application upgrades, changes, releases and implementations.
  • Ensure compliance with regulations related to application development (ex. PCI, CAN-SPAM).

Software Development:

  • Devise or modify operating procedures, or software code, to solve complex problems considering computer equipment capacity, and resource limitations, business priorities, and desired results.

Develop and maintain API based integrations between multiple websites, internal and external systems.

Design software application solutions using best practice methods and appropriate technologies.

Maintain working knowledge of core development platforms like Workday, Salesforce, Drupal and Amazon Web Services.

Support InterVarsity’s Drupal content management system and methods.

Install and configure Drupal sites and modules, including custom module development and maintenance.

Develop and maintain Chef cookbooks within InterVarsity cloud infrastructure.

Cross-train IT operations team on day-to-day needs of cloud infrastructure.

Handle sensitive data with appropriate security and confidentiality.

Fund Development and Public Relations:

  • Develop a team of prayer and financial support.
  • Raise annually an agreed-upon amount of financial support.
  • Establish and nurture ministry partner relationships through visits, phone calls and regular prayer and thank-you letters.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

  • Strong communications including documentation, facilitation, interpersonal, written and verbal skills.
  • Proficiency with HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
  • Working knowledge of integration platforms and APIs (Workday, Salesforce, Microsoft).
  • Proficiency with web programming language like PHP, Ruby or .NET.
  • Proficiency with some SQL-based query language.
  • Proficiency in web usability, design and browser testing.
  • Proficiency with a content management system such as Drupal or WordPress.
  • Proficiency with a version control system such as GIT or SVN.
  • Working knowledge of Linux servers and applications, Apache and MySQL.
  • Working knowledge of a cloud based hosting service such as AWS or Microsoft Azure.
  • Working knowledge with a configuration management tool such as Chef or Puppet.
  • Working knowledge of a coding frameworks such as Symphony.
  • Thorough understanding of web usability, design, development, testing and security.
  • Project management and client management skills.
  • Database design, normalization and performance tuning.

QUALIFICATIONS:

  • Annually affirm InterVarsity’s Statement of Faith.
  • Bachelor’s degree required; Computer Science or technology-related major preferred.
  • 10+ years software development experience.
  • Evening and weekend availability for special projects, occasional travel and emergencies.

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA

Frame of Reference

All staff members subscribe annually to the Purpose Statement of InterVarsity:

In response to God’s love, grace and truth:

The purpose of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA is

to establish and advance at colleges and universities

witnessing communities of students and faculty

who follow Jesus as Savior and Lord:

growing in love for God,

God’s Word,

God’s people of every ethnicity and culture

and God’s purposes in the world.

This purpose is admittedly more limited than the Great Commission. As a mission extension of the local church, we have adopted boundaries on our activities based on our call to serve a defined group of God’s people. Within the context of InterVarsity’s purpose, all of the relationships and tasks that staff members engage in as part of their work for InterVarsity have both eternal and temporal components.

Values:

InterVarsity is committed to developing men and women from diverse cultures, backgrounds, and generations, whom God calls to work with us for both shorter and longer periods of service, as we pursue the call of God in the university world.

Maturing Disciple of Jesus Christ:

Every InterVarsity staff member is to be a maturing disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, growing in obedience to the Scriptures. The marks of a long-term love relationship with Christ in the fullness of His Spirit are described in Galatians 5:22: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” In the workplace, this fruit is revealed in healthy working relationships which encourage all staff to accomplish their work and enhance their focus on the spiritual aspects of their work.

Team Work:

Each individual staff person is a vital member of Christ’s body. This means that we will work with one another in ways that honor and encourage all to grow in Christ while accomplishing His work. Our community requires that each individual serve as a team member in a collegial and open environment based on values, relationships, and vision as well as structure and position.

InterVarsity staff, both employees and volunteers, commit to serve God and all InterVarsity colleagues, students, and partners, with sensitivity to both the eternal and temporal dimensions of our work. “Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord.” (Colossians 3:23a)

DGR, 01/2018