Web Engineering Manager

Position Summary

TheWebEngineeringManagerisahands-ontechnicalleaderwithintheWebEngineeringand Ops team, part of the Communications and Marketing division at Vanderbilt. This position is responsible for architecting, building, and modernizing the university’s web applications and digital products, with a primary emphasis on front- and back-end engineering, systems integration, and AI-enabled ways of working.

Reporting to the Web Engineering and Ops Lead, this role manages a small team while remainingdeeplyengagedinday-to-daydevelopmentandtroubleshooting.Acentralfocusis leading the modernization of the university’s WordPress ecosystem and championing the adoption of AI-assisted development practices across the team.

TheWebEngineeringManagerpartnerscloselywithUX/UIdesigners,productstakeholders, and VUIT to architect, develop, and deploy secure, accessible, and performant digital experiences thatadvance institutional priorities. Theideal candidate is a full stackdeveloper who enjoys building as much as leading, and who can move a legacy environment toward modern tooling, architecture, and workflows.

About the Work Unit

The Communications and Marketing team at Vanderbilt University is a dynamic and deeply collaborative group. The division serves as the institution-wide center of excellence for communications and marketing, developing and executing strategies that inform, engage, and inspireotherstotakepartintheUniversity’sglobalacademicandresearchmission.Thedivision is a strategic adviser and partner to other divisions, providing comprehensive plans and thoughtful analysis on messaging opportunities and constraints, and it continuously seeks innovative solutions to emerging challenges in order to deliver results at scale.

Key Functions and Expected Performance

• Development and Architecture
• Architect, design, and develop web applications and custom software solutions that support university objectives, with primary ownership of front- and back-end development and systems integration.
• Support the ongoing modernization of the university’s WordPress platform.
• Develop custom WordPress solutions, including page builder modules, theme templates, and third-party integrations.
• Design and optimize database schemas, queries, and data processing within web applications to support performance, maintenance and reporting functionality.
• Integrate external software libraries, APIs, AI platforms, and third-party services into new and existing applications.
• Maintain and incrementally improve legacy PHP/MySQL applications and WordPress codebases while planning their migration to upgraded and/or new systems, tools and environments.
• Troubleshoot and resolve application-level defects, security vulnerabilities, and performance issues.

Emerging Technologies

Lead adoption of AI-assisted development practices across the team, including AI coding tools, workflow automation, and evaluation of emerging capabilities.

Design and build emerging technology features into web products, such as intelligent search, chat interfaces, and automated workflows, and recommend new applications that improve user experience and operational efficiency.

Team Leadership and Culture

• Directlysuperviseasmallteamincludingassigningwork,settingpriorities,providing performance feedback, and supporting professional growth.
• Providetechnicalmentorshipandcodereview,ensuringadherencetodevelopment standards, accessibility requirements, and security best practices.
• Coordinatetheworkofexternaldevelopmentvendorsonassignedprojects.
• Participateinhiringandonboardingfordevelopmentpositionsincollaborationwith leadership.
• Fosteracultureofinnovation,continuousimprovement,collaboration,andprofessional growth within the team.
• Collaboration and Coordination
• Serve as the department’s technical liaison to central IT for hosting, security, proxy serverrequestsandinfrastructureneeds,andleadwebsitemigrationsincoordinationwithcentral IT.
• CollaboratewithUX/UIdesigners,productstakeholders,andcross-functionalteamsto design, build, test, and deploy new digital experiences.
• Provideadvancedtechnicalsupportandconsultationtouniversityclients,servingasthe escalation point for complex web application issues.
• Documentsystemarchitecture,technicalspecifications,andoperationalproceduresfor solutions the team builds and maintains.
• SupporttheWebEngineeringandOpsLeadonstrategicinitiativesandspecialprojects, and contribute to departmental planning.
• Communicate effectively with diverse audiences, including faculty, students, staff, leadership,alumni,vendors,andexternalpartners,andmaintainconfidentialityfor embargoed or restricted projects and data.
• Otherdutiesasassigned.

Supervisory Relationships

• ThispositionreportstotheWebEngineeringandOpsLead.TheWebEngineeringManager has formal supervisory responsibility for direct reports and coordinates the work of external development vendors.
• Bachelor'sdegreeincomputerscience,informationsystems,orarelatedfield,or commensurate experience, is required.
• Aminimumoffiveyearsofprofessionalfullstackwebdevelopmentexperience,including significant back-end work with PHP/MySQL, front-end HTML/CSS/JavaScript and frameworks/libraries.
• DeepexperiencewithWordPressdevelopment,includingcustomthemes,plugins,andthe WordPress REST API.
• ProficiencywithmodernJavaScript,includingatleastoneframeworksuchasReact,and experience consuming APIs from decoupled front ends.
• Experienceintegratingthird-partyAPIsandservicesintowebapplications.
• Workingknowledgeofwebapplicationsecurity,performanceoptimization,andaccessibility standards.
• Demonstratedexperienceleadingormentoringdevelopers,whetherthroughdirect supervision, team lead responsibilities, or sustained mentorship.
• Abilitytomanagemultipledeadline-drivenprojectsindependentlywhilebalancing competing priorities.
• Exceptionalcommunicationandcollaborationskillsacrosstechnicalandnon-technical audiences.
• ExperienceimplementingheadlessordecoupledWordPressarchitecturesandtools.
• Hands-onexperiencewithAIdevelopmenttools, schema,JSON-LD,andbuildingAI-powered application features.
• Experienceworkingwithinasharedservicesenvironmentwhereinfrastructureismanaged by a central IT organization.
• Experienceinhighereducationorasimilarlycomplex,multi-stakeholderorganization.