Lead Technical Designer, Information Technology

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Information Technology is a dynamic and collaborative environment. We are focused on prioritizing and optimizing technological investments that facilitate the best student experience, as well as the activities of faculty, researchers and staff. Our greatest strength are the people working with us. People like you, professionals eager to flex their intellectual muscle and achieve new heights in their career. Working here gives you access to a great IT environment, rich with a diverse range of platforms, products, and services. This is a place where innovative ideas are welcome.

In a nutshell: working here is challenging and rewarding. It’ll bring out the best of you. We want people that have the drive to advance IT in higher education. We have the technologies to keep your inner fires burning, and benefits that can help you sustain a better lifestyle. And all this minutes away from gyms, the Byward Market, downtown, and the Rideau Canal at lunch time for runners and skaters.

Position Purpose

Reporting to the Senior Manager, Information Technology, the incumbent designs and implements solutions to support the University’s business objectives. Is involved in all phases of systems analysis, the planning of system development and the technical design University wide. The systems impacted include large-scale mission critical systems. Provides leadership and guidelines in the implementation of application solutions, ensuring the use of best practices and adhering to the architectural roadmap. Works with IT managers and Application Managers to plan, estimate, prioritize and assign work to technical resources. Supports and maintains operational applications and works on the design, testing and improvement of the applications that support various endeavours. Works with minimum supervision and acts as a specialist with a deep knowledge of complex technologies to enable and support critical University-wide systems and the supporting technologies.

In this role, your responsibilities will include:

• Planning, Design and Deployment: Directs the development team with respect to application design guidance based on a thorough understanding of the appropriate mission-critical systems and their underlying technology.
• Designs and develops solutions and production enhancements using the appropriate tools and technology.
• Team Lead: Works with the IT Manager to plan, estimate, prioritize and assign work to technical resources. Provides advice to staff regarding system development methods, design alternatives and technical options.
• Support and Consulting: Works closely with the Tech team to perform an in depth review of suitable options and of the existence of delivered functionality before customizing. Provides supporting documentation to request and justify any customization.
• Development Life Cycle: Analyzes complex business requirements, assist in fit/gap analysis, evaluates system impacts, architecture design and validate proposed solutions and write supporting technical design document, work on implementation, QA testing and migration as appropriate.
• Methods, tools, techniques and standards: Ensures development standards and design frameworks are adhered to by the development team.
• Leads the efforts to document best practices for development activities related to a particular system.

What you will bring:

• A University degree in Computer Science or Information Technology or a related field or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Minimum 10 years of experience in a complex and diverse IT environment.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in application development and implementation.
• Strong hands-on experience with PHP for backend development and enterprise applications.
• Solid experience with modern front-end technologies, including React, and UI architectures.
• Proven expertise in designing and developing REST APIs and system integrations using PHP, with experience in service-oriented and microservices architectures.
• Experience providing technical leadership and architectural guidance across PHP, frontend, and integration technologies.
• Experience designing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines.
• Strong understanding of automated testing, code quality gates, versioning strategies, secure coding practices, and deployment automation.
• Experience using AI technologies (LLMs, chatbots, agentic AI, copilots) to enhance applications, automate workflows, and improve developer productivity.
• Familiarity with integrating AI services and APIs into PHP-based applications is considered a strong asset.
• In-depth analytical skills for complex problem solving - identification, diagnosis, resolution.
• Proven experience leading development teams or technical projects.
• Ability to design end-to-end business system solutions in a complex application and technology environment.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to translate technical concepts for diverse audiences.
• Ability to keep abreast of new/emerging technologies.
• Bilingualism - French and English (written and spoken).

#LI-Hybrid #LI-DP1

Key Competencies at uOttawa:

Here are the required competencies for all or our employees at uOttawa:

Planning: Organize in time a series of actions or events in order to realize an objective or a project. Plan and organize own work and priorities in regular daily activities.

Initiative: Demonstrate creativity and initiative to suggest improvements and encourage positive results. Is proactive and self-starting. Show availability and willingness to go above and beyond whenever it is possible.

Client Service Orientation: Help or serve others to meet their needs. This implies anticipating and identifying the needs of internal and external clients and finding solutions on how to meet them.

Teamwork and Cooperation: Cooperate and work well with other members of the team to reach common goal(s). Accept and give constructive feedback. Able to adjust own behaviour to reach the goals of the team.

The University of Ottawa embraces diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We are passionate about our people and committed to employment equity. We foster a culture of respect, teamwork and inclusion, where collaboration, innovation, and creativity fuel our quest for research and teaching excellence. While all qualified persons are invited to apply, we welcome applications from qualified Indigenous persons, racialized persons, persons with disabilities, women and LGBTQIA2S+ persons. The University is committed to creating and maintaining an accessible, barrier-free work environment. The University is also committed to working with applicants with disabilities requesting accommodation during the recruitment, assessment and selection processes. Applicants with disabilities may contact [email protected] communicate the accommodation need. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

Note: if this is a union position: The hiring process will be governed by the current collective agreement related to the union affiliation noted above; you can click here to find out more.

If this is a front-line position with responsibilities to interact with students, selected candidates must be rated at the Low Advanced proficiency level or higher for both oral comprehension and reading comprehension in their second official language. The rating is determined by a proficiency test designed by the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute.

Prior to May 1, 2022, the University required all students, faculty, staff, and visitors (including contractors) to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as defined in Policy 129 - Covid-19 Vaccination. This policy was suspended effective May 1, 2022 but may be reinstated at any point in the future depending on public health guidelines and the recommendations of experts.