A cover letter is required for consideration for this position and should be attached as the first page of your resume. The cover letter should address your specific interest in the position and outline skills and experience that directly relate to this position.

In your cover letter, please describe two recent production-level projects you contributed to within the past three years, including:

• The problem the project addressed
• Your role and technical contributions
• Technologies used and architectural considerations
• The outcome or impact of the work

Because our team is small and highly collaborative, we place strong emphasis on thoughtful applications. Candidates who clearly describe their technical contributions and engineering decisions tend to stand out during review.

We strongly encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply. Our work is stronger and more effective when it includes a variety of perspectives.

The Center for Health Communications Research (CHCR) at the University of Michigan is hiring a Full Stack Application Systems Developer to help design and build new web and mobile applications from the ground up.

CHCR operates as a product-focused software development group within Michigan Medicine, partnering with researchers, clinicians, and innovators to transform new ideas into real-world applications used in research, clinical care, and digital health initiatives.

We are accepting applications until the position is filled, with a flexible start date.

About CHCR

CHCR is a fully remote software development team within Michigan Medicine at the University of Michigan. We design and build custom web and mobile applications that support research, clinical care, behavioral interventions, digital programs, and innovation initiatives.

Our work includes mobile apps, AI-enabled research platforms, wearable-integrated systems, participant engagement tools, clinical decision support applications, and digital intervention platforms used across active studies and healthcare initiatives.

Our engineering culture operates much more like a small product studio than a traditional academic IT environment. Faculty, clinicians, and research teams come to us with ideas for new digital tools, and our team designs and builds those systems from concept to launch.

Most projects begin as new concepts rather than existing systems, and engineers are frequently responsible for building applications from the ground up.

Engineers work within a collaborative product development environment alongside dedicated designers, developers, and project leadership.

About this Position

Many organizations separate backend, frontend, and mobile engineering into different roles. At CHCR, we believe strong engineers understand the full development process and can contribute across the stack.

As a Full Stack Application Systems Developer, you will work closely with a small engineering team to design, build, and launch applications that support research, clinical care, and digital innovation initiatives.

This is a highly hands-on engineering role with broad ownership across frontend, backend, mobile, and cloud infrastructure.

This role is highly collaborative and product-oriented. Engineers at CHCR frequently contribute to architecture decisions, product workflows, infrastructure planning, and user experience discussions alongside designers.

What This Role Involves

• Designing and building new software products from the ground up
• Working across frontend implementation, backend systems, cloud infrastructure, and mobile application development
• Building APIs, databases, dashboards, and participant-facing applications
• Collaborating with designers, engineers, and product stakeholders
• Contributing to technical architecture and engineering decisions
• Moving between projects as new products and platforms are incubated
• Participating in code reviews, design discussions, and collaborative development workflows

Typical work includes:

• Backend services using Laravel and PHP
• Web interfaces using React and TypeScript/JavaScript
• Translating Figma designs into polished, production-quality frontend interfaces with strong attention to detail and responsive behavior
• SQL database design and optimization
• Cross-platform mobile development using Flutter
• Production cloud infrastructure, deployment workflows, and application environments using Google Cloud Platform and Firebase
• Designing and maintaining production systems running within GCP environments
• API integrations, notifications, device integrations, and AI-enabled features

What You'll Work On

Our team builds a wide range of custom applications and digital platforms. 

Example systems include:

• Mobile and web platforms supporting behavioral and clinical research studies
• AI-enabled interventions and participant engagement systems
• Applications integrating with wearable and health monitoring devices
• Digital tools supporting cancer genetics communication and decision-making
• Incentive-based mobile platforms for smoking and alcohol behavior change studies
• Research authoring platforms used to deliver structured digital interventions
• Care coordination and communication applications for patients and caregivers

Engineers at CHCR regularly work on systems that support real-world deployment and active users across research and clinical environments.

Many projects begin as early-stage ideas and evolve into scalable production applications used in active studies, clinical programs, and public-facing initiatives.

What We Look For

This role is best suited for engineers who:

• Enjoy building new products and systems from scratch
• Are comfortable working across the full stack
• Like solving different technical challenges across projects
• Think critically about product design and user experience
• Value maintainable systems and clean engineering practices
• Enjoy collaborative and highly iterative environments

We are generally looking for candidates with several years of professional experience building and deploying production software systems.

Ideal Technical Background

The strongest candidates for this role will have hands-on experience building polished production applications across both web and mobile platforms.

We are specifically looking for engineers who are comfortable:

• Building pixel-perfect frontend interfaces from Figma designs using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and React
• Developing and maintaining backend systems using Laravel and PHP
• Building production-ready cross-platform mobile applications using Flutter
• Working within Google Cloud Platform (GCP) environments and cloud-based infrastructure
• Designing and supporting production deployment workflows
• Working independently across the full application stack
• Translating product and UX requirements into high-quality user experiences

A significant portion of this role involves working with cloud infrastructure, deployment systems, integrations, and production environments in GCP.

This role is best suited for engineers who enjoy owning implementation details end to end and are comfortable moving between frontend, backend, mobile, and infrastructure work within the same project.

Engineering Culture

We care deeply about building software thoughtfully.

Our team values:

• Clean, maintainable code
• Thoughtful architecture decisions
• Peer code reviews
• Collaborative problem solving
• Product-minded engineering
• Pragmatic decision making
• Continuous learning and experimentation

Engineers at CHCR have significant influence over product direction, architecture, and implementation decisions across a wide range of applications.

Engineers are trusted to take ownership of systems and move projects forward collaboratively with minimal process overhead.

Because our team is small, engineers have significant ownership and influence over the systems they build.

Work Environment

CHCR is a fully remote team, and this is a remote position.

We work Monday through Friday, 9:00am to 5:00pm ET, and candidates must be available during those hours.

Employees are responsible for maintaining an appropriate remote work environment with reliable high-speed internet and a workspace suitable for full-time software development and collaboration.

Engineers are provided with Apple hardware including:

• MacBook Pro
• Apple Studio Display
• iPad
• Apple Watch
• Additional equipment needed to support development work

About the University of Michigan

The University of Michigan is consistently ranked among the top public universities and research institutions in the world.

CHCR operates within Michigan Medicine and collaborates with researchers and teams across the University of Michigan as well as partner institutions including Stanford, Harvard, Emory, and NYU.

This position is not available for visa sponsorship and requires authorization to work in the United States.

Michigan Medicine improves the health of patients, populations and communities through excellence in education, patient care, community service, research and technology development, and through leadership activities in Michigan, nationally and internationally. Our mission is guided by our Strategic Principles and has three critical components; patient care, education and research that together enhance our contribution to society.

Job openings are posted for a minimum of seven calendar days. The review and selection process may begin as early as the eighth day after posting. This opening may be removed from posting boards and filled any time after the minimum posting period has ended.

The University of Michigan is an equal employment opportunity employer.

About University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

A great university is made so by its faculty and staff, and Michigan is recognized as one of the best universities to work for in the country. The Michigan culture is known for engaging faculty and staff in all facets of the university to create a workplace that is vibrant and stimulating.For two consecutive years, the Chronicle of Higher Education has placed U-M in its "Great Colleges to Work For" survey. In particular, the university earns high marks for strong relations between faculty and administrators, a collaborative system of governance, strong pay and benefits, and a healthy work/life balance.

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