IT Software Architect - Remote

Harris Digital Learning helps school districts build and run successful digital learning programs. At the heart of our work is eSchoolware™, our proprietary learning management system. It brings together everything districts need to manage, deliver, and support online and hybrid learning in a single platform.

eSchoolware serves students, teachers, parents, and administrators alike. It offers age-appropriate learning experiences for middle and high school students, mastery-based course progression, tools for communication and collaboration, and a reporting system with more than 200 standard reports, so educators always have the data they need to support student success. Our mission is simple: empower educators and engage every learner at every stage of their education.

Define the target architecture and the sequence to reach it. The platform has no module seams today, so this is strangler-fig work around functional verticals on a shared foundation.

• ~ You are the technical counterpart holding a fixed-price statement of work to account.
• ~ Lead the data-layer modernization: retire the XDoclet-generated Hibernate mappings in favour of JPA, and oversee the Oracle to PostgreSQL conversion alongside a specialist contractor.
• ~ Stand up the REST API façade and the identity, organization and enrollment foundation that everything else depends on.
• ~ Establish engineering practice from close to zero — CI/CD, code review, and characterization tests on a system with almost no test coverage today.
• ~ Recommend the shape of the team, and help us hire it.

• ~ Mentoring engineers and contractors
• ~ Making AI-assisted development a normal part of how the team works
• ~ Ensuring quality, maintainability, accessibility and security are built in rather than retrofitted

A validated target architecture and a sequenced roadmap that leadership can fund
· acceptance criteria agreed in writing with our modernization partner
· your recommendation on the team we should build and in what order.

8+ years building enterprise software, including 5+ leading engineering teams or owning architecture on significant programs

• ~ You have actually modernized a large legacy system — decomposed a monolith, replaced a data layer, migrated a platform off an unsupported stack. Strong Java and Spring Boot, and genuine comfort in a modern front‑end stack. We are targeting Angular, React, and Type Script.
• ~ Relational database depth — schema design, ORM behaviour, query performance. Oracle and PostgreSQL are both in play.
• ~ Experience owning a vendor or systems‑integrator relationship : writing the specification, defining acceptance, and holding the line when delivery drifts.
• ~ Cloud‑native delivery on Azure or equivalent — CI/CD, infrastructure as code, monitoring and observability.
• ~ Building to WCAG 2.2 AA. Accessibility is a contractual obligation passed to us by the districts we serve, not a nice‑to‑have.
• ~ Experience working with Linux servers
• Oracle-to-PostgreSQL migration, ora2pg, cutover planning and rollback strategy
• ~ Student data privacy: FERPA, COPPA, and district data‑protection agreements
• ~ Fluent use of AI‑assisted development tools in real delivery work, not just experimentation

Bachelor’s degree in software engineering, computer science or a related field, or the equivalent in demonstrated experience.