VARSITY SPIRIT, A VARSITY BRANDS COMPANY - THE DRIVING FORCE IN SPIRIT ACROSS CHEER, DANCE, BAND AND YEARBOOK For over 50 years, Varsity Spirit has been the leading global source for all things spirit, including cheerleading, dance team, performing arts and yearbook. Focused on safety, entertainment and traditional school leadership, Varsity Spirit’s 5,000+ employees are dedicated to celebrating school spirit. A leader in apparel innovation, educational camps, clinics, competitions, and yearbook, Varsity Spirit impacts more than a million athletes each year.
OUR COMMITMENT TO SAFETY
At Varsity Spirit, the safety and wellbeing of the young people we serve is of the utmost importance. Since our inception 50 years ago, we have been – and remain – steadfastly committed to doing our part to create a safe and positive environment for our participants’ physical, emotional, and social development, and promoting an environment free from abuse and misconduct. Varsity has a zero tolerance for abuse in its programs, events, and associated business activities. Varsity is committed to reporting all suspicions, allegations, and incidents of abuse in full accordance with local laws and reporting requirements. Learn more at Our Commitment to Safety - Varsity.com.
LOCATION: Remote
TRAVEL: Overnight travel based on business needs, but generally less than 10%
HOW YOU WILL MAKE AN IMPACT:
We are looking for an energetic and team-oriented individual who is passionate about software design and development across various platforms. An outstanding performer with demonstrated success implementing technology solutions and the ability to get things done quickly and effectively. Must be comfortable working within a technical team and with business counterparts to raise the bar on our software initiatives.
A truly exceptional software developer will serve as an advocate for a great user experience, and through collaboration with the business teams, envision and design software solutions that are embraced by the user and have a positive impact on the organization. You will help us deliver products to our employees and customers, not just features, implementing and using modern techniques like continuous delivery, DevOps, Micro Services Architecture, and AI-assisted development practices.
This role embraces the use of modern AI tools (e.g., Codex, Claude, Copilot, or similar) to accelerate development, improve code quality, and enhance productivity. The ideal candidate understands how to effectively and responsibly leverage AI while maintaining strong engineering standards, security practices, and critical thinking.
You will not do this alone. You will partner with a team consisting of business analysts, project managers, software architects, DBAs, and business partners to define and build great software solutions. You will coach and mentor team members - including peers and colleagues, not just junior staff - and conduct code reviews that provide real learning and growth opportunities through day-to-day work.
WHAT YOU WILL DO:
- Owns technical design and architecture decisions across the front end and back end for assigned initiatives, from concept through delivery
- Leads product concept, design, wireframing, and prototyping for new features and systems
- Designs, documents, and builds new systems and enhancements across the full stack, including UI/UX, application logic, and data layer
- Designs and implements data models and schemas for relational databases, including Oracle and PostgreSQL
- Codes across the front end and back end using the team’s core languages and frameworks (Angular, Java, Node.js, TypeScript)
- Leverages AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Codex, Claude, Copilot) to support coding, debugging, refactoring, and documentation
- Applies prompt engineering techniques to improve the effectiveness of AI-generated outputs
- Reviews, validates, and ensures the quality, security, and performance of both human- and AI-generated code
- Identifies opportunities to integrate AI/LLM-powered capabilities into applications and internal tools
- Builds and maintains systems in alignment with security best practices (OWASP) and AWS-native security patterns
- Coaches, mentors, and conducts code reviews for peers and colleagues across both front-end and back-end disciplines
- Owns the handoff of completed work from build to run, ensuring knowledge transfer, documentation, and change management are complete
- Contributes to continuous improvement of development processes, including AI-assisted workflows and engineering best practices
QUALIFICATIONS:
Education, Certification and Experience
- Four-year degree required with field of study in Information Technology or Computer Science
- 8–10+ years of combined professional software development experience across front-end and back-end technologies (full-stack experience specifically is not required to meet this threshold)
- Functional knowledge of GitHub or other mainstream source control products
- Strong understanding of project lifecycle and delivery approaches, e.g. waterfall, agile, etc.
- Experience implementing and supporting operational processes, security, and compliance policies
Technology Proficiency
- Angular (required) and TypeScript
- Java and Node.js
- AWS-native services (e.g., Lambda, EC2, S3, RDS/Aurora, ECS/EKS, SNS/SQS, CloudFormation/Terraform/CDK)
- SQL and relational databases, including Oracle and PostgreSQL
- RESTful APIs
- HTML5, CSS, JSON, XML
- Modern development tooling (Visual Studio, VSCode, Cursor, or similar)
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities
- Maintains a customer focus
- Deals effectively with ambiguity
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
- Action oriented and works with a sense of urgency
- Utilizes data and analytics to gain understanding of the operations
- Must be a team player with strong attention to detail and able to work independently
- Proven track record of delivering timely and accurate results in a fast-paced environment
- Excellent critical thinking, problem solving, mathematical skills, and sound judgment
- Strong business acumen and ability to interface with non-technical counterparts
AI-Assisted Development & Tooling
- Experience using AI-powered development tools such as Codex, Claude, GitHub Copilot, or similar
- Understanding of AI-assisted development workflows, including strengths, limitations, and validation techniques
- Familiarity with prompt engineering concepts for code generation and problem solving
- Ability to critically evaluate and refine AI-generated outputs to ensure accuracy, security, and maintainability
PREFERRED:
- React, React Native, and NextJS
- Familiarity with mobile app development
- Working knowledge of Docker and Kubernetes (on AWS ECS/EKS)
- Experience with SQL administration and performance tuning (Oracle and/or PostgreSQL)
- Experience utilizing business intelligence tools such as Power BI
- Experience with Tailwind CSS
- Experience building AI-enabled features such as chat interfaces, automation tools, or intelligent workflows
Supervisory Responsibility
- No direct supervisory responsibilities
- Mentoring and training of other employees
Physical Demands and/or Work Environment
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
- Prolonged Computer Use: Requires the ability to operate a computer, keyboard, and mouse for extended periods of time, typically 6–8 hours per day.
- Visual Requirements: Must be able to view a computer monitor for long periods and have adequate visual acuity - corrective lenses permitted - to read, analyze, and work with digital information.
- Workstation Posture: Must be able to remain seated or stationary at a desk for prolonged periods, with the ability to alternate between sitting and standing as needed.
- Minimal Physical Activity: Occasional movement within the home office environment is required. The role may involve light lifting of up to 10–20 pounds (such as computer equipment or peripherals).
- Communication Abilities: Must be able to participate in virtual meetings and communicate clearly through written and verbal channels.
- Cognitive/Functional Requirements: Must be able to concentrate, problem-solve, and manage multiple concurrent tasks in a computer-based environment.
- Home Office Environment: Requires access to a quiet, ergonomically suitable home workspace with reliable high-speed internet and minimal distractions during working hours.
Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities required of the employee for this job.
JOIN THE BEST TEAM IN SPORT & SPIRIT
At Varsity Brands, we believe every student deserves the opportunity to succeed and every educator wants to make a difference. It takes a team to make a real impact, and through our two divisions – BSN SPORTS and Varsity Spirit – and our network of 6,000+ employees and independent representatives, we are proud to partner with a wide range of educational institutions and club and professional sports to transform the student journey in SPORT and SPIRIT.
OUR VALUES
Service - We lead with heart. We champion community. Passion - We love what we do. It fuels our purpose. Integrity - We do what we promise. We own our actions and decisions. Respect - We earn it by giving it. Because everyone deserves it. Innovation - We never stop striving to be better. For ourselves and our community. Transparency - We are committed to openness and honesty in everything we do.
OUR BENEFITS
We are committed to putting you and your families first. For benefits eligible roles, we offer a variety of choices and costs as well as program enhancements that align with our responsibility to elevate the employee experience. Some of our offerings include:
- Comprehensive Health Care Benefits
- HSA Employer Contribution/ FSA Opportunities
- Wellbeing Program
- 401(k) plan with company matching
- Company paid Life, AD&D, and Short-Term Disability
- Generous My Time Off & Paid Holidays
- Varsity Brands Ownership Program
- Employee Resource Groups
- Access to Financial Coaching and member-owned Credit Union
- St. Jude Partnership & Volunteer Opportunities
- Employee Perks including discounts on personal apparel and equipment!
Varsity Brands companies are equal opportunity employers. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran’s status, age or disability.