IT Application Development (Senior Specialist)

Our vision is to ensure that “Washington state’s children and youth grow up safe and healthy—thriving physically, emotionally and educationally, nurtured by family and community."

Job Title: IT Application Development (Senior Specialist) Location: Olympia, WA, Thurston County (Flexible/Hybrid) Closes: August 23rd, 2026 Salary: $99,300.00 - $133,608.00 Annually

The DCYF Application Development team is seeking a skilled system applications developer to help design, develop, maintain, enhance, and support mission-critical child welfare systems that enable case management, intake, provider management, financial processing, reporting, and regulatory compliance activities across Washington State. These systems support thousands of internal and external users and are essential to the agency’s mission of protecting children and strengthening families.

Click here to learn more about DCYF.

The Opportunity: This senior technical role supports and modernizes DCYF’s mission-critical child welfare and financial systems. The position provides expert technical leadership in the development, maintenance, troubleshooting, and improvement of applications and integrations that support case management, provider payments, financial transactions, federal reporting, and statewide operations. Working closely with business and technical teams, this role helps ensure reliable technology and services that support child safety, permanency, and well-being.

Some of what you will get to do:

• Support and maintain mission-critical child welfare applications such as FamLink and ProFam.
• Analyze business requirements and develop technical solutions.
• Troubleshoot and resolve production defects.
• Support enterprise batch processing systems.
• Monitor and troubleshoot nightly processing activities.
• Participate in disaster recovery and recovery testing activities.
• Develop and maintain complex SQL queries and stored procedures.
• Support data conversion, migration, and reconciliation efforts.
• Analyze legacy business processes and integrations.
• Assist modernization efforts involving legacy systems.
• Assess and analyze business and system requirements to design application integration solutions with principles of component reusability and security.
• Support audits, compliance reviews, and operational reporting.
• Assist business areas with troubleshooting and issue resolution.
• Create and maintain technical documentation.
• Lead knowledge-sharing activities.

Required Qualifications: Eleven (11) years of progressively more complex problem solving as a developer designing, developing or maintaining large-scale applications with mission critical business functions using Java with Jakarta Structs farmwork and JSP, .NET C#, SQL Server, SQL Reporting Services, Transact SQL, Web based programming, and supporting tools. Expert knowledge of application development principles, concepts, technologies, current industry standards and the Microsoft technology stack including Windows, Visual Studio, IIS, .NET C#, SQL, TFS, SharePoint, etc.

OR Associate’s degree or higher with a focus on computer science or closely allied field AND Nine years of progressively more complex problem solving as a developer designing, developing or maintaining large-scale applications with mission critical business functions using Java with Jakarta Structs farmwork and JSP, .NET C#, SQL Server, SQL Reporting Services, Transact SQL, Web based programming, and supporting tools.

OR Bachelor's degree or higher in computer science or closely allied field AND Seven years of progressively more complex problem solving as a developer designing, developing or maintaining large-scale applications with mission critical business functions using Java with Jakarta Structs farmwork and JSP, .NET C#, SQL Server, SQL Reporting Services, Transact SQL, Web based programming, and supporting tools.

Additional Qualifications:

• Seven years of experience supporting Microsoft SQL Server databases, including stored procedures, complex query development, performance tuning, troubleshooting, and data analysis.
• Five years of experience supporting enterprise batch processing systems, workload automation platforms, or scheduled operational processing, including OpCon or equivalent scheduling tools.
• Experience supporting complex business applications in a highly regulated environment involving sensitive data, financial processing, or public-sector operations.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate directly with business stakeholders, analyze business processes, translate requirements into technical solutions, and provide production support.
• Experience supporting complex business applications in a highly regulated environment involving sensitive data, financial processing, or public-sector operations.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience supporting SACWIS, CCWIS, or Child Welfare information systems.
• Direct experience supporting FamLink applications, Finance modules, batch processing, or operational support functions.
• Experience supporting OpCon Enterprise Scheduler or similar enterprise workload automation platforms.
• Experience supporting Micro Focus COBOL applications and legacy batch processing systems.
• Experience with Azure DevOps, Git, CI/CD pipelines, and application modernization practices.
• Experience with cloud migration, containerization technologies, or AI-assisted software development tools.
• Agile, Scrum, or related certifications.

*Experience may be gained concurrently.

How do I apply? Complete your applicant profile on careers.wa.gov and attach the following documents:

• Current resume detailing experience and education.
• Letter of Interest that details how you meet the qualifications for the position.

Supplemental Information: The Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) is committed to Washington’s children and youth growing up safe, healthy, and thriving. We invite all candidates to join us in our mission to create a diverse and equitable workplace that reflects the communities we serve. If you are excited about this role but you believe that your education and/or experience might not align perfectly with every qualification in the job posting, we encourage you to apply anyway.

The Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, race, creed, color, national origin, honorably discharged veteran or military status, or the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability or the use of a trained service animal by a person with a disability.

This recruitment may be used to fill multiple vacancies.

For more information about this position or if you need an accommodation throughout the application/interview process, please contact DCYF recruiter. If you're experiencing technical difficulties creating, accessing or completing your application, call NEOGOV toll-free at (855) 524-5627 or [email protected]. Persons needing accommodation in the application process or this announcement in an alternative format may call the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at 360-664-1960.

Persons needing accommodation in the application process or this announcement in an alternative format may call the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at 360-664-1960.

Applicants who meet the minimum qualifications and wish to claim Veteran's Preference MUST attach a copy of their DD214, NGB Form 22 or Predischarge Certification (issued not more than 120 days prior to End of Term of Service (ETS) by date of submission). If claiming preference based on Predischarge Certification, individual will be required to provide their official discharge documentation, such as a DD form 214, NGB form 22, or equivalent, within 30 days after the date of discharge. Please blackout (redact) the social security number before attaching any documents. For additional information on Veteran's Preference and guidance on how to determine if you are eligible, click here.

DCYF participates in the federal E-Verify program. The selected candidate must provide proof of identity and authorization to work in the United States, consistent with E-Verify requirements, on their first day of employment