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Principal Application Developer

County of Los Angeles
Full-time
On-site
Los Angeles, California, United States
$118,233.84 - $159,337.20 USD yearly
Government/Federal

Position/Program Information




EXAMINATION NUMBER:
PH2526B

TYPE OF RECRUITMENT:
We encourage applications from anyone!

FIRST DAY OF FILING:
We will be accepting online applications starting Thursday, July 24, 2025 at 10:30 a.m. (PT) - Continuous.
We will keep accepting applications until the position is filled. The application window may close unexpectedly once we have enough qualified candidates.


CHECK OUT OUR OUTSTANDING BENEFITS!
We offer one of the strongest public-sector benefits packages in the country, including diverse healthcare choices, and strong retirement plans. For more information about the outstanding benefits offered by Los Angeles County, please visit us here: https://hr.lacounty.gov/benefits/

ABOUT THIS POSITION: 
We are looking for someone who performs highly specialized and complex information systems analysis and programming tasks and acts as technical expert for development or maintenance of one or more major systems. This position may also function as a lead for application development projects and may supervise lower-level application development personnel.

For information about the specific classification standards for this position, please visit the following link: Principal Application Developer.

Essential Job Functions

What will I do as a Principal Application Developer?

  • Provides technical expertise to project managers, department management, and/or user management regarding one or more major system development or maintenance efforts. 
  • Advises management on technical alternatives, such as languages, tools, platforms, utilities, and servers.
  • Leads and participates in the work of a team of Application Developers engaged in the development or maintenance of the most highly technical programs.
  • Provides technical consulting on long-range information systems planning.
  • Programs the most specialized and complex applications.
  • Solves the more complex application software and system performance problems.
  • Analyzes performance data and conducts capacity planning.
  • Establishes quality assurance procedures.
  • Monitors vendors to ensure performance according to project goals and contract terms, and reports performance problems to management.
  • Assists in creating Statements of Work (SOWs) in support of applications development efforts, as needed.
  • Serves as a project manager, as needed.
  • Represents the department in collaborative efforts with other County departments, outside agencies, and/or vendors, as needed.
  • Supervises lower-level application development personnel, as needed.

Requirements

REQUIREMENTS TO QUALIFY:
OPTION I: A Bachelor's degree from an accredited* college or university in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a closely related field, and four (4) years of progressively responsible**, full-time, paid experience in a centralized information technology organization***, coding, testing and debugging application programs.

OPTION II: Two (2) years of experience, within the last three years, at the level of the Los Angeles County class of Senior Application Developer****.  

OPTION III: Five (5) years of progressively responsible**, full-time, paid experience in an information technology organization, coding, testing, and debugging application programs.


LICENSE:
A valid California Class C Driver License or the ability to utilize an alternative method of transportation when needed to carry out job-related essential functions.

PHYSICAL CLASS:
Physical Class II – Light: This class includes administrative and clerical positions requiring light physical effort that may include occasional light lifting to a 10-pound limit and some bending, stooping, or squatting. Considerable ambulation may be involved.

 

SPECIAL REQUIREMENT INFORMATION:

*To qualify under Option I, attach a legible copy of your Official Diploma, Official Transcript(s), or Official Letter from the accredited institution within fifteen (15) calendar days of filing your application. The document should show the date the degree was conferred and be in English; if it is in a foreign language, it must be translated and evaluated for equivalency to the U.S. standards. Please submit documentation to HRExams@ph.lacounty.gov and indicate your name, the exam name, and the exam number.

  • Official Transcript is a transcript that bears the college seal and states "official and/or copy" issued by the school's registrar office. A printout of the transcript from the school's website is NOT considered official and may result in your application being incomplete and rejected.


  • We do not accept password-protected documents. Ensure documents are unlocked before attaching to your application or sending to the exam analyst.


**Progressively responsible experience is defined as work experience that clearly shows an upward progression in the level of duties and responsibilities from one job to the next.

***Centralized IT organization in the County of Los Angeles is defined as that which is responsible, under the direction or guidance of the Chief Information Technology official (or at Sheriff Department, the coordinated executive command structure) for the department or major organization unit, for providing comprehensive IT services including analysis, design, acquisition, and/or development, implementation, maintenance, or support of information systems; and in which the work performed is in direct relationship to the IT requirements and initiatives of the department or major organization unit.

****Los Angeles County class of Senior Application Developer is defined as one who under direction, performs a wide range of application development related duties including analysis, design, evaluation, development, coding, testing and maintenance of complex application systems.

WITHHOLD INFORMATION:
No withhold will be allowed. Required experience must be fully met at the time of filing and clearly indicated on the application.


NO OUT OF CLASS EXPERIENCE WILL BE ACCEPTED.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATION:
  • Experience using Power Platform (Power BI, Power Automate, Power Apps) and Microsoft Dynamics. 

Additional Information

EXAMINATION CONTENT:
Our Assessment Process:

Once we determine that you meet the requirements, we will invite you to participate in the following two (2) parts weighed 100%:

Part I: A multiple choice and/or simulation test assessing Professional Potential, Achievement, Coping with Uncertainty, Responsibility, Working to High Quality Standards, Willingness to Learn, Working Relationships, Analyzing Information, Learning Quickly, Generating New Ideas, Using Time Efficiently, Adapting to Change, and Deductive Reasoning.

Part II: A multiple choice and/or simulation test assessing 

  • Agile Testing: Agile software development methodology; Agile software development approaches; Release and iteration planning; Continuous integration, Story template and retrospective meeting; Agile testing methods: behavior driven development, test driven development, acceptance test driven development; Assessing quality risks and estimating test effort; Sprint planning and effort estimation in Agile project management; Agile exploratory testing; Agile testing tools for task management and tracking, communication and information sharing; Tools for software-build, configuration management, test design, implementation and execution; Independent testing options, communicating test status, progress and product quality; Managing regression risk and evolving manual and automated test cases; and Test levels in Agile, test pyramid, types and quadrants.
  • SQL Server: SQL basic queries; Altering and truncating queries; Filtering and search conditions; Advanced data filtering; Grouping and aggregation in SQL; and Querying multiple tables.

MULTIPLE CHOICE AND/OR SIMULATION ASSESSMENTS ARE NOT REVIEWABLE BY CANDIDATES PER CIVIL SERVICE RULE 7.19

Applicants must meet the requirements and achieve 70% or higher on the combined score of Parts I and II in order to be placed on the eligible register.

All notifications including invitation letters will be sent electronically to the email address provided on the application. It is important that you provide a valid email address. Please add HRexams@ph.lacounty.gov, info@governmentjobs.com, talentcentral@shl.com, Noreply@governmentjobs.com,  noreply@proctoru.com, donotreply@amcatmail.com and the domains ph.lacounty.gov and hr.lacounty.gov to your email address and list of approved senders to prevent email notifications from being filtered as spam/junk/clutter mail.

It is your responsibility to take the above steps to view correspondence. Los Angeles County will not consider claims of not viewing or receiving notification to be a valid reason for late test administration or re-scheduling of a test component.

Plan to submit your online application well in advance as you may be required to verify your email address. This only needs to be done once per email address, and if you already have a job seeker account on www.governmentjobs.com/careers/lacounty, you can verify at any time by logging in and following the prompts. This is to improve the security of your online application and to ensure you do not enter an incorrect email address.

Notice of Non-acceptance and Final Result letters will be sent via E-mail. Test scores cannot be given over the phone. 


TRANSFER OF TEST COMPONENTS:

  • Applicants who have taken identical components recently for other exams may have their responses automatically transferred to this examination. 

  • This examination contains test components that may be used in the future for new examinations and your test responses may be transferred. 


TEST PREPARATION:

Study guides and other test preparation resources are available to help candidates prepare for employment tests. While the guides will help in preparing for the test, we advise you to review all related materials that you deem necessary.

  • An interactive, Online Test Preparation System for taking practice tests may be accessed on the Department of Human Resources website at http://hr.lacounty.gov/. Please click on "Find a Job" and then "Job Search Toolkit." Test preparation information is located under the "Employment Test Assistance" section.
  • Additional practice tests are available at https://www.shldirect.com/en/practice-tests.



ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION:
The names of candidates will be added to the Eligible Register in the order of their score group for a period of twelve (12) months following the date of eligibility. Applications will be processed as they are received.

SELECTIVE CERTIFICATION:

In accordance with TITLE 5 - PERSONNEL, APPENDIX 1 (Civil Service Rule 11.03) of the Los Angeles County Code, the Department of Public Health is canvassing applicants to identify eligible candidates who have experience in all of the following areas:

  1. Agile Software: 4 years of experience delivering projects involving Agile software development methodology in the following areas: release and iteration planning; continuous integration; story template authoring and conducting Agile ceremonies; tools for software build, configuration management, test design, implementation and execution; communicating test status, progress, and product quality.
  2. Microsoft Software Engineering: 7 years of experience developing and implementing projects using Microsoft software engineering including: C#, .NET Core, ASP.NET, MVC. 
  3. Data Engineering and Microsoft SQL Server: 4 years of experience in data engineering using Microsoft SQL Server including: SQL advanced queries; Advanced data filtering; Grouping and aggregation; SQL functions.
  4. Cloud Services: 3 years of experience developing and implementing cloud services and engineering in Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, or Google Cloud Platform. 

Candidates should be prepared to respond to a supplemental questionnaire during the application process. In order to be considered for placement on the Selective Certification list for all areas, you are required to complete the associated supplemental questions. Your request to be placed on the selective certification list will be rejected if you do not complete the supplemental questions. The experience you claim in the supplemental questions must be consistent with the information you provide in your application. Candidates who pass the examination and meet the criteria identified in the supplemental questions will be placed on the Selective Certification list for all areas.

VACANCY INFORMATION:
The Eligible Register resulting from this examination will be used to fill vacancies in the Department of Public Health as they occur.

AVAILABLE SHIFT:
Any shift, including evenings, nights, weekends and holidays.


APPLICATION AND FILING INFORMATION:
 
HOW TO APPLY:
We only accept applications filed online. Applications submitted by U.S. mail, fax, or in person are not accepted. Apply online by clicking on the "Apply" green button at the top right of this posting. This website can also be used to get application status updates. 

Please fill out the application completely! Provide relevant job experience including employer's name and address, job title, beginning and ending dates, number of hours worked per week, and description of work performed. 

If the application and/or Supplemental Questionnaire is/are incomplete, the application will be REJECTED.

IMPORTANT NOTES:
We may verify information included in the application at any point during the examination and hiring process, including after an appointment has been made. Falsification of information could result in refusal of application or rescission of appointment. Copying verbiage from the Requirements or class specification as your work experience will not be sufficient to demonstrate meeting the requirements. Doing so may result in an incomplete application and may lead to disqualification.


PLEASE REVIEW YOUR APPLICATION CAREFULLY AND COMPLETELY PRIOR TO CLICKING THE "SUBMIT" BUTTON
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

COMPUTER AND INTERNET ACCESS AT PUBLIC LIBRARIES:
For candidates who may not have regular access to a computer or the internet, applications can be completed on computers at public libraries throughout Los Angeles County.  Check the website for updated information athttps://lacountylibrary.org. 

SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER:
Please include your Social Security Number for record control purposes.  Federal law requires that all employed persons have a Social Security Number.

DO NOT SHARE USER ID AND PASSWORD:
All applicants must file their application online using their OWN user ID and password.  Using a family member or friend's user ID and password may erase a candidate's original application record.

ANTI-RACISM, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION (ARDI):
The County of Los Angeles recognizes and affirms that all people are created equal and are entitled to all rights afforded by the Constitution of the United States. The Department of Public Health is committed to promoting Anti-racism, Diversity, and Inclusion efforts to address the in equalities and disparities amongst race. We support the ARDI Strategic Plan and its goals by improving equality, diversity, and inclusion in recruitment, selection, and employment practices.



Department Contact Name: Exam Analyst
Department Contact Phone:(213) 684-8726
Department Contact E-mail: HRExams@ph.lacounty.gov

Exam Number: PH2526B

California Relay Services Phone: (800) 735-2922
ADA Coordinator Phone:  (844) 914-1006
Teletype Phone:  (800) 897-0077
Alternate Teletype Phone: (800) 897-0077

COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES

Employment Information

Any language contained in the job posting supersedes any language contained below.

This document is intended to provide general information about the recruitment process of the County of Los Angeles. Applicants with questions about a specific job posting should contact the exam analyst listed on the posting.

Equal Employment Opportunity/Non-Discrimination Statement:
The County of Los Angeles is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer and is committed to non-discrimination in the County workforce, regardless of age (40 and over); ancestry; color; ethnicity; religious creed; protected family or medical leave status; disability; marital status; medical condition; genetic information; military and veteran status; national origin; race ; sex; gender; sexual orientation; or any other characteristic protected by State or federal law. For more information, please visit: https://employee.hr.lacounty.gov/eeo-programs/.



Testing Accommodations for Applicants:
The County of Los Angeles complies with all federal and state disability laws and makes reasonable accommodations for qualified applicants and employees with disabilities. If a reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application process, please contact the testing accommodation coordinator listed on the job posting. Hearing impaired applicants with telephone teletype equipment may leave messages by calling the teletype phone number on the job posting. For more information on accommodations, please visit: https://hr.lacounty.gov/accessibility/.


Fair Chance:
The County of Los Angeles is a Fair Chance employer. Except as otherwise permissible under applicable laws, you will not be asked to provide information about conviction history unless you receive a conditional offer of employment. The County will make an individualized assessment of whether your conviction history has a direct and adverse relationship with the specific duties of the job, and will also consider potential mitigating factors, which may include, but is not limited to, evidence and extent of rehabilitation, recency of the offense(s), and age at the time of the offense(s). If asked to provide information about conviction history, any convictions or court records which are exempted by a valid court order do not have to be disclosed. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with County Fair Chance Policies and the Fair Chance Act (Gov. Code Section 12952).


Employment Eligibility:
Final appointment is contingent upon verification of U.S. citizenship or the right to work in the United States.


Career PathFinder:
Resources to help current and prospective employees plan a career with Los Angeles County are available. To explore career paths to and from nearly all job titles, please visit our interactive Career PathFinder application at http://career-pathfinder.hr.lacounty.gov.

 

Revised January 2025

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