What is a Software Engineer at OSF HealthCare?

As a Software Engineer at OSF HealthCare, you are stepping into a role where your technical expertise directly supports patient care, clinical workflows, and enterprise operations. OSF HealthCare relies on robust, secure, and scalable software to manage health records, patient portals, and internal administrative tools. Your work ensures that medical professionals have the reliable systems they need to make life-saving decisions and that patients have seamless access to their health information.

This position offers a unique blend of technical challenge and mission-driven impact. You will be building and maintaining critical applications, often working within a complex ecosystem of healthcare data integrations. Because the healthcare industry demands high standards for security and reliability, your role requires a careful balance of innovative problem-solving and rigorous adherence to best practices.

Expect to work in a highly collaborative environment. Our engineering teams operate at the intersection of technology and healthcare delivery, meaning you will frequently interact with cross-functional stakeholders, including clinical staff, product managers, and other engineering units. If you are passionate about leveraging your coding skills to make a tangible difference in people's lives, this role provides the perfect platform to do so.

Common Interview Questions

While you cannot predict every question, reviewing common themes will help you formulate structured, confident answers. The questions below reflect actual topics discussed in OSF HealthCare interviews for this role. Use these to practice your delivery and identify patterns in what we value.

Technical and Technology Stack Questions

These questions test your hands-on knowledge of our primary tools. Interviewers want to see that your C# and .NET skills are sharp and ready for enterprise-level challenges.

• What are the main differences between .NET Framework and .NET Core?
• How do you handle exception management and logging in a C# application?
• Can you explain dependency injection and how you have used it in ASP.NET Core?
• Walk me through how you would optimize a slow-loading web page backed by a SQL database.
• How do you ensure your code is secure, especially when handling sensitive user data?

Experience and Resume Deep-Dive

We want to understand the scope of your previous work. Be prepared to discuss your past duties in detail and explain the business context of your engineering decisions.

• Walk me through your resume, highlighting the roles most relevant to this position.
• Describe your day-to-day duties in your most recent Software Engineer role.
• Tell me about a time you had to learn a new technology stack on the fly.
• What is a technical achievement you are particularly proud of, and what was your specific contribution?
• Have you ever earned any technical certifications, or what is your approach to continuous training?

Behavioral and Culture Fit

Because you will interview with multiple managers, these questions assess your teamwork, adaptability, and personality. Expect a mix of standard behavioral prompts and casual conversation.

• Tell me about a time you disagreed with a team member about a technical approach. How did you resolve it?
• Why do you want to work for OSF HealthCare?
• How do you handle situations where project requirements are ambiguous or constantly changing?
• What are some of your hobbies or interests outside of software development?
• Describe a time you had to collaborate with a team outside of engineering to get a project done.

Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Thorough preparation is the key to navigating the OSF HealthCare interview process with confidence. We evaluate candidates across a spectrum of technical and interpersonal dimensions to ensure they can thrive in our collaborative environment.

Here are the primary evaluation criteria you should focus on:

Technical Proficiency – You must demonstrate a solid command of our core technology stack, specifically C# and .NET. Interviewers will evaluate your ability to write clean, maintainable code, understand object-oriented programming principles, and design reliable software solutions. You can show strength here by confidently discussing the technical trade-offs you have made in past projects.

Experience and Track Record – We heavily weigh your past professional experiences and how they translate to our current needs. Interviewers will ask you to recap your previous duties, project impacts, and the specific technologies you used. Be prepared to walk through your resume in detail, explaining not just what you built, but why and how you built it.

Culture Fit and Collaboration – OSF HealthCare places a massive emphasis on teamwork and cross-functional visibility. You will likely meet with multiple managers, sometimes including leaders from outside your prospective team. We look for candidates who communicate clearly, navigate casual conversations with ease, and demonstrate a genuine interest in continuous learning and team success.

Interview Process Overview

The interview process for a Software Engineer at OSF HealthCare is designed to be comprehensive yet conversational. Your journey typically begins with a basic HR screening via email or a brief phone call. This initial step is focused on aligning your background, salary expectations, and basic qualifications with the needs of the role.

If you move forward, you will be invited to a panel interview, which is frequently conducted in person (often at our Peoria, IL headquarters) or via video conference. This stage is unique because you will likely meet with several managers and staff members simultaneously, including representatives from adjacent teams. The atmosphere is generally described as casual and welcoming. While you will face direct technical questions about your stack, a significant portion of the interview will flow like a professional conversation, covering your past duties, training processes, and even non-work-related topics to gauge team fit.

Expect a balanced assessment. The panel will pivot between evaluating your hard technical skills in C# and .NET, discussing your previous project experience, and exploring behavioral scenarios. We value transparency, so interviewers will also take time to discuss the day-to-day duties of the job, our internal training processes, and any certifications you might earn while working with us.

This visual timeline outlines the typical stages of our hiring process, from the initial HR screen to the comprehensive panel interviews. Use this to anticipate the flow of your evaluations and prepare for a mix of technical deep-dives and casual, culture-focused conversations. Keep in mind that the exact sequence or panel composition may vary slightly depending on the specific team you are interviewing for.

Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

To succeed in your interviews, you need to understand exactly what our teams are looking for. Below is a detailed breakdown of the core evaluation areas for the Software Engineer role at OSF HealthCare.

Technical Foundations (C# and .NET)

Because our enterprise applications rely heavily on the Microsoft stack, your proficiency in C# and .NET is a critical focus area. Interviewers want to see that you understand the nuances of the framework, can build scalable applications, and know how to troubleshoot complex issues. Strong performance here means answering technical questions accurately while demonstrating an understanding of broader architectural principles.

Be ready to go over:

• Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) – Core concepts like inheritance, encapsulation, and polymorphism within C#.
• .NET Framework and .NET Core – Differences between the two, lifecycle management, and dependency injection.
• Web APIs and Integrations – Designing RESTful services and integrating with external databases or third-party healthcare systems.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Entity Framework performance tuning, asynchronous programming (async/await), and memory management/garbage collection in .NET.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Can you explain the difference between abstract classes and interfaces in C#?"
• "Walk us through how you would design a secure REST API using .NET Core."
• "Describe a time you had to optimize a slow-performing LINQ query."

Past Experience and Project Impact

We do not just want to know what technologies you know; we want to know how you have applied them. Interviewers will ask you to provide a detailed recap of your previous roles. Strong candidates do not just list their responsibilities—they articulate the business value of their work, the challenges they overcame, and the specific technical decisions they owned.

Be ready to go over:

• Resume Walkthrough – A clear, concise narrative of your career progression.
• Duty Alignment – How your past day-to-day responsibilities map to the needs of OSF HealthCare.
• Technical Ownership – Specific features, systems, or architectures you personally designed or delivered.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Walk me through the architecture of the most complex application you worked on in your last role."
• "What were your specific day-to-day duties on [Project Name], and how did you collaborate with your team?"
• "Tell us about a time a project did not go as planned. How did you handle it?"

Culture Fit and Cross-Team Collaboration

At OSF HealthCare, software engineering is a team sport. Because your panel will likely include managers from various teams, they will be evaluating how well you communicate and whether you would be a positive addition to the broader engineering culture. This portion of the interview is often highly conversational and may include non-work-based topics.

Be ready to go over:

• Adaptability and Learning – Your willingness to undergo training and earn new certifications.
• Interpersonal Communication – How you explain technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Casual Conversation – Building rapport through discussions about hobbies, interests, and working styles.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Why are you interested in transitioning into the healthcare technology space?"
• "Tell us about a time you had to work with a difficult stakeholder from another department."
• "What do you like to do outside of work, and how do you maintain a healthy work-life balance?"

Key Responsibilities

As a Software Engineer at OSF HealthCare, your day-to-day work revolves around building, maintaining, and optimizing the applications that keep our healthcare system running smoothly. You will spend a significant portion of your time writing clean, scalable code in C# and .NET, developing both backend services and user-facing applications. Your deliverables will directly impact clinical workflows, meaning accuracy, security, and performance are paramount.

Collaboration is a massive part of this role. You will frequently partner with product owners, clinical analysts, and IT infrastructure teams to gather requirements and ensure your software integrates seamlessly with enterprise systems, such as Electronic Health Records (EHR). You will participate in agile ceremonies, code reviews, and architectural discussions, ensuring that your team's output aligns with overall organizational goals.

Beyond coding, OSF HealthCare is deeply invested in your professional development. Your responsibilities will also include participating in ongoing training processes and potentially earning specific technical or healthcare-compliance certifications. You will be expected to stay current with emerging technologies and proactively suggest improvements to our existing tech stack and development methodologies.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

To be competitive for the Software Engineer position, you need a strong mix of technical expertise and interpersonal skills. We look for candidates who can hit the ground running with our core stack while demonstrating the communication skills necessary to thrive in a matrixed healthcare environment.

• Must-have skills – Deep proficiency in C# and the .NET ecosystem (.NET Core, ASP.NET).
• Must-have skills – Strong understanding of relational databases (SQL Server) and API development (REST/JSON).
• Must-have skills – Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to build rapport quickly during panel interviews.
• Nice-to-have skills – Previous experience in the healthcare sector, including familiarity with HIPAA compliance, HL7, or FHIR standards.
• Nice-to-have skills – Experience with cloud platforms (Azure preferred) and modern CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience level – Typically requires 3+ years of professional software development experience, though we evaluate candidates holistically based on their technical depth and project impact.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How difficult is the interview process, and how much should I prepare? The difficulty is generally considered average. While the technical questions on C# and .NET require solid foundational knowledge, the interview avoids overly esoteric brain-teasers. Focus your preparation on articulating your past experience clearly and brushing up on core Microsoft stack concepts.

Q: Who will I be interviewing with during the panel stage? You will typically meet with multiple managers and staff members. Interestingly, this panel often includes managers from other engineering teams, not just the one you are applying for. This is designed to assess your broader fit within the OSF HealthCare engineering culture.

Q: What differentiates a successful candidate from the rest? Successful candidates strike a balance between technical competence and approachability. Because the interviews feature a decent amount of non-work-based, casual conversation, candidates who are personable, communicative, and show a genuine willingness to learn and train generally stand out.

Q: Will the interview be in-person or virtual? Historically, many of our panel interviews, especially for roles based near our Peoria, IL headquarters, have been conducted in person. However, hybrid and virtual options are often utilized depending on the specific team and your location. Always confirm the format with your HR coordinator.

Q: Do I need prior healthcare industry experience to be hired? No, prior healthcare experience is not strictly required. While familiarity with healthcare data systems is a nice bonus, we are primarily looking for strong software engineering fundamentals and a passion for our mission. We provide training on the specific healthcare domain knowledge you will need.

Other General Tips

• Prepare for Small Talk: Unlike some rigid tech interviews, OSF HealthCare panels often include casual, non-work-related topics. Be ready to discuss your hobbies, interests, and background naturally. Building personal rapport with the managers is just as important as nailing the technical questions.
• Highlight Your Growth Mindset: Our teams value continuous education. Be sure to express enthusiasm for our internal training processes and any certifications you might have the opportunity to earn.

• Know Your Resume Inside and Out: Interviewers will ask you to recap your previous experience in detail. Be prepared to speak confidently about every technology, project, and duty listed on your resume. If it is on the page, it is fair game for discussion.
• Brush Up on C# Fundamentals: Do not assume that senior-level experience means you can skip reviewing the basics. Be ready to discuss core object-oriented principles, garbage collection, and framework specifics clearly and accurately.

• Ask Insightful Questions: Use the end of the interview to ask about the day-to-day duties, the specific technologies the team is currently adopting, and how engineering success is measured at OSF HealthCare. This shows proactive interest in the role.

Summary & Next Steps

Securing a Software Engineer role at OSF HealthCare is a fantastic opportunity to build impactful technology that directly supports healthcare professionals and patients. The interview process is designed to be a transparent, two-way conversation. By preparing thoroughly for both the technical deep-dives into C# and .NET, and the collaborative, culture-focused panel discussions, you will position yourself as a highly capable and adaptable candidate.

Remember to lean into your past experiences, clearly articulating the value you have brought to previous teams. Approach the panel interview with confidence and a collaborative mindset, knowing that our managers are looking for a great teammate just as much as a great coder. You can explore additional interview insights, question patterns, and preparation resources on Dataford to further refine your strategy.

The compensation data above provides a benchmark for the Software Engineer role. Use this information to understand the typical salary range and compensation components, which will help you navigate the initial HR screening and final offer stages with realistic, data-backed expectations. Best of luck—you have the skills and the preparation to excel in this process!