Digital Library Systems Software Engineer

Description

The System Software Developer for Digital Library Systems & Services (DLSS) plays an integral role in defining, developing and delivering information systems and infrastructure for the library of the future at Stanford University. As part of DLSS within Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources (SULAIR), the holder of this position helps SULAIR’s efforts to support scholarship in the digital age by delivering on the promises of the digital library.

The incumbent will be a part of the Digital Library Infrastructure group, a dynamic team focused on realizing core components of the Stanford Unviersity Libraries’ emerging digital library architecture. The team focuses on delivering cross-cutting digital library services and infrastructure, such as service oriented library cyberinfrastructure; digital resource delivery through file, image, media and other service layers; metadata generation and management; and digital asset & rights management. This group works closely with peer teams focused on other aspects of digital library functionality, including Web/UI application development and digital preservation units, in the creation of common and reusable technologies and components. The successful candidate will be responsible for the design and initial development of key technologies needed to support Stanford’s vision of the digital library of the future.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Shared responsibility for maintaining the Digital Object Registry, a core XML- and RDF-based metadata management component of our digital library.
• Shared responsibility for defining and managing Digital Library services used to capture, accession, and delivery of digital resources in the Stanford Library online environment.
• A member of a team responsible for defining and implementing the underlying Web-based service oriented architecture that delivers digital content and infrastructure services.
• Provide software engineering support for implementing and leveraging the open source Fedora framework as part of our overall digital library access and management architecture.
• Provide support for online services and third party tools used to manage and enrich the Digital Library, These include tools like the Orbeon based Metadata Toolkit application and contributions to open source efforts such as IIIF, DMS/Shared Canvas and the Hydra application framework.
• Contribute analysis, expertise and development to other SULAIR cyberinfrastructure and content middleware efforts, e.g., digitization & workflow tools; metadata generation, transformation, editing & QA tools; personalization and collaboration.
• Work collaboratively with the the DLSS web development team, metadata experts, digitization staff and information architects to help define and develop an extensible, robust and modular digital library architecture, infrastructure and application environment.

Qualifications:

• Familiarity with Ruby on Rails both for application development and in engineering an enhanced framework, including plug-ins, engines and gems, for developing library and repository applications.
• Experience in Java and Object Oriented programming concepts as a software engineer in a J2EE environment, and experience in contributing to and/or defining the technical architecture of complex systems.
• Working knowledge of, or ability to quickly learn, relevant scripting technologies such as AJAX, Perl, Python, etc.
• Demonstrated expertise with XML and related tools and technologies (e.g., XML schema, schema management and databases, XSLT, X-forms).
• Experience with SQL and relational database applications and concepts.
• Demonstrated ability to write solid, simple, elegant code both independently and in a team-programming environment and within schedule limitations.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively on a project from specification to launch; and to work with multiple levels of staff, and colleagues at peer institutions and open source communities.
• Demonstrated success contributing to community-based open source projects, specifically those relevant to the Stanford Libraries’ Digital Library architecture, such as Fedora, Blacklight, Solr or Hydra.
• Experience contributing to the successful development and operation of enterprise-scale information systems as reliable infrastructure, balancing between competing demands of new feature development and ongoing support.
• Knowledge of agile software development practices and test driven development principles. Demonstrated understanding of best practices for software development, and an ability to introduce and reinforce application of those practices in a team environment.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver results in a complex and demand driven environment, to handle multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Demonstrated ability to develop new programming skills quickly, and to grasp unfamiliar architectures and application designs quickly.
• Creativity in problem solving to independently resolve technical issues as well as extrapolate from one situation to another.
• Masters degree or equivalent professional experience in Computer Science, Information Science or related field
• Five or more years experience designing middleware, services or infrastructure for software systems.
• Experience in the digital library community
• Prior success in working in an academic environment.
• Seven or more years relevant experience at the 4P4 level; 5-7 years of relevant experience for the 4P3 level.

Desired:

• Familiarity with library-related metadata and metadata standards, particularly MARC, MODS, METS, TEI and EAD.
• Familiarity with RDF and its relationship to Library metadata standards.
• Software Quality Assurance (functional and performance) and testing experience with various applications.