Web Application Programmer for Digital Publishing

Description

 As publishers, we craft a message about our content, our authors, and ourselves. As developers, we create the tools to deliver that message online. The message and its delivery are intimately linked, and both the technology choices we make and how well we implement them reflect on us as publishers of content. Are you ready to join the team that makes this innovation happen?

Michigan Publishing seeks an Application Programmer to design and develop a variety of software systems to transform the practices of scholarly publishing. As a member of the Publishing Technology team, you'll create new applications for web delivery of content and office productivity tools to enhance production workflow, maintain and improve existing systems, and take part in experiments with new, better, more open models for scholarly publishing.

This is a full-time, TWO YEAR, TERM-LIMITED position with the possibility for renewal.

Responsibilities*
Michigan Publishing is the primary academic publishing enterprise of the University of Michigan and part of its dynamic and innovative university library. Publishing Technology is responsible for the design, development, and maintenance of digital delivery systems and management tools which place Michigan Publishing on the cutting edge of today's scholarly communication landscape. See the scope and variety of our work at publishing.umich.edu. Some highlights:
- University of Michigan Press (press.umich.edu)
- mPach (hathitrust.org/mpach)
- Digital Culture Books (digitalculture.org)
- The Pancreapedia (pancreapedia.org)
- The Journal of Electronic Publishing (journalofelectronicpublishing.org)

Duties:
- Develop new tools for the creators, producers, and readers of our scholarly content in a test-driven Ruby-JRuby environment
- Redesign, refactor, and document existing systems for improved maintenance
- Problem analysis: we don't just fulfill requests, we work with stakeholders to improve them

Required Qualifications*
- Bachelors degree and 3 or more years experience in designing, developing, coding and maintaining data-driven applications or equivalent amount of related education and experience
- Ability to work independently in a flexible development environment and contribute your ideas back to the team
- Demonstrated understanding of current web standards as recommended by W3C including accessibility standards and cross browser issues;
- Experience using Linux, MVC frameworks, Object Oriented Programming, version control workflows, test-driven development, and XML;
- Demonstrated ability to design effective UI/UX using HTML5 and CSS3.
- Commitment to writing clean, documented code
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to work well in a multicultural and collaborative environment

Desired Qualifications*
- Experience with Ruby on Rails, JRuby, Git, MySQL, JQuery, XSLT, Perl, PHP, RESTful APIs.
- Experience working in the publishing, library, or other information industries.
- Experience as a project manager
- Intellectual curiosity and desire to discuss why we develop what we develop.

Additional Information
Excellent benefits, including 24 vacation days per year, partial tuition reimbursement, travel support for up to two (2) conferences per year, and 2:1 retirement fund contributions.

Questions about this job description may be emailed to Jeremy Morse, Director of Publishing Technology at jgmorse@umich.edu.

Application Deadline
Job openings are posted for a minimum of seven calendar days. This job may be removed from posting boards and filled anytime after the minimum posting period has ended.

U-M EEO/AA Statement
The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.