Digital Library Web Developer

Description

The Amherst College Library seeks a talented programmer to help develop and maintain systems and tools supporting digital asset management, digital scholarship and publishing, and digital preservation. Amherst College has profoundly transformed its student body in terms of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and nationality, among other areas. Today, nearly one-quarter of Amherst’s students consists of Pell Grant recipients, and many more are first generation students; nearly half of our students are non-immigrant minorities. We seek candidates who have experience working in a multicultural environment and/or are interested in contributing to a diverse community.

You will work with a cross-departmental team to make unique, rare, and culturally significant materials available online for the first time and to enhance existing systems for discovery and analysis: transcription and annotation tools for the Emily Dickinson manuscripts, geographic interfaces for the Kim-Wait Eisenberg Native American Literature Collection, and visualization tools for digital scholarship projects. The position provides an opportunity to experiment with emerging technologies in support of the library’s mission to foster inquiry, discovery, and creation.

The Web Developer will contribute to the overall development of the Amherst College Digital Collections infrastructure, including creating online discovery environments that allow users to search, analyze, visualize, and interact with digital collections and data; building tools for authoring and publishing digital works; and developing digital preservation functions. This position will also be responsible for developing selected digital scholarship projects for the library and the Amherst College Press. The Web Developer will work in concert with developers in the college’s Department of Information Technology, and in collaboration with library colleagues and faculty.

Duties:

●    Developing and implementing web applications across multiple environments and operating platforms
●    Making recommendations for appropriate frameworks for application development and service delivery that take into account the cost of implementation, integration, support, and maintenance
●    Assuring data integrity across storage and data assets
●    Conducting maintenance, monitoring performance and security monitoring, and updating web, database, and ancillary services
●    Adhering to established development methodology standards, practices, and procedures
●    Troubleshooting and coordinating response to bugs, including effective management of help desk ticketing system responsibilities
●    Working closely with teams from the college’s Department of Information Technology
●    Creating technical and user documentation
●    Prioritizing multiple tasks effectively

Qualifications:

Required:
●    BA or better or 3+ years relevant experience
●    Fluent in more than one server and client side programming language. Familiarity with Ruby, Python, JavaScript
●    Excellent people skills, including a willingness to listen and an inclination to seek consensus. The diplomatic skills necessary to coordinate work among disparate people, personalities, and constituencies
●    A commitment to service and a willingness to embrace the ideals and values of a multicultural liberal-arts college

Preferred:
●    Professional experience developing data-driven web applications as part of a team
●    Experience developing web applications targeting mobile devices
●    Demonstrated facility with standard design patterns for software development, such as Model-View-Controller or Service Oriented Architecture
●    Familiarity with Digital Asset Management Systems and/or library metadata formats (e.g. MODS, DC)
●    Demonstrated understanding of the humanities, digital scholarship, and academic culture
●    Demonstrated talent in visual design and interaction design
●    Experience in collaborative environments working with both technical and non-technical partners

Interested candidates should submit a cover letter, resume, and the names and contact information of three professional references. A review of applications will begin October 31, 2014, and continue until the position is filled.