Ruby-on-Rails Developer - freelance opportunity

Description

 Bard Graduate Center is  building a dynamic  library catalog to support the rigorous scholarship undertaken by our students, faculty and staff.  Using a customized installation of Blacklight, an open source software that runs on Ruby-on-Rails and is fed by Solr and EBSCO Discovery Services, this discovery tool will integrate the holdings of our library’s book collection with the holdings from various electronic database and periodical subscriptions through one interface. We are seeking a highly organized developer to perform occasional maintenance, upgrades, and new development.

Work will fall into two categories:

Maintenance of existing system: help troubleshoot front- and back-end issues; proactively implement improvements to current functionality and design.

New development: With additional data sources and major enhancements planned for 2016,  we are looking for a collaborator to help evaluate the existing system and make recommendations for improvement.

Required Qualifications:

• Expert-level Ruby on Rails development experience
• Intermediate/Advanced-level Apache Solr configuration and administration
• Intermediate/Advanced-level LAMP stack development and configuration
• Experience with SVN (or similar) and best practices in code/deployment management.
• Intermediate-level HTML, Javascript, and other front-end technologies
• Ability to analyze the existing system and accurately estimate the level of effort required for new features, workflow changes, and bug fixes.
• Highly organized, motivated creative individual who finds joy in clean code.
• Excellent communication skills.  You are someone who reaches out proactively to help problem-solve the issues that inevitably arise when working with a customized system.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working with Blacklight. 
• Familiarity with EBSCO Discovery Services
• Experience working with library systems or higher education institutions

Bard Graduate Center offers MA and PhD programs in the study of the cultural history of the material world and is committed to the encyclopedic study of things, drawing on methodologies and approaches from art and design history, history of technology, philosophy, anthropology, and archaeology. Founded in 1993, the Bard Graduate Center is located on West 86th Street in New York City.

To apply, please email to developer@bgc.bard.edu :

• A letter of interest
• Resume
• Example of work