Senior Applications Developer

Description

Overview:
At NYPL, we are building a new kind of library that engages diverse audiences with responsive applications, participatory tools, and immediate access to a vast collection of multimedia content.  We’re mining rich library data sets, setting up flexible APIs, and staying in touch with our users 24x7, 365 days a year. We have a hands-on, creative technical team and a big public mission that reaches beyond NYC to the world. It’s as cool as it sounds.

On the collections side, The New York Public Library is one of the largest and most-used archival repositories in the country, housing the personal papers of artists, writers, politicians, and other historical figures and families, as well as the records of organizations, and other collections of unique and unpublished material. NYPL's archives contain a staggering array of primary source content, not only paper documents – such as correspondence, manuscripts, and diaries – but also photographs, sound recordings, films, videotapes, artifacts, floppy disks, hard drives and other born-digital records. Collections can range in size from a single document to hundreds of boxes. Thousands of books, articles, dissertations, documentaries, and other works have been created out of our archives.

The NYPL Digital team seeks a talented full-stack generalist who can help us build an amazing online presence for these collections, translating our vision into maintainable, high performing, and scalable software solutions through the use of stellar software engineering practices. In particular, NYPL is seeking support to do full-stack development of archival data display and workflow tools, including http://archives.nypl.org, ArchivesSpace, http://digitalcollections.nypl.org, and more.

Principal Responsibilities:
What you will do:

Design and implement scalable, optimized, and maintainable database-driven web applications.
Create workflows for processing petabyte-scale data including audio, video, text, images, etc
Collaborate with a larger team across the library to create new and innovative online experiences for our users.
Design and build APIs in order to extend our rich content and information to audiences spanning from NYC to the global community.
Employ object-oriented analysis and design techniques including use case analysis, object modeling, and database schema design.
Develop applications that astound us.
(And document them so we know what you did).
Build upon (and contribute back to) open source tools
Assume additional responsibilities as required.

Key Competencies:
Customer Service
Teamwork
Communication
Technology skills and adaptability to new technology

Minimum Qualifications:
What we need:

Our staff have backgrounds in performing arts, journalism, and chasing rare mammals in the Amazon! (Well, maybe not that, but you never know). But whatever your background, we’re looking for smart, inquisitive, people who want to change the world.

The position will report to the Manager of Applications Development and will work closely with the NYPL archival divisions (whoa, amazing primary source data), NYPL Labs, our user experience group, and more!

Demonstrated experience building web applications in Ruby, PHP, or Java using a framework such as Rails, Symfony, Spring, etc.
Proficient in Ruby on Rails.
Proficient with HTML and CSS.
Understanding of SQL and working familiarity with relational databases such as mySQL and Postgres.
Familiarity with a Version Control System such as Git or SVN.
Familiarity with Test Driven Development.
Familiarity with processing large scale media content (video transcoding, image processing, etc)
Understand object-oriented design and programming techniques.
Understand all stages in the software development life-cycle: Requirements gathering, Design, Development, Testing, and Implementation..
Ability to work well with others, but also to build things by yourself (and not afraid to ask for help).
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Architecture, Web Development, Digital Design, or a related field (or equivalent professional experience)
Passion for libraries, archives and open source/open access culture is a must.

Bonus points:

Excellent knowledge of Javascript, including frameworks and techniques such as AJAX or JQuery
Apache Lucene/Solr, and search tools like Blacklight.
Experience implementing MVC and other architectural patterns.
Experience with AngularJS or similar frameworks.
Having worked in a test driven development, and utilized Agile processes
Experience with AWS platform (EC2, RDS, Glacier, Elastic Transcoder)
Experience with the Fedora open source repository.
Familiarity with digital library technologies and standards.
Experience working with Encoded Archival Description (EAD)
Work Environment:
What We Offer:

Mind-blowing material: manuscripts, archives, rare books, maps, A/V, photography -- you name it, NYPL has collected it and is putting it online.
Appealing workspace in one of the great architectural landmarks of New York City
Frequent contact/collaboration with folks from: the archives/libraries world, digital humanities, museums, publishing, open source communities, journalism, digital arts & design etc.
Attend awesome technical and digital library conferences.
Superb benefits package, vacation time galore

Hours:
General business hours apply, but sometimes you’ll need to be flexible.

Union / Non Union:
Non Union