SENIOR BACKEND DEVELOPER (Full-Time)

Description

SENIOR BACKEND DEVELOPER (Full-Time)

LOCATION: Flexible, NYC or SF preferred. Must have eligibility to work in the US.

APPLY BY: January 16th, 2018

**Rhizome is an Equal Opportunity Employer and candidates from groups generally underrepresented in technical fields are especially encouraged to apply.**

ABOUT RHIZOME

Rhizome champions born-digital art and culture through programs that commission, present, and preserve art made with and through digital networks and tools. Online since 1996, the organization is an affiliate of the the iconic New Museum in New York City.

Software development, with a digital preservation focus, is a core activity at Rhizome. We are building infrastructure to enact software-based, performatic artifacts, while ensuring the growth of and continuing public access to the Rhizome ArtBase, a collection of 2,000+ born-digital artworks, first opened in 1999 with a strong focus on net art.

ABOUT THE WEBRECORDER PROJECT

Webrecorder is an innovative, open source web application that allows users to create high-fidelity, interactive, contextual archives of social media and other dynamic web content. Webrecorder provides a novel approach to web archiving, allowing users full control over the archiving flow by recording content directly as they explore the web in their own browser. Webrecorder aims to serve a wide range of users, including archivists, librarians, everyday web users, amateurs, activists, journalists, and artists.

The project uses Python-based web archiving tools on the backend, is run using Docker containers, and is fully available at: https://github.com/webrecorder/webrecorder

The service is deployed at: https://webrecorder.io/  and a desktop application, Webrecorder Player (https://github.com/webrecorder/webrecorderplayer-electron) is a tool to allow users to browse web archives offline.

The team is distributed between New York, San Francisco, Providence, and Stuttgart, Germany. The full team meets in-person several times a year.

This work is supported by a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR
We are looking for a committed and passionate coder to work on Webrecorder’s backend infrastructure, contributing to expanding this state-of-the-art web archiving tool set. This is an opportunity for a mid-to-senior-level developer to take responsibility for a key aspect of Webrecorder’s core systems, based on experience and interest, and contribute to their expansion and scaling.

The developer will contribute as needed to other Webrecorder areas of development in
infrastructure, maintenance and testing with guidance from the Lead Developer. The
developer will assist with basic dev-ops work, providing backup support to the Lead Developer to ensure all systems are up and operational.

An ideal candidate would possess a passion for making a difference combined with strong technical expertise. This is a full-time position. Candidates must have prior eligibility to work in the US.

QUALIFICATIONS

The qualifications listed below are guidelines, not absolute requirements. Candidates will be assessed weighing skills, experience, and passion.

• Experience as a backend developer on at least two shipped products

• Expert knowledge of Python

• Working knowledge of Javascript

• Experience development in a Linux-based environment

• Strong domain knowledge in any of the following areas:

  • Web crawling or Web Archiving Tools

  • Browser-based testing pipelines

  • Analytics and data pipelines

  • Distributed Architectures

  • Digital repositories

  • Full-text search

• Specific experience with: Docker, Apache Solr, Apache Tika, and/or Fedora digital repository software

• Experience with AWS or other cloud service deployments, dev-ops

• Experience working with or implementing standards, such as RFC specifications

• Familiarity with web standards and latest protocols

• Familiarity with emerging decentralized web technologies and projects

• A passion for building great open-source software to make a positive difference

• Willingness to work with a small, but geographically-dispersed team

• Interest in pushing web technology to the limit for the greater good of the user

• Excellent communication skills

• Ability to lead, communicate, and work well within a team

• A deep engagement with digital culture and emerging technologies

To apply, send a resume, cover letter and links to code samples, projects and/or a Github account, to webrecorderjobs@rhizome.org by end of day, January 16th, 2018

Previous work samples or demos are especially encouraged.