Head of Digital Library Engineering

Description

The MIT Libraries seek to be leaders in the collaborative development of a truly open global network of library repositories and platforms. Towards this vision, we seek a dynamic manager to lead our team of seven engineers and developers.
As the department head of Digital Library Engineering, a part of the Digital Library Services directorate, you’ll shape the development of the Libraries’ emerging technical platform by contributing to technology strategy and roadmapping, while balancing the needs of the MIT community and the Libraries system to support the creation, discovery, management, and sustainability of scholarly information and collections. In collaboration with Institute and global colleagues, you’ll be a leader in researching new and emerging technologies, and contribute to collaborative efforts aimed at facilitating innovative human and machine interactions with collections and scholarly information.
We invite you to join us in our mission to provide a foundation for the generation, dissemination, use, and preservation of knowledge, so that it can be brought to bear on the world’s great challenges, and in the cause of social justice.

Reporting to the Associate Director for Digital Library Services, the Head of Digital Library Engineering will:
● Direct day to day activities of the engineering team, ensuring resources are dedicated appropriately, and prioritizing projects and requests in alignment with organizational goals.
● Collaborate with project management, UX/UI, and infrastructure teams to manage and modernize a complex product portfolio, including onsite development, significant legacy infrastructure, and third-party systems and services.
● Ensure programming standards and practices are maintained through documentation, architecture, governance, and leadership, and use appropriate assessment techniques to ensure effective operations and continuous improvement of the department.
● Build strong relationships to ensure that the engineering team’s work is closely aligned with both scholar needs and Libraries strategy, adheres to standard methodologies, and is well-understood among business partners and system users alike.
● Participate in developing strategy and goals for the directorate, with direct responsibility for professional development, training, roadmapping and action planning, day-to-day management of engineering work, and alignment of the team's work with the Libraries’ overall strategic aims.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
• Bachelor’s degree in related field required.
• 7+ years relevant, progressive experience in a user-focused technology service organization.
• Minimum 3 years project leadership or product management experience required.
• Demonstrated success leading complex technical projects through completion and handoff, utilizing a variety of formal project management methodologies.
• Demonstrated experience translating high-level strategic priorities into day-to-day actions with a team of engineers.
• Demonstrated experience defining and/or implementing standard and robust engineering practices.
• Demonstrated experience with DevOps methods and healthy collaboration with technology operations teams.
• Dedication to diversity and inclusion, both in supporting a diverse workforce and in serving the needs of a diverse population.
• Excellent analytical and communication skills.
 

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
● Graduate degree in engineering, information technology, or management, or equivalent experience and training.
● Prior experience directly managing engineering teams.
● Demonstrated success developing healthy, long-term, multi-project relationships with a variety of collaborators.
● Proven commitment to building and working with diverse teams and implementing practices for recognizing and reducing institutional and algorithmic bias.
● Domain experience with any of the following:
o API-first system architecture and design;
o Metadata and digital asset management;
o Developing and/or implementing accessibility and privacy policies and procedures.
o Working with and/or leading open source software development projects.

SALARY AND BENEFITS:
Salary commensurate with experience and qualifications. MIT offers excellent benefits including a choice of health and retirement plans, a dental plan, tuition assistance and a relocation allowance. The MIT Libraries afford a flexible and collegial working environment and foster professional growth of staff with management training and travel funding for professional meetings.