Library Software Development Manager

Description

The Penn State University Libraries Digital Scholarship & Repository Development (DSRD) department is seeking applications for a manager to lead our expanding Library Software Development team. You are collaborative, thoughtful, and an effective problem solver. You will lead a team that develops and maintains several key systems and services that that support the mission of the Library for discovery, access, and preservation. This team focuses on making information available to the users through both interface development and repositories that provide long-term digital preservation for digital scholarship and research data. You will participate in the library open source information technology community and coordinate with development partners across the world.

This team works in an agile environment with the intention of iterative improvement. You will help define priorities, allocate resources, and improve both our project management and technical processes (i.e., continuous integration and deployment) to improve overall performance and the user experience. You will participate in discussions on requirements gathering, development decisions, and software architecture as well as other phases of the software lifecycle. You will mentor and partner with staff in an empathetic environment to support professional development goals and promote inclusion.

The Library Software Development Manager will contribute to and encourage a collaborative environment for ideas to be shared and respectfully challenged in order to help our team grow and improve our services for our users.

While this position will initially reside in DSRD, it is anticipated that it will transition to leadership for all open source software development across the Libraries. You will also work across teams within DSRD and other units within the libraries to ensure software-based services run smoothly to support the libraries. This is an opportunity to lead an innovative team building open-source software and integrations with vended systems to support the mission of Penn State University Libraries.

The Library Software Development Manager will:

●      Lead in development of library applications that promote access to information for short and long-term access

●      Contribute to an atmosphere of cross-functional teamwork, and provide guidance on multiple projects to help the whole team succeed.

●      Proactively seek opportunities to implement improvements in the deployment and development cycle.

●      Ensure best practices are observed and standards are instituted around software development.

●      Provide timely coaching and mentorship to staff, as well as annual reviews, and help determine appropriate training opportunities to ensure their successful development.

Qualifications

Required

○      Excellent communication skills.

○      Proven record of successfully working in a collaborative team environment to develop software.

○      Enthusiasm for software development and improvement for our users, stakeholders, and developers.

○      Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information science, or related field plus three years of developing and deploying software in a team environment

Preferred

○      Experience collaborating on open-source software.

○      Experience with software release management, continuous integration, and deployment.

○      Understanding of web architecture/services based on REST style, Linked Data pattern.

○      Understanding of linked data, semantic technologies, and ontologies.