ArchivesSpace Technical Lead

Description

Lyrasis is seeking a collaborative Technical Lead for ArchivesSpace, an open-source, archives information management web application designed for managing descriptive information about archives, manuscripts, and digital objects. (http://www.archivesspace.org/)

The Technical Lead is responsible for oversight, management, and development of the ArchivesSpace application, a large open-source software platform used by people around the world. The Technical Lead works with a broad group of community stakeholders and is responsible for the overall development of the software and management of the code contribution process. The Technical Lead works to engage a broad set of developers to participate in the project, providing technical guidance, support and leadership to maintain a robust developer community.

The ArchivesSpace application was first released in September 2013, and it is sustained by an active member
community of over 450 organizations. Community collaboration and member contributions support and guide
all facets of ArchivesSpace—development, code review, migration support, technical and user documentation—
and are key to the advancement of both the ArchivesSpace application and community.

Duties/Job Responsibilities:

• Oversee and manage development of the ArchivesSpace open-source software application.
  • Build and package major and minor releases (approximately three times a year).
  • Maintain and, when necessary, upgrade the underlying infrastructure of the application.
• Supervise all development work, including staff developers, technical contractors, and (volunteer) community contributors.
• Manage code contribution process.
• Collaborate effectively with a range of stakeholders, from governance group leaders to archival and technical staff at member organizations, to technologists in other organizations in the LAM space, and all across the Lyrasis team.
• Explore cross-platform integrations/interactions with other open-source communities within the LAM space and with other tech leads at Lyrasis.
  • Develop capabilities within the ArchivesSpace platform for stronger integrations.
• Participate in relevant community groups and events and represent ArchivesSpace at relevant technology conferences.
• Contribute bug fixes and feature improvements prioritized by the community.
• Stay abreast of technology and technology trends in archives, libraries, and the wider technology landscape.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

Required Skills and abilities

• Ability to troubleshoot application, database, network, and operating system related issues; ability to analyze stack trace, heap dump; profiler knowledge a plus.
• Understanding of incident, problem, change, and release management practices.
• Proven ability to interact and collaborate with developers and end users.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to effectively explain complex concepts, products, and services to non-technical audiences.
• Must possess self-directed initiative and excel in the areas of time management, organization, and prioritization.
•  

Experience and training

• Strong knowledge and experience with community-developed software.
• Familiarity with agile development methodologies, especially Scrum.
• A strong understanding of Web standards, accessibility, and usability.
• Experience with frontend development in HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, using JQuery and Bootstrap.
• Knowledge and experience developing Ruby (including JRuby) web applications and REST APIs using Rails and Sinatra, with MySQL and Apache Derby backends.
• Experience deploying and packaging JRuby web applications on the Java virtual machine, using Jetty and Apache Tomcat servlet containers.
• Knowledge of best practices in test-driven development, using RSpec, Selenium, static analysis and code coverage tools, and continuous integration (Hudson/Jenkins and GibHub Actions).
• Experience with Apache Solr for search and indexing platforms.
• Knowledge and experience with using Git / GitHub for version control and release management.
• Commitment to writing clear, well-documented, re-usable code.
• Experience writing code for an open-source software project.

Preferred

•  Experience with LAM open-source programs especially ArchivesSpace
• Experience with cross-platform integrations
• Experience with dependency update management
• Familiarity with strategizing and implementing technical debt reduction
• Experience upgrading Solr

The position is part of a geographically and institutionally distributed team, and, as such, applications from candidates interested in telecommuting are welcome.

Applications should include a resume and a cover letter or statement of interest.

Applications will accepted until the position is filled but review of applications will begin on October 9, 2023.

About Us:
Lyrasis is a 501 c 3 non-profit membership organization whose mission is to support enduring access to the world’s shared academic, scientific and cultural heritage through leadership in open technologies, content services, digital solutions and collaboration with archives, libraries, museums and knowledge communities worldwide. Lyrasis organizational and staff values are: communication, respect, collaboration, impact, and service.

Lyrasis was created by its members to help them tackle wide-reaching challenges with a collective strength, including: the development and selection of new technology solutions; fostering community-wide projects that help deliver better outcomes and services; content creation, acquisition and management; support for new content models and strategies; and large-scale knowledge management programs unique to collections-holding institutions.

With an organizational history dating back to 1936, Lyrasis is home to more than 1,000 member academic and public libraries, museums, archives and other collections-holding organizations located in 28 countries. With a global staff of over 60 experts and professionals, Lyrasis is organized into three primary units of focus – community supported/open source software, technology hosting services and content creation and acquisition. In addition to these business units, we also offer specific programs such as consulting, training, fiscal services and more.

Supporting these three units are dedicated teams including member outreach and member services (sales and
customer service), marketing and communications, fiscal operations, grant writing and licensing. These are
unique functional areas and benefits afforded the member. Ultimately, Lyrasis helps its members amplify their impact and influence, participate in global programs, create and deliver better programs and services to their communities, while still maintaining their unique collections, cultures and identities.

At Lyrasis, one of our core values is to provide an inclusive environment to all who are employed here. Therefore, the company is intentional in providing fair and equitable employment opportunities to all applicants, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.