Digital Library Software Engineer/Repository Software Engineer

Description

There is a strong candidate identified for this position.

The Repository Software Engineer serves as a key engineer for the development and delivery of the Stanford Digital Repository (SDR), the cornerstone of the Stanford University Libraries' digital library ecosystem. SDR manages hundreds of terabytes of assets, and is evolving to encompass an expanding set of scholarly workflows for deposit, processing and re-use of research data, media, and more. This position serves as a principal developer in extending the SDR's functionality, and in helping lead the engineering of robust and effective cyberinfrastructure. S/he will also help define the evolving information architecture for the libraries as its data models expand to embrace linked data, and represent Stanford in the open source communities in which the Libraries actively engage.

Within the Libraries, this position reports to the Libraries' Information Architect / manager of Digital Library Infrastructure. The post-holder is an integral member of SUL's digital library team, and works closely with its product and service managers on shaping and supporting SDR, as well as other developers and system administrators in system engineering and delivery. The successful candidate will bring experience and passion leveraging innovation in information technologies and software engineering to maximize the value of digital repositories in enriching the research enterprise.

This is a four year, fixed-term position with the possibility of extension.

Duties and Responsibilities

Engineering for the Stanford Digital Repository (50%)
Develop and deliver enhancements and operational improvement to the SDR, an ecosystem of applications, services and datastores based on Fedora, solr, and Ruby on Rails, with an emphasis on the Hydra collaborative framework. Work in an agile, test-driven, team development environment, balancing the rapid and incremental delivery of new features with operational robustness. Play a critical role technical role in satisfying the University's needs for a large-scale digital repository supporting tailored user interfaces and workflows.
Library Cyberinfrastructure Design, Development and Support (30%)
Adopt, adapt and collaboratively extend SUL's digital library cyberinfrastructure ("lyberstructure"): digital object registry, web and workflow services, content processing services for digitization & workflow tools; metadata generation, transformation, editing & QA; personalization and collaboration.
Information Architecture and System Design (10%)
Adapt repository data systems and supporting tools to consume and produce RDF and linked data. Collaborate with colleagues and institutional partners to define and adapt data models, tools and services for a rich variety of digital resources.
Community Engagement (10%)
Represent Stanford in the digital library and open source communities; identify and adapt code that fits Stanford's environment. Document and disseminate Stanford developments to other adopters and potential code contributors.

Required and Desired Skills
Experience defining and contributing to the technical architecture of complex information management systems.
Expertise with Ruby on Rails both for application development and in engineering an enhanced framework, including plug-ins, engines and gems, for developing library and repository applications.
Working knowledge of Java and Object Oriented programming concepts, SQL and relational database applications and concepts, and tools for systems deployment, operation and monitoring.
Working knowledge of an RDF-based infrastructure, including triple stores and SPARQL. Demonstrated expertise with production-oriented application development using RDF and related tools and technologies.
Working knowledge of agile software development practices and test driven development principles. Demonstrated understanding of best practices for software development, and an ability to introduce and reinforce application of those practices in a team environment.
Demonstrated experience writing solid, simple, elegant code both independently and in a team-programming environment and within schedule limitations.
Demonstrated experience working collaboratively on a project from specification to launch; and to work with multiple levels of staff, and colleagues at peer institutions and open source communities; excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Demonstrated success contributing to community-based open source projects, specifically those relevant to the Stanford Libraries' Digital Library architecture, such as Fedora, Blacklight, Solr or Hydra.
Masters degree or equivalent professional experience in Computer Science, Information Science or related field.
Five or more years relevant experience designing middleware, services or infrastructure for information-based software systems.
Seven or more years relevant experience designing middleware, services or infrastructure for complex software systems for consideration at the 4P4 level
Desired:
Familiarity with library-related metadata and metadata standards, particularly MARC, MODS, METS, TEI and EAD.
Familiarity with the use of RDF, linked data and semantic markup in digital library and digital humanities projects.
Experience in the digital library community.
Prior success in working in an academic environment.