Associate Research Programmer

Description

This is a 24 month limited appointment position with the possibility of extension. This position is grant funded and not eligible for severance pay.

Perseus is an evolving humanities digital library, one of the largest of its kind. The core of the collection consists of Ancient Greek and Latin texts and textual tools, although the data includes multiple languages and demonstration projects as well as classical images and art and archaeological data.

Our primary goal is to bring a wide range of source materials to as large an audience as possible. Perseus researches how people use the tools and materials in the DL in order to develop new ways of structuring and presenting information. We anticipate that greater accessibility to the sources for the study of the humanities will strengthen the quality of questions, lead to new avenues of research, and connect more people through the connection of ideas. The project is over fifteen years old. (see http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/)

The Perseus Digital Library, a research project housed in the Classics Department, seeks an Associate Research Programmer to work with the Perseus staff on developing scalable infrastructure, tools and services to support an open, distributed and collaborative editing and annotation environment for classical texts and related resources.

The specific areas of focus for this position will include:

• Extending the Perseids collaborative editing platform to add new functionality and integrate with various annotation tools, analytical services and editors.  The applications used by the platform are written in a variety of programming languages including Java, Ruby, Javascript, XSLT, and XQuery.
• Participating in workshops and hackathons to explore use cases and prototype new functionality.
• Supporting end-users of the platform, performing code reviews, and documenting code and uses of the platform.

Job Description - Requirements

Basic Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree
• 1-2 years of related experience
• Java, Ruby or other object-oriented programming language, basic Unix administration, Linux, JavaScript, CSS, XML, XSLT RDF and LOD concepts.
• Strong oral and written communications skills. Ability to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical audiences, work with diverse constituencies, and create concise and accurate documentation.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision and in a collaborative team environment.
• Strong organization and time management skills. Ability to multitask and manage multiple projects with competing deadlines.

Preferred Qualifications:

A background with object-oriented programming languages and internet technologies in the field of Digital Humanities is desirable. Working knowledge of digital library infrastructure preferred. Experience with XQuery strongly preferred.

Experience with the development of systems to support multilingual reading, editing and research and an ability to establish connection between this work and subsequent professional education is desirable.


Tufts University is an AA/EO employer and actively seeks candidates from diverse backgrounds.