Senior Applications Developer
New York Public Library
New York City

**Overview:**  
At NYPL, we are building a new kind of library that engages diverse audiences
with responsive applications, participatory tools, and immediate access to a
vast collection of multimedia content. We're mining rich
library data sets, setting up flexible APIs, and staying in touch with our
users 24x7, 365 days a year. We have a hands-on, creative technical team and a
big public mission that reaches beyond NYC to the world. It's as cool as it
sounds.

  
On the collections side, The New York Public Library is one of the largest and
most-used archival repositories in the country, housing the personal papers of
artists, writers, politicians, and other historical figures and families, as
well as the records of organizations, and other collections of unique and
unpublished material. NYPL's archives contain a staggering array of primary
source content, not only paper documents - such as correspondence,
manuscripts, and diaries - but also photographs, sound recordings, films,
videotapes, artifacts, floppy disks, hard drives and other born-digital
records. Collections can range in size from a single document to hundreds of
boxes. Thousands of books, articles, dissertations, documentaries, and other
works have been created out of our archives.

  
The NYPL Digital team seeks a talented full-stack generalist who can help us
build an amazing online presence for these collections, translating our vision
into maintainable, high performing, and scalable software solutions through
the use of stellar software engineering practices. In particular, NYPL is
seeking support to do full-stack development of archival data display and
workflow tools, including http://archives.nypl.org, ArchivesSpace,
http://digitalcollections.nypl.org, and more.

  
**Principal Responsibilities:  
What you will do:**

  
Design and implement scalable, optimized, and maintainable database-driven web
applications.

Create workflows for processing petabyte-scale data including audio, video,
text, images, etc

Collaborate with a larger team across the library to create new and innovative
online experiences for our users.

Design and build APIs in order to extend our rich content and information to
audiences spanning from NYC to the global community.

Employ object-oriented analysis and design techniques including use case
analysis, object modeling, and database schema design.

Develop applications that astound us.

(And document them so we know what you did).

Build upon (and contribute back to) open source tools

Assume additional responsibilities as required.

  
**Key Competencies:**  
Customer Service

Teamwork

Communication

Technology skills and adaptability to new technology

  
**Minimum Qualifications:**  
What we need:

  
Our staff have backgrounds in performing arts, journalism, and chasing rare
mammals in the Amazon! (Well, maybe not that, but you never know). But
whatever your background, we're looking for smart, inquisitive, people who
want to change the world.

  
The position will report to the Manager of Applications Development and will
work closely with the NYPL archival divisions (whoa, amazing primary source
data), NYPL Labs, our user experience group, and more!

  
Demonstrated experience building web applications in Ruby, PHP, or Java using
a framework such as Rails, Symfony, Spring, etc.

Proficient in Ruby on Rails.

Proficient with HTML and CSS.

Understanding of SQL and working familiarity with relational databases such as
mySQL and Postgres.

Familiarity with a Version Control System such as Git or SVN.

Familiarity with Test Driven Development.

Familiarity with processing large scale media content (video transcoding,
image processing, etc)

Understand object-oriented design and programming techniques.

Understand all stages in the software development life-cycle: Requirements
gathering, Design, Development, Testing, and Implementation..

Ability to work well with others, but also to build things by yourself (and
not afraid to ask for help).

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Architecture, Web
Development, Digital Design, or a related field (or equivalent professional
experience)

Passion for libraries, archives and open source/open access culture is a must.

  
**Bonus points:**  
  
Excellent knowledge of Javascript, including frameworks and techniques such as
AJAX or JQuery

Apache Lucene/Solr, and search tools like Blacklight.

Experience implementing MVC and other architectural patterns.

Experience with AngularJS or similar frameworks.

Having worked in a test driven development, and utilized Agile processes

Experience with AWS platform (EC2, RDS, Glacier, Elastic Transcoder)

Experience with the Fedora open source repository.

Familiarity with digital library technologies and standards.

Experience working with Encoded Archival Description (EAD)

Work Environment:

What We Offer:

  
Mind-blowing material: manuscripts, archives, rare books, maps, A/V,
photography -- you name it, NYPL has collected it and is putting it online.

Appealing workspace in one of the great architectural landmarks of New York
City

Frequent contact/collaboration with folks from: the archives/libraries world,
digital humanities, museums, publishing, open source communities, journalism,
digital arts & design etc.

Attend awesome technical and digital library conferences.

Superb benefits package, vacation time galore

  
**Hours:**  
General business hours apply, but sometimes you'll need to be flexible.

  
**Union / Non Union:**  
Non Union



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