Job Opportunity: Developer (Frontend and Web Applications)

By DPLA, April 21, 2017.
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The Digital Public Library of America seeks a full-time Developer to support ongoing work on the DPLA public-facing Web applications.

We are seeking a curious and enthusiastic individual who recognizes both their technical strengths and areas for growth, who can help us work effectively to further DPLA’s mission to bring together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and make them freely available to all. A belief in this mission, and the drive to accomplish it over time in a collaborative spirit within and beyond the organization, is essential.

Responsibilities

Reporting to the Director for Technology, the Developer:

  • Will participate in a high-impact, upcoming site-wide redesign effort
  • Builds out functionality on the DPLA website and internal tools, including tools related to search, content management, and community engagement
  • Customizes and deploys open source software to suit organizational needs
  • Performs other related duties and participates in special projects as assigned.

As a member of the DPLA Technology Team, the Developer:

  • Contributes to design, development, testing, integration, support, and documentation of user-facing applications and back-end systems.
  • Participates in software engineering team group activities including sprint rituals, code reviews, and knowledge sharing activities.
  • Supports content management policies, process, and workflows, and contributes to the development of new ones.
  • Collaborates with internal and external stakeholders in planning and implementation of applications supporting DPLA’s mission, strategic plan, and special initiatives.
  • Maintains knowledge of emerging technologies to support the DPLA’s evolving services.
  • Embodies and promotes the philosophy of open source, shared, and community-built software and technologies.
  • Brings creative vision around possibilities for work with data that we haven’t yet imagined.

Requirements

  • 5+ years professional experience in software development or a related discipline.
  • A proven ability to build websites and web applications targeted at the general public and that operate at public scale
  • Experience with server and client webapp languages such as Ruby, Python, and Javascript and associated frameworks.
  • Ability to build building user-centric, accessible websites that conform to responsive design principles and work across a variety of devices
  • A passion for writing clean, performant, and testable code.
  • Understanding the importance of continuous integration, automated testing and deployments, and static analysis of code quality
  • Demonstrated experience working effectively in a team environment and the ability to interact well with stakeholders.
  • Desire and enthusiasm about learning new toolsets, programming languages, or methods to support software development.

Preferred Qualifications

  • A history of collaboration with open source projects
  • Knowledge of client-side JS frameworks like Angular/React
  • A history of work with data centric applications and search-oriented architecture
  • A successful history of working effectively in a geographically-distributed organization.
  • Experience working on an agile team using methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban

Nice to Have

  • Mobile development experience, particularly using tools that promote reuse of web assets
  • Experience building and using REST APIs and distributed architectures
  • Advanced knowledge of modern Javascript/Typescrip
  • Experience working with or in a library, museum, archive or other cultural heritage organization
  • Experience working with multiple formats such as audio, video, ebooks, and newspapers in the browser environment

This position is full-time. DPLA is a geographically-distributed organization, with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. Ideally, this position would be situated in the Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C. and Boston, but remote work based in other locations will also be considered.

Like its collection, DPLA is strongly committed to diversity in all of its forms. We provide a full set of benefits, including health care, life and disability insurance, and a retirement plan. Starting salary is commensurate with experience.

About DPLA

DPLA connects people to the riches held within America’s libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions. Since launching in April 2013, it has aggregated more than 16 million items from 2,350 institutions. DPLA is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit.

To apply, send a letter of interest detailing your qualifications, a resume, and a list of 3 references in a single PDF to jobs@dp.la. Direct applications only – no recruiters, please. Applications will be considered until the position is filled.