Developer Senior (2-Year Term)

Department: NUL Digital Prod Data Curation
Salary/Grade: ITS/81

Job Summary:

The Digital Products and Data Curation team at Northwestern University Libraries is looking for a term Senior Developer to help us build best-in-class AI driven, opensource discovery and metadata description applications for use by Northwestern and the wider library community. A member of the Digital Products team, the successful candidate will take part in a variety of public-facing, open-source projects that challenge assumptions about discovery of library collections and metadata generation. Prioritizing working code and pragmatic solutions, Northwestern Libraries is looking for a candidate that thrives in a fast-paced environment solving complex problems with bleeding-edge tools and who strives to improve access to a rich collection of cultural heritage artifacts including the 1968 Bursar's Office Takeover, Berkeley Folk Music, and photos from the WPA https://dc.library.northwestern.edu/collections/ . In addition, the incumbent will focus on developing practices and standards that help the wider community implement similar systems. As a member of Northwestern's Digital Products team, the successful candidate will thrive in an environment that moves fast, leverages team decision making processes, favors experimentation, and pragmatic implementations.

As a Senior Developer, the incumbent participates as technical expert, manages complex projects independently and assists in estimating and planning for future development work. They will perform complex system integration tasks using a variety of tools and techniques. The position requires a deep understanding of cloud-based infrastructure and contemporary best practices in automated deployment strategy.

Please Note: This is a full-time benefits eligible 2-year term position in support of a major federal grant. The anticipated salary for the first year is $93,375. This position is remote eligible. Some travel is expected for industry events and campus workshops.

Specific Responsibilities:

Strategic Planning

• Participates in a collaborative agile team environment to map out and update
• stories and tasks for iterative work.
• Provides application development leadership for new and existing software
• applications.
• Provides recommendation on how to enhance digital collections and AI enabled discovery systems.
• Advises/recommends projects and activities as related to system/architectural.
• Partners with users in designing features for technology.
• Participates in a collaborative agile team environment to map out and update stories and tasks for iterative work.

Administration

• Responds to library staff inquiries via email.
• Creates and maintains code documentation.
• Evaluates feature/upgrade/change requests and recommends action.
• Participates in interview process for new hires.
• Identifies database and software performance issues and makes adjustments.
• Works with other senior developers to deploy production ready software to cloud based environments.

Development

• Researches and develops new algorithms and statistical techniques designed for analyzing data based on customer needs.
• Researchers and develops cutting-edge generative AI integrations and toolchains using industry best practices.
• Develops and maintains software infrastructure, via patches, bundles, releases and maintenance packs.
• Codes software applications adhering to designs supporting internal business requirements or external user for use with the Library's digital collections and related opensource projects.
• Designs databases and data structures.
• Prioritizes tasks within project.
• Meets with business analyst/stakeholder to determine requirements.
• Opens tickets with vendors.
• Adheres to the Library's quality assurance standards and follows best practices.
• Collaborates with others inside and outside of the University on software projects facilitating open source and other cooperative contributions.

Miscellaneous

Performs other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's or higher degree in a major such as computer science, information technology, or related; OR appropriate combination of education and experience.
• Understanding of contemporary best practices and toolchains for AI and ML.
• Expert knowledge of Python and at least one other programming language.
• Track record of successful projects shipped to production.
• Experience with database technologies (such as MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and the SQL language) on enterprise level systems.
• 4 years relevant experience required.

Enterprise Applications

• Digital repository
• Other: ChatGPT, Github

Infrastructure (extends across applications)

• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• LDAP
• Mac OS X Operating System
• NoSQL (MongoDB, CouchDB)
• SQL/MySQL/Postgres
• Other apis

Programming Languages and Frameworks

• CSS
• Erlang
• HTML 5
• JavaScrip
• Python
• Shell Scripting
• XML
• Other: Langchain, jupyter notebooks

Analytical

• critical thinking
• data modeling
• database design/ data structure
• Debugging
• decision making
• judgment
• problem solving
• read & interpret technical drawings
• Troubleshooting
• use-case analysis

Project

• agile environment
• Code documentation
• collaboration and teamwork
• evaluate resources
• facilitate collaboration
• functional documentation
• iterative & incremental development
• organizational skills
• Scrum project framework
• workflow development & documentation

Minimum Competencies: (Skills, knowledge, and abilities.)

• Understanding of complex cloud environments.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with changing requirements.
• Ability to gather and synthesize information from a variety of sources (academic, industry).
• Knowledge of best practices in large-scale cloud environments.
• Demonstrated commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access (DEIA).

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Science, or a related field.
• Familiarity with AI tools specifically LangChain, OpenAI, AWS Sagemaker, Bedrock
• Experience with Library metadata standards such as METS, MODS, MARC, PREMIS, MIX, and/or Dublin Core.
• Knowledge of various types of audio, video, image, text, and other media formats.
• Knowledge of multi-modal analysis of text, audio, video, and image-based assets.
• Knowledge of MVC web development frameworks, particularly Ruby on Rails.
• Current or prior involvement with open source software project(s), as either code contributor or maintainer.
• Experience with Library IT or IT in a higher education environment.

Preferred Competencies: (Skills, knowledge, and abilities)

• Contributor to multiple large open-source projects.
• Worked in complex team environments (stakeholders, backend, frontend members).
• Experience with Scrum or other agile methodology.

Benefits:
At Northwestern, we are proud to provide meaningful, competitive, high-quality health care plans, retirement benefits, tuition discounts and more! Visit us at https://www.northwestern.edu/hr/benefits/index.html to learn more.

Work-Life and Wellness:
Northwestern offers comprehensive programs and services to help you and your family navigate life's challenges and opportunities, and adopt and maintain healthy lifestyles.
We support flexible work arrangements where possible and programs to help you locate and pay for quality, affordable childcare and senior/adult care. Visit us at https://www.northwestern.edu/hr/benefits/work-life/index.html to learn more.

Professional Growth & Development:
Northwestern supports employee career development in all circumstances whether your workspace is on campus or at home. If you're interested in developing your professional potential or continuing your formal education, we offer a variety of tools and resources. Visit us at https://www.northwestern.edu/hr/learning/index.html to learn more.

Northwestern strongly recommends COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters for people who can obtain them as a critical tool for minimizing severe illness. More information can be found on the COVID-19 and Campus Updates webpage.

The Northwestern campus sits on the traditional homelands of the people of the Council of Three Fires, the Ojibwe, Potawatomi, and Odawa as well as the Menominee, Miami and Ho-Chunk nations. We acknowledge and honor the original people of the land upon which Northwestern University stands, and the Native people who remain on this land today.

Northwestern University is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer of all protected classes, including veterans and individuals with disabilities. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are encouraged to apply. Click for information on EEO is the Law.