Software Engineer III

About this role

Software Engineer IIIDepartment: Digital Employment Type: Full Time Location: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building Reporting To: Sophie Byerley Compensation: $110,000 - $115,000 / year

Description Overview The New York Public Library is seeking a Software Engineer III to join our Digital Asset Preservation and Access (DAPA) team, where they will have a major impact on NYPL’s ability to make more of its extensive collections available online. This includes assets available on NYPL’s Digital Collections site, as well other discovery platforms, staff management tools and the systems that support them.

This will involve major contributions to an ongoing initiative to modernize the systems that provide access to these collections, and from there continue to expand them in collaboration with our partners in NYPL’s Research libraries. This strategic work will underlie much of NYPL’s objectives in this area, and is an exciting opportunity for an engineer to identify improvements that will impact all of our patrons. Some early goals will include building new OCR processes for better search, improving the stability of vital data pipelines and designing new methods of delivering high resolution images to patrons.

To deliver these strategic priorities, we are seeking an engineer who can help us proactively improve our engineering practices generally, develop solutions to longstanding engineering problems (and deploy them), and be an advocate for change on the team. As NYPL’s engineering teams have grown recently we are also looking for a candidate who is interested in collaborating with a wide range of partners to both learn about practices across the library and teach others about our work on DAPA. In all this is an exciting opportunity for an engineer to join an already successful team and help bring it to the next level.

Some expectations for this role are that within:

1 month, this person will:

Complete software development tasks collaboratively in accordance with our engineering workflows

Begin to understand the product requirements for our DAM systems and how they connect to larger strategic objectives

Review code and provide feedback during code reviews

Develop and execute unit tests for own/team’s code to ensure accuracy, reliability and robustness

3 months, this person will:

Develop an understanding of our DAM infrastructure, systems and the challenges facing them

Contribute to new projects and open issues, ensuring that implementation is completed in a maintainable, observable and testable manner

Own your project’s technical decisions that will impact the team and organization, especially around streamlining asset and metadata flows

Take ownership of existing systems

6 months

Consistently contribute to code bases and understand repositories across NYPL Digital

Participate in design and architecture discussions and demonstrate an ability to abstract problems into general solutions

Develop and maintain scripts to automate testing processes

12 months and beyond, this person will:

Own significant components of NYPL’s DAM ecosystem, including their design, implementation and maintenance

Participate in department-wide initiatives, such as the adoption of new testing frameworks, etc

Work well without strong support structures, either between teams or without one

Provide guidance to more junior software engineers regarding applications they own as well as on best practices in general

Collaborate with Engineering leadership on overall direction of team/project

Responsibilities

Understand project needs and how to implement specific technical solution

Take ownership of specific systems and ensure their maintenance/support

Partner with other engineers to design new software systems and improve existing ones

Collaborate with Senior Engineers to help realize new projects

Build software following industry best practices and NYPL values (https://github.com/NYPL/engineering-general)

Contribute to test suites to ensure the creation of accurate, reliable, and robust code

Create technical documentation and specifications for all delivered code

Understand how to identify and remediate tech debt

Identify and resolve ambiguities/issues with requirements for team and org-wide projects

Provide actionable feedback during code reviews

Assume additional responsibilities as required by the organization

Required Education, Experience & SkillsRequired Education and Certifications Bachelor’s Degree - OR - 4+ years of experience developing software applications at scale

Required Experience

Equivalent 4 years hands-on development experience on relevant tech stack

3-5 years in backend development

Required Skills

3+ years in back-end application development in Python or Ruby

Proficiency with one or more Python web frameworks (Flask, Django, etc.)

Strong experience in SQL and relational databases such as mySQL, Postgres, etc.

Proficiency with version control systems and git

Experience with CI/CD tools, especially GitHub Actions

Strong working experience with other languages (PHP or Java preferred)

Familiarity with agile methodologies such as Scrum & Kanban

Familiarity with a major cloud computing platform, especially AWS

Managerial/Supervisory Responsibilities N/A

More... Core Values All team members are expected and encouraged to embody the NYPL Core Values:

Be Helpful to patrons and colleagues

Be Resourceful in solving problems

Be Curious in all aspects of your work

Be Welcoming and Inclusive

Work Environment

Office Environment

Hybrid Work Environment; 3 days in office in NYC; 2 remote (subject to change)

Physical Duties

Limited physical effort is required

May require travel within NYC

Pre-Placement Physical Required?

No

Union/Non Union Non-Union

FLSA Status Exempt

Schedule Monday - Friday; 9-5

This job description represents the types and levels of responsibilities that will be required of the position and shall not be construed as a declaration of all of the specific duties and responsibilities for the role. Job duties may change if Library priorities change. Employees may be directed to perform job-related tasks other than those specifically presented in this description as needed.

The New York Public Library Salary Statement

At the Library, we believe that pay transparency and pay equity are important to ensuring we source the best candidates and keep the best employees. When making a determination as to the appropriate salary for a candidate, we consider a variety of factors such, including, but not limited to, the position requirements, the skills, prior experience, and educational background required or preferred for the job, the scope and impact of the role within the organization, internal peer equity, and the candidate's specific training, experience, education level, and skills. No single factor is conclusive; the Library reserves the right to consider any and all relevant factors and make a decision consistent with its policies.

Union Salaries are determined by collective bargaining agreement(s).