Senior Software Engineer I - Python

Application Deadline: 19 May 2025

Department: Digital

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

Reporting To: Kyle Jackson Villegas

Compensation: $125,000 - $135,000 / year

Description

This is NOT a remote role and requires onsite work in NYC three days a week.

Overview
The New York Public Library is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join the Digital Research Books (DRB) team. This role will lead the technical efforts to expand access to and increase the discoverability of public domain and open source materials. This work will involve building new integrations with external sources and internal catalogs, while innovating on the organization and searchability of our catalogued data. This role will also lead the project to launch the library’s first patron-facing AI product. Beyond the DRB team, this role will also have the opportunity to contribute to other catalog projects at NYPL.

We are looking for someone we can count on to:

Own:

Digital Research Books APIs that support discoverability and access for a collection of millions of bibliographic records
DRB data pipelines that can ingest and transform metadata and store associated files from a wide range of sources and differing formats
Technical decisions, designs and implementations for difficult and complex problems

Teach:

Support and mentor other engineers, helping them grow their technical skills and utilize engineering best practices
Present on their work to technical and non-technical stakeholders
Build support for the team’s work amongst various interested parties

Learn:

Gain an understanding of library science practices, especially around metadata standards and formats
Connect the dots between different applications to understand how metadata and records can be shared between them
Help the department keep up with new developments and standards in software engineering

Improve:

Grow as a team member and leader, collaborating with other NYPL engineers to solve problems
Seek to retire legacy applications and replace them with modern, streamlined solutions

Some expectations for this role are that within:

1 month, this person will:

Develop an understanding of our infrastructure, environments and deployment practices
Implement tests for all the code that they write
Complete software development tasks independently and collaboratively in accordance with our engineering workflows

3 months, this person will:

Gain a deep understanding of the Digital Research Book’s code base
Regularly perform code review of other engineers’ work
Actively participate in design and architecture discussions

6 months and beyond, this person will:

Consistently contribute to our code bases and understand repositories around NYPL Digital
Provide technical advice and weigh in on decisions that impact our team
Regularly lead design, architecture discussions, and the implementation of projects
Collaborate with other senior engineers and technical team leaders to deliver new features across NYPL Digital
Lead and delegate technical work, mentor teammates, foster collaboration and promote best practices
Make technical decisions under different constraints and ambiguity

Responsibilities

Design and implement scalable, optimized, and maintainable software solutions
Collaborate with multiple teams to build innovative and forward-looking applications for our patrons
Build software following industry best practices and NYPL values (https://github.com/NYPL/engineering-general)
Develop unit, functional and integration test suites to ensure the creation of accurate, reliable, and robust code
Create technical documentation and specifications
Identify and tackle tech debt before it becomes large enough to require standalone work to address it; Remediate existing tech debt within their projects
Identify and resolve ambiguities and/or problems with requirements and roadmap items on adjacent teams and projects
Help other engineers and provide actionable feedback during code reviews
Communicate effectively across disciplines, including through detailed and effective technical writing
Assume additional responsibilities as required by the organization

Required Education, Experience & Skills

Required Education and Certifications

Bachelor’s Degree - OR - Required experience:

Required Experience

Equivalent 4 years hands-on development experience on relevant tech stack
6-10 years in backend development

Required Skills

4+ years in Python application development
Experience implementing and maintaining technical solutions with ML and/or AI
Production experience with one or more Python web frameworks (Flask, Django, etc.)
Experience with Python packaging and dependency management tools (setuptools, pip, poetry, pipenv, etc.)
Proficiency in SQL and relational databases such as mySQL, Postgres, etc.
Proficiency with version control systems and git
Experience with CI/CD tools like Travis, Jenkins, GitHub Actions, etc.
Familiarity with other languages (PHP, Ruby or Java preferred)
Familiarity with agile methodologies such as Scrum & Kanban
Familiarity with a major cloud computing platform (e.g. AWS, Azure, GCP, etc)

Management Responsibilities

Preferred Qualifications

Proficiency in discovery layers such as ElasticSearch and/or Solr
Experience building full-text search solutions
Experience working with containerized software
Experience with creating / managing containers (defining, building, and testing images)
Experience maintaining shared modules and/or working with a private package repository
Basic understanding of the software lifecycle for cloud deployment (CI/CD, build/test/deploy pipelines)
Familiarity with REST and stateless service design
Experience writing integration and load tests
Understanding of deployment infrastructure, either for machine images on EC2 or containers on ECS / EKS
Familiarity with common library metadata standards

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

Hybrid office environment; 3 days in office in NYC - this is NOT a remote role

Physical Duties

Some light lifting/moving may be required

Pre-Placement Physical Required?

Union/Non Union
Non-Union

FLSA Status
Exempt

Schedule

Monday - Friday; 9-5
Hybrid Office Hours - 3 days required onsite in NYC

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).

Hiring Manager Screening Interview

Hiring Manager Interview