Software Engineering Manager, Research

This is not a remote role; this role is hybrid and requires three days a week in the office in NYCJob Summary NYPL is hiring a Software Engineering Manager to help lead our research teams in developing our suite of discovery and access tools. These include the Research Catalog, which provides access to over 20 million volumes and Digital Collections, which provides access to over a million digitized assets, as well as other tools that provide access to NYPL's extensive archives and special collections.

These patron-facing applications are backed by a set of data pipelines and APIs that support discovery and ensure that patrons can request materials, make research appointments and order high-resolution scans, among other options. This role will ensure that these systems are maintained while helping lead strategic work that will help NYPL build a unified experience for our research patrons, ensuring that they have easy access to the incredible wealth of NYPL's collections.

The Software Engineering Manager will manage 2 high performing teams of engineers that develop and maintain these tools, working to both continue their work and level them up in terms of skills and practices. Additionally this role will contribute to the technical leadership of NYPL Digital by helping set standards for best practices in development and other technical areas. It will be a key member of our engineering leadership and help ensure that our strategic priorities are well defined, deliverable and in line with the teams' work.

They will have the opportunity to partner with departments across NYPL to identify and deliver on shared priorities, helping continue NYPL's position as a leader in library technology.

We are looking for someone we can count on to:

Own:

The day-to-day development work and priorities for the Research engineering teams

Strategic priorities and projects for the Research teams, including new feature development and the shipping of new products

Overall development roadmaps for the Research teams, ensuring capacity to tackle product work as well as routine maintenance and technical debt

A broad base of technical knowledge to be able to identify solutions for difficult problems in our Research products

Relationships between the Research engineering teams and both our internal Product/Project teams as well as stakeholders across NYPLTeach:

Support and mentor Research engineers, helping them deliver results on time and in accordance with department standards

Present on their and the team's work to technical and non-technical stakeholders

Build support for Research's work among interested parties across NYPLAlign approaches to development between engineering teams, sharing best practices

Learn:

Gain an understanding of library science practices, especially around the metadata standards and practices used in NYPL's Research systems

Investigate the connections between NYPL's different research tools to learn how records and metadata can be shared and connected between them Collaborate with Engineering leadership to help improve NYPL Digital's culture and implement best practices is software development

Improve:

Grow as a team member, collaborating with other NYPL engineers to solve problems

Retire legacy applications and replace them with modern, streamlined solutions

Identify hidden connections between our collections and design ways to surface them

Some expectations for this role are that within:1 month, this person will:

Build an understanding of NYPL's Research products and architecture

Meet with engineering team members as well as key stakeholders to understand the team's current work streams and strategic priorities

Review and understand their teams' current development practices and workflows

Collaborate with other engineering leaders to understand the current state of the engineering organization and its priorities3 months, this person will:

Understand the Research teams' codebases, their status and development needs

Build a picture of the status of engineering team members with regards to the status of their work and their annual goals

Participate in design and priority discussions with product and project management

Lead conversations about the Research teams' development progress and help report on status to Digital leadership6 months and beyond, this person will:

Provide mentorship to engineering team members on both project based work and longer term career goals

Regularly influence design and architecture discussions for Research products

Collaborate with engineering leadership to deliver new features across NYPL and facilitate the adoption of best practices based development in the department

Take overall responsibility for new engineering projects, coordinating engineers on the Research teams

Help lead product development by taking accountability for delivery, mentoring developers, fostering collaboration and generally aiding the adoption of best practices

Influence and empower the team to build useful, accessible applications in a…