Software Engineer III

The New York Public Library; New York (NY); On-site; USD 110,000 - 115,000; Full time

Job summary

The New York Public Library seeks a Software Engineer III to join the Digital Asset Preservation and Access (DAPA) team in New York City. You will help modernize systems delivering high-resolution images and OCR processing, collaborating with partners across NYPL and Research libraries.

The role emphasizes improving engineering practices, owning technical decisions across projects, and guiding junior engineers while delivering robust, observable software in a hybrid in-office setting.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or 4+ years of software development experience in a scale environment.
• Equivalent 4+ years hands-on backend development experience.
• 3+ years in backend development with Python or Ruby.
• Proficiency with Python web frameworks such as Flask or Django.
• Strong SQL experience with relational databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL).
• Experience with version control systems, Git, and CI/CD workflows (GitHub Actions).
• Familiarity with agile methodologies and AWS cloud platform.

Responsibilities

• Understand project needs and implement technical solutions.
• Own and maintain key systems and contribute to platform improvements.
• Collaborate with engineers to design new software and migrate legacy components.
• Contribute to testing, documentation, and best practices across NYPL Digital.

Skills

Python

Ruby

Backend development

Flask

Django

SQL

Git

GitHub Actions

AWS

PostgreSQL

Education

Bachelor’s Degree

4+ years software dev experience

Tools

GitHub Actions

AWS

PostgreSQL

Job description

Software Engineer III

Department: 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 & Skills

Required 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).