UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND LIBRARIES
POSITION DESCRIPTION

Date Prepared: October 2009
Division: Information Technology
Title: Library Applications Developer (Programmer)
Category: Exempt, Full-Time

NATURE OF WORK: Provide general development support for applications run by the Digital Technology Interface Services (DTIS) department. Development tasks include back-end operations and enterprise integration with an emphasis on web interface development. This position involves customization and integration of commercial and open-source applications and some original development.

On a daily basis the developer will typically be working on a long term project (1 week to several months) while occasionally implementing smaller application changes and responding as necessary to emergencies. The developer will be involved in the full life-cycle of an application including installation, configuration, development, performance tuning, bug diagnosis, bug fixing, and other continuing support.

Provides integration of services between DTIS applications and between DTIS and external applications for both online and offline transactions. This integration may involve development or may only require an application to be correctly configured. Example online transactions include web single sign-on using Shibboleth or CAS, directory lookups using LDAP, or creation of a web service used to provide data to the campus portal. Offline transactions typically involve data migration involving creation of processes for extraction, transformation, and loading of data.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Provides programming for GIS applications, Drupal content management System, DSpace; installs and customizes new modules, upgrades applications, and provides general application support. Shepherds changes through the change management using a local tracking database and Subversion.
  
• Integrates Shibboleth authentication with applications, as well as general development support applications run by the Digital Technology Interface Services department. Interacts with other developers in the DTIS department and other departments on campus for coordinating new functionality and continuity of services.
  
• Develops web interfaces for information discovery and integrates with enterprise applications. Uses web frameworks to create web applications which interact with a web browser using HTTP, HTML, etc. Will debug these applications in a web environment using browser based tools.
  
• Customizes and integrates commercial and open-source applications. Determine the best method for integration such as through an API, or by adding on a module, or by making core code changes when available. Use existing toolkits and standard protocols for data interchange.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:
Office environment requires use of computer

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:
None.

QUALIFICATIONS (Knowledge, skills, and abilities):

• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment.
• Ability to understand the working of relational database management systems (RDBMS) such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, and SQLServer to use SQL to interact with the database.
• Ability to build an application which programmatically interacts with a database.
• Ability to keep abreast of new and constantly changing technologies and the types of applications which use them (such as content management systems, Wikis, Blogs, Search tools).
• Ability to code in many languages and environments such as: PHP, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, Ruby, C, and C#.
• Good oral/written communication skills.

EDUCATION:

Required:
Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.
Preferred:
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field.

EXPERIENCE:

Required:

• 3 years experience with any two of the following programming languages: PHP, Java, JavaScript, Perl, Python, Ruby, .NET programming
• 3 years experience with SQL-compliant databases, such as MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle.
• 3 years experience application development on any Unix/Linux or Windows platform.
• Experience in developing applications using web technologies such as HTML, CSS, XML, XSLT, and AJAX.

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