ICPSR is now hiring!

ICPSR has posted a job description for a software developer to work on a new grant we've received from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  We call it the "MET Extension" project, and the grant was just awarded in November.  It's a two-year grant.

The main deliverable of the grant is to extend the technology platform that we're building as part of another BMGF grant - the "MET" project (which is also a two-year grant and was awarded in August 2011).  Both projects are largely video-oriented, building systems to stream video content safely and securely to approved researchers.

The lead developer on the original MET project is a gent named Cole Whiteman.  Cole will be familiar to many in the local Ann Arbor tech community, and has also given presentations about ICPSR to groups in venues well beyond the borders of Washtenaw County.  The person in this position will work closely with Cole.

Careful readers will note that the position is "term limited" which means that we've made it very explicit that the funding  for this position stops at the end of 2013.  That said, we've been hiring developers steadily over the past seven years as we've added grants to our portfolio, and we haven't had to eliminate any of those positions yet.  Beyond all expectations due to the economy in Michigan, business is still booming at ICPSR.

Here is a link to the position on the U-M jobs site:  http://umjobs.org/job_detail/64682/software_developer_senior

And because that link will break once the job posting goes inactive, here is my "permalink" to the position:

Software Developer Senior

Job Summary

A unit of the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at the University of Michigan, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is an international membership organization, with over 500 institutions from around the world, providing access to empirical social science data for research and teaching. The atmosphere is relaxed and collegial with a work environment that fosters communication and networking, incorporates a diverse staff with varying skills and experiences and offers family-friendly flexibility with work hours.

The University of Michigan (U-M) is currently under contract to archive and disseminate (video and quantitative) data from the first phase of the Measuring Effective Teaching (MET) project, sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. That project collected quantitative data and classroom video from over 3,000 teacher volunteers during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years. Data from that project are being archived and distributed to the social and educational research community through the hosting of a MET Longitudinal Database at the University's Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, the world's largest social science data archive. ICPSR seeks a Software Developer Senior to assist with this project.

**Please note this is a terminal appointment, with an anticipated end date of 12/01/2013.**

Essential responsibilities of this position include: coordination of software development activities with other ICPSR development projects; estimation of task level details and associated delivery timeframes; source code control and version management; release management and coordination with ICPSR staff; documentation production and management; training materials production and management; and, software support and trouble-shooting. Finally, the person in this position will be expected to freshen, broaden, and deepen their professional and technical skills via regular participation in professional development activities such as training, seminars, and tutorials.

NOTE: Part of this job may require some work outside normal working hours to analyze and correct critical problems that arise in ICPSR's 24 hours per day operational environment.

Desired Qualifications*

--Bachelor Degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering, or the equivalent education and experience is required
--5 or more years of professional software development experience using Java / J2EE
--RDBMS vendor (Oracle, Microsoft, or MySQL) certification preferable
--Sun Java Developer certification preferable
--Extensive knowledge of XML, XSLT, JSON, REST, and SOAP is required
--5 or more years of professional business analyst experience requirement
--Linux systems usage; Windows XP or Vista usage, including common applications such as Word, Excel and Outlook

U-M EEO/AA Statement

The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.