Backend Developer

A note in advance: Please do not use the "Easy Apply" button automatically created by Linkedin, but send through your cover letter explaining your motivation for this role and for working with us, along with your CV , to our Manager, Kerstin Arnold ([email protected]) . You can also contact her, if you have any questions about the role, the team, or the foundation.

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Archives Portal Europe ( is a comprehensive and open resource on archives from and about Europe, enabling new knowledge and new connections to be made. We are a community dedicated to the importance of sharing our history and heritage, with a small central team being at the heart of it.

To join our team short-term, we are looking for a Backend developer to help us with our activities in current EU-funded projects, in which we are partnering with a variety of cultural heritage and research organisations across the continent. In this role, you will be responsible for establishing connections to the infrastructures and tools developed in those projects, ensuring interoperability with Archives Portal Europe’s own services and - where appropriate - supporting the integration of project developments into our own workflows.

This also includes handling of data (transformation and transfer) and the development of new or the extension of existing services for Archives Portal Europe to better support those connections and integrations. In this context, you will work closely with the other members of our technical team.

Important note: we work remotely, in various countries, and do not have a physical office. This does not work for everyone, but if this could suit you, please read on.

About you - the technical aspects

The specifics and must-haves:

• You are very experienced in Java development for web and desktop applications and have experience in the Spring Framework (Spring Boot, Spring Data, Spring Batch.
• In case you do not have any experience with the Spring Framework yet, we expect that you are willing to invest time in gaining a more detailed understanding and knowledge of it from the start and throughout your time working with us.
• You are very experienced in web technologies like JavaScript, JQuery, etc. and have experience-based knowledge of HTML/HTML5 and CSS/CSS3 (along with the CSS library Bootstrap).
• You are very experienced in anything to do with data conversion, validation, and presentation, working with XSLT scripts, XSD schemas, Schematron, etc.
• You are very experienced in developing, maintaining, and improving methods of data upload (HTML, FTP) and delivery (OAI-PMH).
• You are experienced in developing, maintaining, and improving large storage systems and have experience-based knowledge of database systems such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, etc.

The more general and should-haves:

• You are experienced in developing, maintaining, and improving services aimed at discovery and information retrieval and have experience-based knowledge in search platforms such as Solr, etc.
• You are experienced in Test-driven development (TDD) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
• You have experience-based knowledge in developing, maintaining, and improving Application Program Interfaces (APIs) and in consuming REST APIs as well as in working with tools like Postman etc. to prototype requests.
• You have experience-based knowledge of cross-browser compatibility and Accessibility (WCAG 2.0) and Security Principles (OWASP).

The nice-to-haves:

• Ideally, you have experience-based knowledge of data standards used in the archival and cultural heritage domain, especially EAD, EAC-CPF, and EAG, but possibly also Dublin Core, EDM, CIDOC-CRM or others.
• Ideally, you have experience-based knowledge of content management systems.

About you - the personal aspects

• You are experienced in gathering requirements from a variety of stakeholders and you are used to researching, learning and testing new technologies, frameworks and languages in order to decide on the best technologies and languages for a project.
• You are experienced in fixing bugs, in optimising existing projects as well as in developing new features from scratch. In your developments, you keep an eye on protecting all services by designing and installing appropriate security precautions.
• Documenting code so that other developers can understand and contribute to it is in your blood, as is testing new features thoroughly to ensure they perform the correct task in all cases. You are used to developing open source software and to making your code available via GitHub etc.
• You are equally effective working collaboratively and independently. You are organised with a strong attention to detail, and are comfortable managing your own projects and priorities, while valuing feedback on your work at the same time.
• You ask for help when you need it, or communicate when you are stuck and just want to spend some time unsticking yourself.
• You are enthusiastic about the cultural heritage sector - ideally, some of your programming experience has been gained working for archival institutions or other cultural heritage institutions.

Does this sound like you?

If you think this could be you, we would love to hear from you. Please send through your cover letter explaining your motivation for this role and for working with us, along with your CV, to our Manager, Kerstin Arnold ([email protected]). You can also contact her, if you have any questions about the role, the team, or the foundation.

Please note that we value direct, personal contact and hence encourage potential candidates to communicate with us on an individual basis rather than agencies sharing a selection of candidates from their teams. While we are open to applications from outside of Europe, shared working hours (focussed between Western European Time and Eastern European Time) and the administrative aspects of our collaboration tend to be more easily managed when candidates are based in Europe as well.

This is a short-term assignment agreement equalling a 4.5 months full-time employment. We offer a monthly payment of up to €4,500 depending on your experience and skill set and we are open to variations of full- to part-time models.

The deadline for applications is Friday, 13 March , with interviews intended to be held during the week commencing Monday, 23 March, and a start as soon as possible after.