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Why join Harvard Law School?
Join a community that combines excellence in legal education and scholarship with a deep commitment to justice. Here at Harvard Law School (HLS), you’ll find an environment that values who you are and encourages you to grow, inspire others, and make a meaningful impact. Wherever you are in your career journey, HLS is a place where you can thrive, contribute, and be part of something bigger.
Job Description
The Harvard Library Innovation Lab (LIL) seeks a Senior DevOps Engineer to help us imagine and build innovative software that charts the future of libraries. Collaborating with a team of engineers and researchers, you will take lead responsibility for testing, releasing, maintaining, and monitoring both high-availability production services and short-term experiments across LIL’s many projects.
LIL’s current portfolio extends from Perma.cc, a vital web archiving platform that helps power the legal and educational sectors, to cutting edge experiments in applying large language models to civic knowledge problems, and all sorts of tools and experiments in between. Please visit our website to get a greater sense of our current projects and activities.
Located at the Harvard Law Library, LIL is a fun and collaborative lab with a broad mission focused on re-envisioning how libraries can contribute to society. We are a small but active group working at the intersection of libraries, technology, and law, and we are looking for someone with new skills and perspectives to add to our team
Our work is open-source and openly available, with an eye to broad, public-interest impact. You will be working directly with team members and the whole of the library staff and beyond.
LIL’s projects can range from large to small and can bring immediate benefit or prototype the future. Our work requires creative problem solving, enthusiasm for libraries, open knowledge, and civic technology, and the ability to work collaboratively on long-term and short-term projects.
As Senior DevOps Engineer, you will:
- Design, implement, and upgrade LIL’s software infrastructure, including infrastructure automation, continuous integration, monitoring, security architecture, development environments, and disaster recovery.
- Manage LIL’s fleet of real and virtual machines running on cloud hosts, in data centers, and in on-premise servers.
- Participate in developer meetings, strategy, and architectural decisions.
- Manage code deployments and assist with debugging and performance issues.
- Monitor and report on infrastructure costs.
- Administer technical onboarding and offboarding for staff.
- Document technical processes by taking primary ownership of runbooks.
Qualifications
Basic Qualifications
- Minimum of five years’ post-secondary education or relevant work experience
Additional Qualifications and Skills
We welcome people who have:
- Passion for libraries and the future of information architecture and civic technology
- A desire to share work and explore ideas in public settings, including presentations, scholarly seminars at Harvard, and posting to the Lab’s blog
- Familiarity with technologies used in LIL’s projects, such as Debian Linux, Django/Python, Nginx, PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, Redis, Terraform, and AWS
- Strong understanding of how the Web works, with a focus on efficiency, aesthetics, and accessibility
- Experience with the full life cycle of product development, from exploration to design to implementation to iteration
Additional Information
Standard Hours/Schedule: Full-Time
Visa Sponsorship Information: Harvard University is unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position
Pre-Employment Screening: Identity, Education
Other Information:
This position is open to either remote applicants, or in-person applicants with a hybrid schedule. Remote work is permitted for applicants living more than 50 miles from Harvard campus, based on business needs and manager approval. All remote work must be performed within a state in which Harvard is registered to do business (CA, CT, GA, IL, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VA, VT and WA).
Travel is required for this position as needed, including for quarterly on-site meetings, conferences, and events.
Given the multidisciplinary nature of our work, we welcome a short cover letter to explain how your career trajectory and interests align with our work and mission. All offers are made by HLS Human Resources.
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Work Format Details
This is a position that is based at a Harvard campus location with some remote work options available. Additional details will be discussed during the interview process. All remote work must be performed within one of the Harvard Registered Payroll States, which currently includes Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Washington, and California (CA for exempt positions only). Certain visa types and funding sources may limit work location. Individuals must meet work location sponsorship requirements prior to employment.
Salary Grade and Ranges
This position is salary grade level 058. Please visit Harvard's Salary Ranges to view the corresponding salary range and related information.
Benefits
Harvard offers a comprehensive benefits package that is designed to support a healthy work-life balance and your physical, mental and financial wellbeing. Because here, you are what matters. Our benefits include, but are not limited to:
- Generous paid time off including parental leave
- Medical, dental, and vision health insurance coverage starting on day one
- Retirement plans with university contributions
- Wellbeing and mental health resources
- Support for families and caregivers
- Professional development opportunities including tuition assistance and reimbursement
- Commuter benefits, discounts and campus perks
Learn more about these and additional benefits on our Benefits & Wellbeing Page.
EEO/Non-Discrimination Commitment Statement
Harvard University is committed to equal opportunity and non-discrimination. We seek talent from all parts of society and the world, and we strive to ensure everyone at Harvard thrives. Our differences help our community advance Harvard’s academic purposes.
Harvard has an equal employment opportunity policy that outlines our commitment to prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, ethnicity, color, national origin, religion, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law or identified in the university’s non-discrimination policy. Harvard’s equal employment opportunity policy and non-discrimination policy help all community members participate fully in work and campus life free from harassment and discrimination.