Inclusive Developer (Systems)

The Inclusive Design Research Centre at OCAD University supports an international community of designers, developers, researchers, and activists who work together to ensure that emerging open source software and practices are designed inclusively. Our current projects include Fluid (fluidproject.org), the Social Justice Repair Kit (sojustrepairit.ca), and the Platform Cooperative Development Kit (platform.coop).

We are looking for a devops developer to support our community's server infrastructure, and to create new self-help cloud services that will make it easier and cheaper for ordinary people to publish web content and deploy web apps by themselves. Be part of a diverse, flexible, and creative work environment that is dedicated to transforming the social dynamics and economics of how software gets made.

Reporting to the Manager/Lead Architect, Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC), the Inclusive Developer (Systems) works with developers, designers, and other IDRC staff to build, maintain, and support accessible web applications, servers, and networking infrastructure.

Summary of Responsibilities :

Implement, automate, and maintain infrastructure systems (i.e. servers, backups, databases, websites, security, mailing lists, wikis, blogs, etc.) that support IDRC’s research and development activities
Communicate clear plans and roadmaps with project stakeholders and the wider community
Ensure systems are stable, optimized, and support the needs of innovative research and development on the Web
Develop collaborative, open source processes and practices for monitoring, optimizing and supporting IDRC’s infrastructure
Document infrastructure inventory and practices for both technical and non-technical audiences
Work closely with the development team to design, develop, and deploy user interfaces and applications using a variety of architectures and technologies
Support and streamline the process of moving applications from development into prototype, working with developers to ensure a reliable and agile deployment environment, including contributing to development using common standards and a variety of programming languages, toolkits, and other technologies
Collaborate with Inclusive Designers and testers to ensure that the implemented user interfaces are highly usable, accessible, inclusive, visually appealing, and efficient
Communicate with IDRC staff and stakeholders to ensure prototypes/applications meet the needs of the larger community
Participate in professional communities (i.e. project communities, open source system administrators, etc.) by collaborating, sharing and presenting innovative ideas, as required
Assist the Manager/Lead Architect and IDRC staff in other tasks that contribute to the successful operation of the IDRC


Qualifications :

Undergraduate degree in Computer Science or Engineering with advanced courses in computer software, computer interface, network administration, with a minimum of three (3) years of work experience, or equivalent
Extensive experience administering mixed-platform environments, with a particular emphasis on containerization technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes
Experience working with, supporting, or contributing to an open source project and experience with collaborative development tools, such as source code repositories, bug tracking and wiki based documentation
Strong command of open source systems applications, content management systems, wikis, and programming languages for development and automation
Familiarity with test-driven development and building maintainable large-scale systems
Strong planning, analytic and problem solving skills with a demonstrated ability to prioritize tasks and meet deadlines and the ability to respond effectively to multiple and changing priorities
Strong oral, written and presentation communication skills, with exceptional attention to detail and organizational skills
Excellent interpersonal skills and judgement, with a demonstrated ability to deal with sensitive or confidential matters with discretion and tact
Demonstrated ability to work independently and participate collaboratively in a distributed team environment
Demonstrated commitment to the principles of equity and diversity and experience promoting a respectful work and learning environment for students, staff and faculty
Must be willing and able to work outside of regular work hours occasionally to address service disruptions , as necessary