Senior Software Engineer

Description:

About the National Film and Sound Archive
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) is Australia's audiovisual archive, telling the national story by collecting, preserving and sharing audiovisual media, the cultural experience platforms of our time. The collection itself dates back to 1935, making it one of the world's oldest audiovisual collections. It is also one of the country's most used cultural collections, with around 125 million views of collection content each year. The NFSA is in a period of significant change. Following increased Government investment, the institution is in a process of digital transformation, establishing the NFSA as Australia's most dynamic and valued cultural organisation. We are rebuilding our curatorial workforce and developing the NFSA's capacity to digitise our collection at scale - to preserve it for the future, to make sure it can be discovered, and to share it with all Australians.
We continue to work on developing a stable, secure and future-proof workforce across our four physical sites based in Canberra and Mitchell in the ACT as well as in Sydney and Melbourne.
We are an ambitious organisation, and we aim to be an employer of choice within the Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) sector, providing exciting and challenging work, as well as favourable employment conditions and unique development opportunities for our staff.
About the Team
The Software Engineering Team is part of the Digital Platforms section in the Digital Branch.
The Digital Platforms section manages the NFSA's digital platforms, providing innovative ways to manage, maintain, analyse, discover and engage with the Collection. This includes the delivery of digital experiences for a wide range of audiences in experiencing Australia's national audio-visual collection.
The Software Engineering Team plays an integral role in the delivery of public and internally facing applications by developing solutions and providing technical guidance on interfaces, systems integration, automation and data exchange.
The Opportunity
We have two opportunities available for experienced software engineers interested in joining a creative, innovative and energetic group of digital professionals. We need people ready to hit the ground running as we work towards the delivery of several key projects, including a new web-CMS and supporting data APIs.
We're looking for software engineers skilled in full stack development (Next.js/React, Python, PostgreSQL, MongoDB). We're interested in hearing from people that have skills in one or more of these areas. Let us know what your strengths are and what you enjoying doing most. You might be the one for us.
Under the guidance of the Software Engineering Manager, the role involves designing, implementing and maintaining both front-end and full stack solutions while adhering to government security and development guidelines. You'll contribute to the organisation's digital strategy and technology adoption, ensuring innovative and user-friendly digital experiences for a diverse audience.
The role will work with teams across the organisation to deliver on digital projects and be required to guide and communicate engineering decision making and solutions that will achieve the best result for the NFSA. As a senior member of the Software Engineering Team, the role will provide guidance and mentoring to more junior developers.
Please note: This recruitment process is intended to fill both current and future vacancies. While the positions on offer are both non-ongoing (18 months) and ongoing, a merit pool of suitable applicants may be established to fill similar ongoing and non-ongoing positions within the next 18 months.
The key duties of the position include
Under broad direction, this position is responsible for delivering the following functions:

• Provide technical problem-solving in the solution design of online applications.
• Design, develop, test, document and refine front-end and full stack web applications using modern frameworks and technologies, with a focus on Next.js/Python.
• Collaborate with internal teams and external vendors to integrate APIs, third-party services, and extract data from various sources.
• Develop and maintain scalable, accessible and responsive user interfaces, ensuring optimal performance across different devices and browsers.
• Gather, define, prioritise and validate technical and business requirements for digital services.
• Implement and manage CI/CD pipelines, ensuring seamless deployment and integration.
• Adhere to, and maintain up-to-date knowledge of:
  • ethical guidelines,
  • data privacy regulations,
  • modern development methodologies,
  • best practices in system security and change management; and
  • emerging technologies, sharing insights with the broader team.
• Troubleshoot issues related to software performance, data handling, and integrations.
• Perform and/or liaise with vendors to implement regular application maintenance and patching.
• Liaise and consult with stakeholders to ensure effective communication and alignment with organisational goals.
• Contribute to software documentation, including technical specifications, system documentation, and user guides.
• Guide and mentor junior developers in the Software Engineering team

Selection Criteria
The successful candidate will demonstrate their capacity against the following:

1. Demonstrated experience in front-end development (using Next.js, React, or other modern JavaScript frameworks), and backend development (in Python, ideally FastAPI), with a focus on accessibility, performance and scalability.
2. Strong understanding of API integration, authentication mechanisms, and data security best practices.
3. Demonstrated experience in database design and advanced querying in relational (PostgreSQL) and/or document (MongoDB) databases.
4. Demonstrated experience collaborating with internal teams, stakeholders, and external vendors to deliver software solutions.
5. Strong oral and written communication skills, including the ability to produce reports and documentation.

Desired Skills and Experience
Mandatory:

• Relevant tertiary qualifications in computer science, software engineering or a related field (preferred) or equivalent industry experience.
• Experience in JavaScript frameworks, ideally Next.js or React.
• Experience in web application and API development using Python, ideally FastAPI.
• Proficiency with Git, GitHub Actions, Docker, and other CI/CD tools.

Desirable:

• Experience with databases such as PostgreSQL or MongoDB.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure or Vercel.
• Experience with Apache Airflow and building ETL pipelines.
• Experience with Linux systems administration and automation (Ansible, Terraform, etc.).
• Familiarity with machine learning, particularly in image summarisation, facial recognition, audio transcription and text classification.
• Experience with graph databases (Neo4j).