Jobs and Careers

Software Engineering Manager, Research

The New York Public Library

New York City, United Statesfull_timeVerifiedPosted 27 May 2026

💰 $155,000/yr($150,000/yr – $155,000/yr)

About the role

Software Engineering Manager, Research

Department: Digital

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building

Reporting To: Michael Benowitz

Compensation: $150,000 - $155,000 / year

Description

This is not a remote role; this role is hybrid and requires three days a week in the office in NYC

Job Summary

NYPL is hiring a Software Engineering Manager to help lead our research teams in developing our suite of discovery and access tools. These include the Research Catalog, which provides access to over 20 million volumes and Digital Collections, which provides access to over a million digitized assets, as well as other tools that provide access to NYPL’s extensive archives and special collections. These patron-facing applications are backed by a set of data pipelines and APIs that support discovery and ensure that patrons can request materials, make research appointments and order high-resolution scans, among other options. This role will ensure that these systems are maintained while helping lead strategic work that will help NYPL build a unified experience for our research patrons, ensuring that they have easy access to the incredible wealth of NYPL’s collections.

The Software Engineering Manager will manage 2 high performing teams of engineers that develop and maintain these tools, working to both continue their work and level them up in terms of skills and practices. Additionally this role will contribute to the technical leadership of NYPL Digital by helping set standards for best practices in development and other technical areas. It will be a key member of our engineering leadership and help ensure that our strategic priorities are well defined, deliverable and in line with the teams’ work. They will have the opportunity to partner with departments across NYPL to identify and deliver on shared priorities, helping continue NYPL’s position as a leader in library technology.

We are looking for someone we can count on to:

Own:

The day-to-day development work and priorities for the Research engineering teams
Strategic priorities and projects for the Research teams, including new feature development and the shipping of new products
Overall development roadmaps for the Research teams, ensuring capacity to tackle product work as well as routine maintenance and technical debt
A broad base of technical knowledge to be able to identify solutions for difficult problems in our Research products
Relationships between the Research engineering teams and both our internal Product/Project teams as well as stakeholders across NYPL

Teach:

Support and mentor Research engineers, helping them deliver results on time and in accordance with department standards
Present on their and the team’s work to technical and non-technical stakeholders
Build support for Research’s work among interested parties across NYPL
Align approaches to development between engineering teams, sharing best practices

Learn:

Gain an understanding of library science practices, especially around the metadata standards and practices used in NYPL’s Research systems
Investigate the connections between NYPL’s different research tools to learn how records and metadata can be shared and connected between them
Collaborate with Engineering leadership to help improve NYPL Digital’s culture and implement best practices is software development

Improve:

Grow as a team member, collaborating with other NYPL engineers to solve problems
Retire legacy applications and replace them with modern, streamlined solutions
Identify hidden connections between our collections and design ways to surface them

Some expectations for this role are that within:

1 month, this person will:

Build an understanding of NYPL’s Research products and architecture
Meet with engineering team members as well as key stakeholders to understand the team’s current workstreams and strategic priorities
Review and understand their teams’ current development practices and workflows
Collaborate with other engineering leaders to understand the current state of the engineering organization and its priorities

3 months, this person will: