Type: Full Time, Exempt
Location: This is a remote-first role. Internet Archive's headquarters are located in San Francisco, California.
About Internet Archive, the Open Staffing Foundation & Democracy’s Library
Internet Archive is a non-profit library, headquartered in San Francisco, with an ambitious mission: to provide “Universal Access to All Knowledge” — the books, web pages, audio, television and software of our shared human culture. Our 150 team members have built one of the top 300 websites in the world, https://archive.org. The Internet Archive digitizes thousands of books a day and collects a hundred million web pages a week. In our thirty (30) years, we have built one of the largest digital libraries in the world by working with hundreds of national and international libraries, archives, museums, universities, and non-profits.
Open Staffing Foundation (OSF) is a nonprofit that provides staffing services for the Internet Archive and other mission aligned organizations.
The Internet Archive’s Democracy's Library is built on a straightforward but urgent premise: governments have created an abundance of information and put it in the public domain, but the public can't easily access it.
Job Summary
Reports to the Director of Democracy’s Library and will work as a member of the Democracy's Library U.S. team. Responsibilities include: designing, building, and maintaining technical infrastructure; ensuring pathways to government documents and public records can be reliably acquired, processed, and made accessible at scale to the public; and ensuring integrity, quality, and completeness of collection data throughout the ingestion and storage lifecycle.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
Design, develop, and maintain automated data ingestion pipelines that integrate seamlessly with Internet Archive’s platform, and advance the acquisition of government documents and public records from web sources, application programming interfaces (APIs), and partner repositories.
Integrate backend infrastructure with Internet Archive’s systems — including Petabox storage and the Archive.org platform — to ensure collections are accurately deposited, cataloged, and then made accessible.
Develop and maintain Python-based scripts, tools, and services that support the library’s collection workflow from acquisition to public access.
Collaborate closely with the Collections Manager and other team members to understand content acquisition priorities and translate them into technical workflows.
Support bridge-building efforts between collections and engineering to ensure government documents and public records are reliably acquired, processed, and made accessible.
Build and maintain APIs and backend services that support internal collection management and enable easy to discover and access library collections.
Monitor and maintain pipeline integrity and completeness of collection data throughout the ingestion and storage lifecycle.
Perform diagnostics, and implement improvements to ensure reliability and completeness of collection data.
Participate in code reviews and contribute to engineering best practices within the team.
Draft and maintain easy to understand technical documentation and reference guides for systems, pipelines, APIs, and data models that team members and key stakeholders can refer to and follow.
Other duties may be assigned as needed.
Competencies to Succeed in the Role
Basic Abilities
A commitment to the mission: to provide, “Universal Access to All Knowledge.”
Ability to stay focused, organized, and meet deadlines in a fast-paced technical environment.
Communication Skills
Able to verbally communicate technical concepts in an easy to understand manner to both technical and non-technical colleagues.
Strong technical writing skills, able to produce clear documentation and reference guides for systems, APIs, and workflows.
Computer Knowledge
Proficient in Python; comfortable building and maintaining data pipelines and backend services.
Proficient in Google Workspace, Slack, Jira and Confluence.
Able to Reason & Think Critically
Capable of solving complex technical problems with sound judgment and practical approaches — solution-oriented.
Able to assess trade-offs in system design and make informed decisions about pipeline architecture and data quality.
Required: Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
Required: Two (2) or more years of professional-level experience in a software development, data engineering, or systems development role.
Required: Experience writing Python for data pipelines, automation, or backend systems.
Required: Experience working with application programming interfaces (APIs); consumption, build-out, and/or maintaining them in a production environment.
Required: Experience working with Google Workspace, Slack, Jira, and Zoom.
Preferred: Familiarity with Internet Archive systems, including Petabox, Archive.org platform, or the Internet Archive Python library.
Preferred: Experience with web scraping, bulk data acquisition, or automated harvesting of government or open-data sources.
Preferred: Experience working in a digital library, archive, open-access, or civic technology context.
IMPORTANT: We like cover letters. It helps us see how you communicate and express yourself in writing. Candidates who provide a cover letter will be prioritized.
Benefits & Perks
Internet Archive works with Open Staffing Foundation to recruit, hire and retain staff. Open Staffing Foundation offers a comprehensive benefits package, including PTO, paid holidays, medical, dental, and vision benefits, health savings and flexible spending accounts, commuter benefits, short-term and long-term disability coverage, and retirement programs.
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At the Open Staffing Foundation, we believe our best work happens when diverse perspectives come together. We strongly encourage applications from individuals in groups underrepresented in the tech and library industries. We are proud to be an equal-opportunity employer, committed to fair employment practices regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.
We also aspire to make the online job application process accessible to any and all users. If you have a disability that impacts your ability to complete the application process, and would like to request assistance or accommodation, please contact us: info at archive dot com
Lastly, pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.