Backend Developer (Python)
Poetic Justice at MIT Media Lab
Poetic Justice at MIT Media Lab is exploring new forms of social justice through art. We’re currently looking for two Backend Developers to work on a series of participatory public artworks for which we’ve been collecting sound and video recordings from participants around the world and remixing them into sound and video works, including A Counting and Freedom Radio. A Counting has been featured on NPR and in the New York Times.
We’re now looking for creatively-inclined and highly self-directed Backend Developers to scale our existing backend systems for collecting audio and video recordings, editing and transcribing multilingual voice recordings, analyzing transcripts, and generating stories using transcripts. This can be a freelance or full-time remote position. However, preferably you’d be working in the NYC or Boston area.
Develop interactive voice response (IVR) systems using Twilio and Vonage.
Develop scalable systems to record, store and manage audio and video recordings
Develop scalable systems to transcribe audio and video recordings in multiple languages and formats
Develop scalable tools for narrative generation
Develop dashboards and reports for user engagement and topic generation, content summarization
Basic Qualifications:
Minimum of 3 years of web development/architecture experience
Minimum of 2 years of experience with Python using Flask or Django
Minimum 2 years of experience with third party APIs within Python web applications
Minimum of 3 years of experience with modern DevOps tools, such as Git and GitHub
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience.
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience with installation, configuration, and development including work within a production environment
Experience with DevOps and Agile engineering practices
Experience deploying systems into a production Cloud Native Environment with major cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform
Experience with NLP libraries such as Spacy, Hugging Face, and NLTK
Experience with web application design and development using React or Angular
Experience with voice application design and development using Twilio or Vonage
Experience with Twitter and Slack bot development
Professional Skill Requirements:
Ability to work creatively and analytically
Ability to communicate clearly and concisely in both technical and non-technical language
Ability to collaborate and pair-program effectively
Ability to work independently