Senior Technical Manager

Together we make breakthroughs possible. At OCLC, we build technology with a purpose: to connect libraries and make knowledge accessible worldwide, because we believe that what is known must be shared. Our teams work with complex global datasets, AI and machine learning, hybrid cloud solutions, and other technologies that connect people and organizations to the information they need. We value the power of unique perspectives and experiences to unlock innovation. At OCLC, your ideas matter, whether you have two years of experience or 20. You’ll learn, create, and problem-solve with technologists, product developers, librarians, researchers, marketing pros, and support teams around the world. Why join OCLC? OCLC is consistently recognized as a best place to work by several independent programs. We recognize and reward people and results with a comprehensive Total Rewards package. This means competitive compensation that reflects your unique contributions—performance, experience, and skills—along with exceptional benefits, including best-in-class health coverage, retirement plans with generous company contributions, and a commitment to your overall well-being. We know the best ideas don’t always happen at a desk. Take a walking meeting around our 100-acre campus or enjoy lunch on the patio. We’re committed to your success—both personally and professionally. Hybrid work environment: For many roles, three days a week on-site, with occasional additional days based on business needs. Free use of our on-site fitness center, gym sports, group exercise classes, and game room Onsite catering and cafeteria subsidized by OCLC Health and wellness events Work environments with individual and team spaces and the latest technology tools Paid parental leave and adoption assistance Tuition reimbursement and Public Service Loan Forgiveness eligibility Company-subsidized pricing on local tickets and memberships Join us in transforming how people everywhere access information and be part of a mission-driven team that makes a global impact. The job details are as follows: The WorldCat Entities team is seeking a hands-on Engineering Manager to guide a growing team of software engineers. This is a player-coach role where you’ll spend ~30–50% of your time designing and building software, and the remainder coaching engineers, driving delivery, and ensuring operational excellence. The ideal candidate is a strong coder with deep system design experience who can lead through influence, set technical direction, and help the team ship reliably in a modern cloud-native environment. Major Responsibilities: Lead a self-managed team delivering a greenfield platform for WorldCat Entities and related linked data applications; partner closely with Product and stakeholders to define outcomes, milestones, and delivery plans. Drive architecture and technical direction for high-scale services supporting entity creation, enrichment, reconciliation, and search/discovery use cases. Contribute hands-on through design docs, technical spikes, PRs, code reviews, pairing, and occasionally owning end-to-end features. Ensure production readiness: SLAs, monitoring/alerting, incident response, disaster recovery practices, and operational documentation for 24/7 services. Guide data pipeline and integration work with external/internal sources (e.g., authority feeds), including automation, data quality, and repeatable refresh processes. Lead modern API and service design (REST and event-driven patterns where appropriate), with attention to performance, accessibility, and backward compatibility. Establish and evolve engineering practices: CI/CD, automated testing, secure-by-default development, release hygiene, and dependency/vulnerability management. Coach and develop engineers via feedback, mentoring, and growth plans; foster strong team norms around ownership, code quality, and pragmatic decision-making. Coordinate cross-team technical work (platform, security, infrastructure, and partner teams) and communicate tradeoffs, risks, and progress to senior leadership. Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience. 7+ years of professional software development experience, including 3+ years in a technical leadership role (engineering manager, tech lead, or player-coach). Strong coding ability and system design depth; demonstrated experience building and operating distributed services in production. Experience with Java/Spring Boot services and modern cloud-native deployment patterns (containers, microservices). Strong knowledge of AWS and container orchestration (EKS/ECS), plus production operations (observability, on-call readiness, incident management). Experience with search technologies (OpenSearch/Elasticsearch) and relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL/Aurora/RDS), including performance tuning and migration/upgrade planning. Familiarity with API gateways/service routing and designing stable, consumer-friendly APIs. Strong understanding of CI/CD and automated testing strategies in an iterative delivery environment. Excellent communication skills: able to explain architecture, risks, and tradeoffs to engineers, product partners, and senior stakeholders. Experience with Agile delivery and leading teams through iterative planning and execution. Desired Qualifications: Experience with knowledge graph implementations and graph technologies, such as designing/operating graph-based data models and services using RDF triple stores and/or property graph databases (e.g., Neptune, Blazegraph, GraphDB, Neo4j), including query languages (SPARQL/Gremlin/Cypher) and graph indexing/performance considerations. Experience with linked data / semantic web concepts (RDF, BIBFRAME, authority data, entity resolution) or adjacent data-centric domains. Experience designing data ingestion/enrichment pipelines and automation for recurring refreshes. Familiarity with accessibility considerations for web applications and platform UI integrations. Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform or equivalent). Working Conditions: Normal office environment. ADA/EAA: The above statements cover what are generally believed to be principal and essential functions of this job. Specific circumstances may allow or require some people assigned to the job to perform a somewhat different combination of duties. Don't see a role that fits just yet? Send your resume to our Talent Acquisition Team for future opportunities! Who we are: We are a non-profit global technology company that develops innovative services for libraries. Together with member libraries, we connect people to the resources they need to learn and grow, and ultimately, to transform the world. We connect libraries to other libraries, making their work more efficient and effective. Our large-scale, high-performance cloud computing services enable libraries to share data, work, and resources to save money and better serve their communities. What we do: We are dedicated and passionate about libraries—and helping them change lives. Our goal is to provide innovative technologies for every library to help them meet the demands of a rapidly changing digital world. Our success depends on our ability to deliver new, high-quality features and stable, scalable solutions for libraries. Live our values: New ideas. Open dialog. Hard work. Recognition. Purpose. We offer a dynamic, fulfilling work environment that is productive, collaborative, innovative—and fun. We are consistently rated among the top employers within Central Ohio and across the IT landscape. There is a strong, team-based culture where everyone is appreciated and focused on common goals. You will make a difference. OCLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status. If you are interested in applying for employment with OCLC and need special assistance or an accommodation to apply for a posted position, contact our Human Resources Department at +1-614-764-6000 or email at hr@oclc.org