Lead Engineer, Data Platform Full-time

Creative Commons is building a “front door” to the commons from the ground up. We need a talented team of engineers to design and build systems to index over 1.2 billion works into a ledger that will fuel the usable and vibrant commons, enable new research, and foster discovery and collaboration.

This project will unite billions of records for openly-licensed and public domain works and metadata, across multiple platforms, diverse media types, and a variety of user communities and partners. It’s a difficult but rewarding problem for an inspired and creative team. We want to build this product with a small dev team as part of an open community, and create something useful, delightful, and essential to the work of creators, educators, scientists, cultural institutions, and our partners. We’re building shared infrastructure for the global commons.

As a the Lead Engineer for the Data Platform you can be part of this exciting project in an early stage. You will design, build, test, and release the software infrastructure we design, and collaborate with users, contributors, and partners around the world. Imagine all the possibilities and experiences this can bring!

Primary Responsibilities

This is a rare opportunity to collaborate in an organization that is fundamental to sharing online, working at a global scale. The successful candidate will play a crucial role in this high-priority project.

We believe that diverse teams build better organizations and better services. Applications from qualified candidates from all backgrounds, including those from under-represented communities, are VERY welcome.

The Lead Engineer for the Data Platform reports to the Director of Product Engineering and will implement the data backend that will enable CC’s products and services. You’ll be responsible for creating and maintaining data solutions for our ledger, its infrastructure and its data flows.

The Lead Engineer for the Data Platform is responsible for:

• Architecting, implementing and maintaining our catalog of openly licensed media and data, including records of use, re-use, and sharing; and other relevant services that will be the engineering backbone enabling us to create a more vibrant, usable commons.
• Designing and implementing resilient, distributed data solutions that operate robustly at web scale
• Working in the open, contributing code and engaging in public repositories, open chat rooms, and public wiki with our global community

• Provide technical opinions within various open communities, working with CC partners. Collaborate with other outside communities, companies, and institutions to further Creative Commons’ mission.

Qualifications and requirements

• An entrepreneurial spirit: a collaborative, motivated self-starter
• Demonstrated experience building and deploying large scale web and data services
• Experience writing data pipelines that scale to millions of records and using machine learning to catalog and describe them
• Familiarity with content licensing including Free/Open licenses a plus
• Familiarity with consumer privacy and managing user data
• Desire to work in a diverse, global, highly collaborative team environment

Work Environment and Location

Creative Commons is a distributed organization. This position is available to applicants in the Americas, in a remote working environment, provided they have reasonable mobility for necessary travel, and high-speed broadband access. Laptop/desktop computer and necessary resources are supplied. Some travel is required for, among other things, face-to-face meetings and the CC Summits.
How to Apply

Please email your resume as a PDF to “jobs@creativecommons.org” with the subject heading of “Data Engineer / [Last Name].” No phone calls, please. No recruiters.

About CC

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools. We are a leader in the global movement for free culture and open knowledge with an active global community in over 85 countries. Our free, easy-to-use copyright licenses provide a simple, standardized way to give the public permission to share and use your creative work — from “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.” The first phase of CC’s work was about establishing the licenses as standard, and growing the archive. The next phase is building a global movement that will create a more vibrant, usable commons powered by collaboration and gratitude. Today, the global commons stands at over 1.2 billion licensed works, made up of photos, video, audio, datasets, open textbooks, research, 3D models, and more.