Senior Software Engineer

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:

Responsibilities:

• Own vertical slices end-to-end—from understanding requirements through design, implementation, test, and release—in complex backend systems with substantial business logic and legacy constraints.
• Modernize and refactor in place: improve structure, clarity, and maintainability without requiring a big-bang rewrite; ship incrementally with attention to production risk.
• Deliver features and fixes that meet product and partner needs while respecting existing architecture, data contracts, and operational dependencies.
• Integrate with operational partners on shared data and batch workflows: clarify ownership boundaries, implement behavior changes in application code, and support handoffs that keep production runs reliable.
• Work primarily in Java production services; contribute to Python and bash scripting paths where application logic touches script-heavy batch or ingest workflows.
• Collaborate asynchronously with clear written design notes, review feedback, and stakeholder updates; work independently on assigned slices while staying aligned with team priorities.
• Participate in code and design review; mentor peers informally through example and constructive feedback.
• Leverage and explore AI-assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, code generation, smart testing) where appropriate; help assess what actually improves delivery on legacy codebases.
• Maintain awareness of security, data governance, and quality standards in an enterprise context.
  

Qualifications:

• Demonstrated professional strength in Java: shipping, maintaining, and evolving production backend code—not occasional or peripheral use.
• 5+ years of software development experience, or equivalent depth shown through ownership of complex production systems (we flex on years when the work speaks for itself).
• Meaningful experience in complex domain or enterprise backend systems—business rules, evolving requirements, and long-lived codebases—not only greenfield services.
• Comfort reading and working with structured data formats, including XML schemas and validation rules common in metadata and authority workflows.
• Strong problem-solving and debugging in production: tracing issues across services, scripts, and integration points.
• Working style
• Demonstrated ability to own slices independently, coordinate with multiple stakeholders, and drive clarity when requirements are incomplete or ambiguous.
• Effective async communication: written design rationale, review comments, and status updates that keep distributed collaborators aligned.
• Temperament for incremental improvement in legacy systems—patience for context-gathering, careful change, and operational follow-through.
  

Working Conditions: Normal office environment.

ADA/EAA: The above statements cover what are generally believed to be the 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.