Alma Platform Manager

RieLes Group • Beltsville, MD

8d • Remote

About The Position

RieLes Group is seeking an experienced Alma Platform Manager to support the National Agricultural Library (NAL) under a FEDLINK Library Support Services task order. This is a specialized hybrid role combining library systems administration, software engineering, data workflow automation, and technical operations. The selected candidate will be responsible for administering and supporting the National Agricultural Library's Ex Libris Alma Library Services Platform (LSP) and maintaining related Python-based data workflows. The Alma Platform Manager will play a critical role in the stability, security, monitoring, modernization, and operational continuity of NAL's Alma environment and associated automated workflows.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Information Science, Computer Science, Information Systems, Data Science, Library/Information Science, or a related technical field.
• Experience with Ex Libris Alma administration, including roles and permissions, metadata configuration, job monitoring, integrations, and troubleshooting.
• Experience with Python-based workflow automation, including ingestion/transformation scripts and external-system integrations.
• Experience diagnosing data-flow, indexing, and schema issues in relational or cloud database environments.
• Experience in Agile/Scrum development environments.
• Experience with formal change-control and change-lifecycle processes.
• Experience with sandbox testing, deployment validation, rollback, and change documentation.
• Knowledge of library metadata standards such as MARC21, Dublin Core, RDA, and MODS.
• Knowledge of Alma metadata tools, including normalization rules, templates, mapping tables, publishing workflows, and indexing workflows.
• Knowledge of configuration management and version control/Git.
• Knowledge of change control and configuration drift detection/remediation.
• Knowledge of security controls and least-privilege access.
• Knowledge of audit-log review and secure credential handling.
• Knowledge of backup, restore, and recovery procedures.
• Ability to troubleshoot cross-system issues involving metadata, ingest scripts, indexing, and preservation synchronization.
• Strong collaboration skills across technical and library teams.
• Must successfully complete a USDA background investigation.
• Must complete required USDA security and privacy training.
• Must comply with applicable USDA, REE, ARS, and NAL policies and governance requirements.
• Must comply with applicable federal information security and privacy requirements.

Nice To Haves

• Technical documentation using platforms such as Confluence.

Responsibilities

• Configure, manage, secure, and maintain Ex Libris Alma system components.
• Manage roles, permissions, profiles, integrations, normalization rules, and authentication/SSO behavior.
• Monitor Alma jobs and troubleshoot disruptions involving ingest, indexing, publishing, and preservation workflows.
• Review audit logs and maintain appropriate least-privilege access controls.
• Monitor system performance and support resolution of cross-system workflow issues.
• Maintain and enhance Python pipelines supporting automated data ingestion, data transformation, indexing, system synchronization, error handling, and reporting.
• Support integrations between Alma and external systems.
• Diagnose data-flow, indexing, schema, and database issues.
• Support data governance for automated bibliographic, holdings, and item changes.
• Maintain appropriate logging, reconciliation, and archival processes for automated workflows.
• Execute the complete system change lifecycle under NAL's Change Control Board (CCB) requirements.
• Perform impact and dependency analysis before changes.
• Conduct sandbox and freeze-window testing.
• Plan and coordinate deployments.
• Complete post-deployment validation and documentation.
• Define and execute rollback procedures when required.
• Participate in incident reporting and emergency change processes.
• Ensure system changes comply with NAL governance and documentation requirements.
• Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, standups, and retrospectives.
• Provide system-level expertise for work affecting Alma and automated workflows.
• Help ensure user stories, acceptance criteria, remediation work, and technical tasks comply with CCB requirements.
• Coordinate with the CCB Project Manager and Systems Librarian.
• Maintain governance-ready documentation, including runbooks, configuration snapshots, and workflow updates.
• Maintain operational dashboards and job-monitoring artifacts.
• Support service-level monitoring and incident response.
• Securely handle import/export files and workflow outputs.
• Maintain backup and recovery readiness.
• Document and periodically test restore procedures.
• Plan for degraded system states, failed imports, broken indexing sequences, and configuration drift.
• Maintain release schedules, freeze periods, and Ex Libris release-window notifications.
• Support metadata and digital workflow issues involving upstream ingest, indexing, and downstream preservation synchronization.
• Work collaboratively with NAL librarians, technical information specialists, IT personnel, acquisitions and metadata teams, and external vendors.
• Maintain technical documentation in approved repositories such as Confluence.
• Prepare runbooks, configuration records, release notes, incident/change logs, and governance documentation.
• Prepare monthly status reports.
• Produce required operational and performance metrics.
• Track issue resolution and change requests.
• Report metrics such as job success/failure, mean time to repair (MTTR), ingest quality, indexing latency, and incident trends.
• Prepare release notes for CCB-approved changes.

Benefits

• The selected candidate will be responsible for administering and supporting the National Agricultural Library's Ex Libris Alma Library Services Platform (LSP) and maintaining related Python-based data workflows.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level