We're looking for a contractor (6 months) in Bristol UK to start asap. Job description follows.
The role is to join a development team building a semantic portal application. Your particular responsibility will be to design and deliver an innovative and effective UI for this application. The work will involve building client side components (templates etc) within a complex architecture. The components will have a strong interaction with semantic information models - for example, schema driven forms, facet browse interfaces and intuitive methods of updating the information models themselves. Although the emphasis is client side, the role will include integration with, and contribution to, the server side code. The nature of the work will be iterative and customer focused; however there is a significant exploratory element.
The successful applicant should have the following skills and experience:
Proven web development experience, especially client side, with a track record of delivering robust, production ready systems.
Expert in the basic web technologies - HTML, CSS, Javascript. AJAX familiarity would be desirable. Experience with browser compatibility issues would be helpful. Knowledge of RSS would also be helpful.
For the integration work, familiarity with client side templating languages (such as JSPs and velocity) will be required.
For the server side web development, Java and basic servlet programming are required skills. Knowledge of J2EE technologies would be helpful but not essential.
An awareness of semantic web information modelling (preferably RDF) is essential, and practical experience of such modelling would be very helpful.
An ability to think creatively about, and deliver, novel UIs for effective display of rich information models. Familiarity with web form creation and processing would be useful; ideally the auto generation of forms from schemas.
Experience with dynamic visual design is useful: using standard techniques (Javascript, CSS) rather than specialised technologies such as SVG, applets and flash.
Other useful skills include: user session management; research experience; test driven development in web development environment; experience of work in distributed teams.