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Nebula Data Service Project Lead

Overview​

Project Nebula is an initiative to build tools that help students. The Project Lead for the Nebula Data Service oversees the core API and data source for Project Nebula.

For the fall 2021 semester, the Nebula Data Service Project Lead will oversee upgrading UTD Grades to be a publicly accessible tool that students can use to look at historical and current UTD-related data including grade distributions, course prerequisites, and professor evaluations.

What We Need​

A project lead for Project Nebula is both a project manager and active developer for the Nebula Data Service. We need someone who understands what to prioritize when designing a public API and someone who understands the necessity of quality documentation. We're looking for someone with:

  • An understanding of libraries, frameworks, and tools used to build modern software
  • Experience building reactive websites using third-party data sources

Additionally, the following would be useful:

  • Ample prior experience designing and building REST APIs
  • Experience building bots for chat applications
  • Experience reading technical documentation for third-party services
  • Knowledge of networking

We’re all students, so we understand that someone won’t be an expert in anything. If you don’t have all the skills, you will most certainly learn as a part of the Project Nebula team!

What You'll Do​

Your general responsibilities would be:

  • Ensuring the Nebula Data Service is accessible at all times
  • Managing the Nebula Data Service team (two other people)
  • Working with the Head of Product to prioritize feature development
  • Working with the Head of Design to keep the data service in line with the rest of Project Nebula’s brand
  • Keeping in touch with the Engineering Lead

On a day-to-day basis, you would:

  • Maintain a dashboard for accessing UTD-related data
  • Keep in touch with the rest of your team to monitor project progress
  • Program and implement solutions to issues on GitHub
  • Review pull requests for code contributions from internal and external contributors

Expect to spend around 5 hours per week on this role.

What You'll Learn​

Additionally, you’ll have the opportunity to shape what data is available to UTD students. You’ll primarily learn how to work with others to provide data that is useful to regular students.

Specifically, you’ll learn:

  • How to build reactive, data-driven dashboards
  • How to delegate responsibilities to a team
  • How to prioritize features to build for projects
  • How to use common cloud-based tools
  • How to communicate technical issues to non-technical audiences
  • What agile software development practices are
  • How to provide useful, actionable feedback and mentorship to others