Apple may be planning to expand its iWork suite to include a series of Web-based applications. Speculation that Web-based versions of the iWork apps could be on the way comes from an Apple job listing looking for an iWork team member skilled in building rich Internet applications.

The job description, which is available at the CrunchBoard Web site and not at Apple's own Web site, stated "The Productivity team (i.e. iWork) is seeking an energetic, highly motivated software engineer in building a scalable rich internet application. The person will be part of the core development team and engage in an area from design to development of the software system."

Specifically, Apple is looking for someone with JavaScript and browser technology skills, computer graphics skills, rich Internet application development skills, or experience in developing presentation/collaboration or word processing projects.

Apple isn't saying how it plans to use the person that fills the job opening, but it seems possible that they could be involved in expanding the company's iWork.com service. iWork.com has been available as a beta service for the better part of a year, but is still limited compared to other online application suites like Google Docs, and is little more than an online collaboration tool.

If Apple does expand the iWork.com feature set, users could potentially edit documents online -- an option that's missing from the current beta. If so, iWork.com would be in a better position to compete with Google Docs and Microsoft Office Live.

[Thanks to modmyi.com for the heads up.]