Ivan Gevirtz
We're Hiring
By Ivan Gevirtz
created: Tuesday, April 22, 2008
updated: Thursday, July 03, 2008
At UpCompany, we're looking for really smart people who can get things done. We're looking for self-starters -- the kind of people who can be given general directions and execute like mad to drive the business forward. We're looking for insanely creative people who are bubbling with ideas, but who do not get distracted from the big picture. We're looking for strong people who can put their personal ego aside to do what's in the interest of the company. We're looking for people who like to win and know what it takes to do so. If you're the kind of person who is driven to complete things, and likes to work hard while having fun, please apply!
Our team is comprised of some of the best minds in the industry. This top notch team has a proven track record of building highly successful Internet businesses. Our thought leaders hail from Quigo, Amazon.com, News Corp., and Yahoo!, and include backgrounds from MIT and Stanford.
Below are descriptions of a few roles we need filled. Don't worry if you're not an exact match, we're not trying to shoehorn people into fixed slots. UpCompany is a fluid organization, and we're not too concerned with titles. Instead, we're looking for people who can grow with the company. If you're the right person, we'll make it work.
Employees receive equity, competitive salaries, and medical and dental benefits.
Please submit your resume to:
jobs@upcompany.com
Other sample job descriptions available at:
http://www.ivanism.com/Articles/WereHiring.html
You can learn more about how we run shop on my blog (mostly written while at my last employer, so more focused on C++ than we are):
* http://www.ivanism.com/Article
* http://www.ivanism.com/Article
* http://www.ivanism.com/Article
* http://www.ivanism.com/Article
* http://www.ivanism.com/Article
* http://www.ivanism.com/Article
* http://www.ivanism.com/Article
* http://www.ivanism.com/Article
Web Data Architect:
Have you built performance-based data services for a transactional website? Are you passionate about website load time? Can you compare and contrast the relative merits of relational, space-based, data cube, key-value, and tree structured data designs. Can you design a heterogeneous data service taking advantage of the relative merits of various technologies to produce a highly data driven, analytical website? Do you wax poetic about the real world differences between memcached, BerkleyDB, and LDAP? Have you researched Google's Big Table, Hadoop/HBase, Amazon SimpleDB, and even tried them on home-grown projects? Have you constructed dimensional star and snowflake databases, but also know when data normalization is inappropriate? Do you passionately believe that Shared Nothing Architecture should properly extend as deep into the data and persistence layer as possible?
At UpCompany, we're looking for someone who is obsessed with the power of data and has the capabilities to bring that power to fruition. Someone who can take the requirements for a massively scalable, fast, data driven website, and produce the active data service needed to implement our vision. This person is pragmatic, and can get an initial system up and running quickly, but excited and self driven and will continuously create incremental improvements which align the capabilities with our vision and direction.
Key Words: data architect, RDF, Big Table, Hadoop, memcache, memcached, semantic, triple store, distributed database, scalable architecture, navigational database, shared nothing architecture, Semantic Web, Web 2.0, python, C++, mySQL
Stratospheric Junior Data Engineer:
Ok, so you're not quite the Web Data Architect who has built one of the top performing Internet sites and you haven't written your own treatise on how to scale Twitter -- yet. But you're scary smart and you know you have what it takes. You just know that, if given the opportunity, you would eat, breathe and dream in high availability, massive, scalable data -- and you would consume everything interesting ever written about data architectures, databases, and modern web architectures. In short, you would grok all forms of data storage and data systems.
To your credit, you assert, your mind is already infused with data designs -- cube data views, dimensional datastores, key-value data tables, navigational data structures, and denormalized data systems to name just a few. Not only do you understand the fundamentally isomorphic relationship between software data structures, databases of all kinds, and network topologies, but you can also design systems at any of these levels and speak intelligently about the differential value each system embodies. In addition, you have a few years of practical experience working with data, either in a junior role for a big site, or as the architect for a smaller site. You've learned from the best, on the job and off, and are firmly on the path towards massiveness.
At UpCompany, we're looking for someone who is obsessed with the power of data and has the capabilities to bring that power to fruition. Someone who can take the requirements for a massively scalable, fast, data driven website, and produce the active data service needed to implement our vision. This person is pragmatic, and can get an initial system up and running quickly, but excited and self driven and will continuously create incremental improvements which align the capabilities with our vision and direction.
Key Words: data architect, RDF, Big Table, Hadoop, memcache, memcached, semantic, triple store, distributed database, scalable architecture, navigational database, shared nothing architecture, Semantic Web, Web 2.0, python, C++, mySQL
Web Analytics Developer:
Are you a true data geek? Do you run analytics on your personal apache log files to eek out usage trends and correlate the peaks with news events? Do you think the whole world could rapidly be improved by doing regressions on randomized trial data to determine what actually work? Was learning about A/B testing a transcendental moment, when you realized that the era of real-time analytics and multivariate testing had finally arrived? Can you do Taguchi?
At UpCompany, we're looking for someone to help us build an extremely data-driven website, the kind of website where every pixel counts, and has the supporting analytical metrics to prove it. We're looking for someone who can organize and correlate vast amounts of data, and can discriminate legitimate trends from non causal noise. If you have a very strong background in mathematics and statistics, understand how economic methods can be applied to website design and analysis, and are a firm believer in the scientific method, then read on. The ideal candidate would be able to implement these techniques in code, and even inform the Data Service Architect on design and implementation requirements and constraints.
Key Words: math, statistics, interpretation, click stream, Bayes, Markov, probability, regression, Offermatica, AI, Semantic Web, Web 2.0, python, C++, AJAX, JavaScript, DHTML
IT Operations Developer:
Do you dream of using infrastructure in innovative ways to solve technical challenges? Have you worked with developers to collaboratively solve real-world problems using IT and code? Can you design hardware systems to solve problems like A/B Testing? Can you put together scripts to make configuration and deployment of services an error-free process? Are you also experienced with vendors, and know which data centers offer the best and most reliable services? Can you architect the infrastructure for a highly scalable website, and then scale the site when user adoption begins to dramatically escalate?
At UpCompany, we're looking for someone who is obsessed with the nuts bolts of building a scalable website. Someone with a range of skills and isn't afraid to do what it takes. Someone who can execute a contract with a data center, and also who can crimp cables and spec servers. The ideal candidate would be very self motivated, show leadership, and be passionate about working with developers and others on the technical team to creatively solve problems. This person is pragmatic, and can get an initial system up and running quickly, but excited and self driven and will continuously create incremental improvements which align the capabilities with our vision and direction.
Key Words: IT, IT operations management, data center management, memcache, memcached, Tech Strategy, Network Engineering, DataCenter, Operations, Unix, Infrastructure Design, Capacity Planning, Disaster Recovery, Hardware/Software Inventory Management, Load Distribution, ITIL, AJAX, MySQL, LAMP, Agile, shared nothing architecture, python, C++, shell, Web 2.0, A/B testing