Ivan Gevirtz
We're Hiring v1
By Ivan Gevirtz
created: Monday, June 30, 2008
updated: Tuesday, August 19, 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
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* http://www.ivanism.com/Article
* http://www.ivanism.com/Article
* http://www.ivanism.com/Article
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* 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++
Data Service Architect:
Are you the kind of geek who thinks that the label DBA is an anachronism from the last century? Do you not only have deep experience with relational databases, but also with other kinds of data storage systems such as file based, tree structured, indexed, and cached? Do you look at these technologies as means for persisting interconnected information, not merely as storing data? Do you know how to write the code to transform a database into an active information service?
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.
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
Information Architect, Web Designer, Interaction Designer:
Are you the type of person who makes sure every pixel is precisely in the right place, because you obsess about how things look? Do you lament "bloatware" and feel that complicated software is an assault on humanity itself? Have you designed websites which make hard things easy, in as few steps as possible? Do you believe that what users do is more important than what they say? Can you write HTML, CSS, and even some JavaScript? Are your designs simple, clean, and telling? Is your mantra already "every pixel counts"? Moreover, do you understand the difference between data and information, and know how to categorize, classify, tag, and meta-enable data to transform it in to information? Have you constructed taxonomies based on semantic relationships, and utilized faceting to layer together complex data? Does the prospect of the "Semantic Web" keep you up at night designing schemas?
At UpCompany, we're looking for an exceptionally simple designer. One who can cut through complex information and interactions and produce a self evident and compelling user experience. One who understands that the power of the Web is its fluidity, and takes that into account in everything she does. One who can take complex information and organize it in a way that compels users.
Key Words: ontology, semantic, taxonomy, Semantic Web, Web 2.0, UI, ID, UX, HCI, IxDA, python, C++, AJAX, JavaScript, DHTML
Data & Tools Developer:
Do you love building tools that allow people to interact with data in novel ways? Are you a relentless consumer of information, and think that browsing Wikipedia borders on the transcendental? Back in the day, did you regularly write website scraping code to extract data from your favorite sites? Do you wish the whole web would quickly move to XML and RSS so your life would be easier? Have you written scheduled code to periodically pull data from disparate sites, parse it into a useful format, and dumped it in to a database? Do you love the idea of being able to get an SMS alert when some key piece of data has changed in an interesting way? Moreover, do you understand the difference between data and information, and know how to categorize, classify, tag, and meta-enable data to transform it in to information? Have you constructed taxonomies based on semantic relationships, and utilized faceting to layer together complex data? Does the prospect of building a Content Management System for dynamic web publishing get your juices flowing?
At UpCompany, we are going to amass an amazing amount of data from a multitude of sources. We need someone to write code to retrieve the world's data (or some significant subset), clean it up, label it, and archive it in a production environment. We also need someone to write tools to make this process easy for others to do, and easy for others to interact with the data in interesting ways that add clear value.
Key Words: ontology, semantic, taxonomy, NLP, AI, bayes, markov, data parsing, crawling, normalization, XML, data scrubbing, Semantic Web, Web 2.0, RSS, python, C++
Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET):
Do you find ways to break every new program you install? Do you revel in the glory when you do? Do you sometimes try to hack existing systems to find exploits or ways to make it do your own thing? Can you write code, and have a strong desire to improve your skills? Do you admire people who write excellent software, but like to do more than just code? Do you love being a software tester, but sometimes hate feeling under appreciated or second rate? Do you want to feel closer to the action, more integral to the development process, and have your voice heard? Are you excited about extreme programming and agile development processes? Are you ridiculously organized and detail oriented? The ideal SDET hails from a unique breed who combine manual, automated, and programmatic testing with system and user level testing. This person can write scripts, analyze data flows, perfect UI interactions, and find novel ways to break our systems and sites. They are lateral thinkers, and can envision all sorts of users and their interactions with our systems. In addition, they can work closely with both engineering and product management to make sure that priorities are appropriately set to exceed users needs. They occasionally even find creative yet effective work around's for pesky problems.
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, Linux, 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