Backend Software Engineer, Automattic
Parse.ly
$70-170k
More information about location
Work from anywhere, and make the web a better place for everyone, everywhere.
Open for applications
Work from anywhere, and make the web a better place for everyone, everywhere.
1001+ employees
Open for applications
$70-170k
More information about location
1001+ employees
Company mission
To democratize publishing and commerce so that anyone with a story can tell it, and anyone with a product can sell it, regardless of income, gender, politics, language, or where they live in the world.
Role
Who you are
- Strong knowledge of Python
- Commitment to clean coding practices
- Excitement to work with large-scale data systems (petabyte scale)
- Understanding and interest in building and working on distributed systems
- Experience with databases (Elasticsearch, Redis, Cassandra, PostgreSQL)
- Strong written communication skills
- Comfortable with on-call rotations
- Located in North America, South America, or western EMEA (timezone within 5 hours east or west of UTC-5)
Desirable
- Knowledge of Frameworks in the Python ecosystem (Django, FastAPI, Pydantic)
- Experience with distributed systems and cloud computing (preferably AWS)
- Knowledge of data processing frameworks (Kafka, Storm, Spark, or similar)
- Experience working with large-scale data systems (petabyte scale)
- Strong UNIX/Linux knowledge and experience
What the job involves
- We’re looking for talented backend engineers to join Parse.ly’s backend engineering team
- We currently make use of data engineering technologies like Apache Spark, Storm, Kafka, and Elasticsearch to analyze large datasets
- As a Backend Software Engineer at Parse.ly, you will be expected to master these technologies, while also being able to write code against them in Python
- Our team is responsible for providing a real-time analytics infrastructure that processes over 2 million page views per minute from over 5,000 high-traffic sites
- It operates a fleet of cloud servers that include thousands of cores for live data processing
- We have written publicly about mage, our time series analytics engine
- This will give you an idea about the kinds of systems we work on
- As an experienced Backend Software Engineer, you will help us expand our reach into petabyte-scale data analysis—while ensuring consistent uptime, provable reliability, and top-rated performance of our backend streaming data systems
- For this role, you should already be a senior Python programmer who wants to work with data at scale. Below are some of the key things this role will involve:
- Write Python code using standard methodologies. See The Elements of Python Style, written by our founding CTO, for an example of our approach to code readability and design
- Analyze data at an extensive scale. You need to be comfortable with the idea of your code running across 3,000 Python cores, thanks to process-level parallelization
- Brainstorm new product ideas and directions with the team and customers. You need to be a good communicator, especially in written form
- Master cloud technologies and systems. You should love UNIX and be able to reason about distributed systems. A favorite book of yours might be Designing Data-Intensive Applications (DDIA)
- Participate in the team’s on-call rotation
Our take
At a time when companies like Facebook, Apple, and Google were turning into monopolistic market leaders, Automattic was building its open-source infrastructure on a distributed, volunteer-run workforce. Since its launch in 2005, the company has continued to evolve and expand as it built its new web empire.
Automattic is the company behind WordPress (which powers roughly 42% of all websites), Jetpack, Tumblr, Simplenote, WooCommerce (which is believed to run more than a quarter of all online storefronts), Longreads, Crowdsignal, Atavist, Day One, and more.
The company’s “Five for the Future” initiative allocates 5% of its resources to further the development of WordPress, and many other companies that utilize Automattic’s communities follow some version of the initiative, contributing back code and time to support the community. Still spinning out new projects such as an anti-spam filter and online identity safeguards, the unicorn company is a powerhouse that is well set to continue its path to long-lasting growth.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Few candidates hear
back within 2 weeks
Company
Funding (last 2 of 5 rounds)
Feb 2021
$288m
LATE VC
Sep 2019
$300m
SERIES D
Total funding: $778.6m
Company benefits
- Professional Development · “I will never stop learning” is part of our company creed. From leadership development to improving your writing skills, we have a comprehensive list of programs and resources available to everyone, and we’re also happy to pay for any hardware, software, books, or conferences that promote continued learning.
- Career Coaching · Coaching sessions to help you set and achieve professional goals are available for all Automatticians – team members and team leads. This benefit resets each calendar year.
- Time off · Our open vacation policy (no set number of days per year) is designed to help you to be at your best! There is no minimum or maximum, but we encourage you to take at least 25 days of time off per year.
- Home Office · We offer home office setup and coworking allowances. Working from a coffee shop? You can use your coworking allowance for the requisite latte!
- Wellness · We offer mental wellness benefits including an Employee Assistance Program, a monthly subscription to a mindfulness app (including Calm, Headspace, Ten Percent Happier, Waking up, and Insight timer), and virtual ergonomic consultations and access to a wealth of virtual ergonomic tips, stretch videos and yoga exercises.
- Parental leave · Open parental leave (including maternity, paternity, LGBTQ+, and adoption for all parents). If you’ve been with Automattic for 12 months, your leave up to 6 months is fully paid.
- Anniversary Awards · Paid three-month sabbatical encouraged every five years and other cool anniversary surprises.
- Automattic Stock · Check out Buying and selling Automattic Stock!
- Life Insurance · Company-sponsored life insurance.
- Compensation · We attract talent around the world and pay global salary ranges. We prioritize internal equity and review your pay every 12-18 months.
- Sabbatical · Working at Automattic provides numerous opportunities to learn new skills, grow in your career, and have a significant and positive impact on the lives of millions. It also offers the rare (and juicy!) benefit of a paid, three-month sabbatical every five years.
Company values
- We are passionate advocates for our customers and the open web community.
- We build our business sustainably, through passionate and loyal customers.
- We never stop learning.
- We don’t just work on things that are assigned to us.
- We know there’s no such thing as a status quo.
- We never pass up the opportunity to help out a colleague.
- We are motivated by impact, and we know that open source is one of the most powerful ideas of our generation.
- We are in a marathon, not a sprint. No matter how far away the goal may be, the only way to get there is by putting one foot in front of another every day.
- Given time, there is no problem that’s insurmountable.
- We communicate as much as possible, because it’s the oxygen of a distributed company.
Company HQ
Bernal Heights, San Francisco, CA
Articles
Leadership
Matt Mullenweg
(CEO)Former President at Automattic. Current Lead Developer at WordPress, and Board Member at the New Museum of Contemporary Art and ecoAmerica. Former Board Member at Grist, and GitLab Inc. Previous Senior Product Manager at CNET Networks.
People progressing
Design Director/UX Ninja Jetpack. Strategic UX/Product Design leader with over 19 years of experience in Product Design, User Experience & User Research methodologies & Product Management.
Head of Communications. Writer, editor, communicator, producer. Their first WordPress site was a self-hosted tech blog called effinnerds.com that she built in 2008. Speaks English, Khmer, and Spanish.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Automattic
- We are committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: https://automattic.com/diversity-and-inclusion/ A diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace comprises people of many identities and abilities. It invites community members to share their opinions and ideas, which it then uses to improve the company. It celebrates employees’ various cultures and heritages; it plans team- and company-wide meetups that are accessible to all; it invites people to effect change within the company; it provides an array of tools and methods to help its employees become experts in their positions; and it encourages individualized successes, which benefit the company at large. Automattic is a Most Loved Company (https://mostlovedworkplace.com/companies/automattic-inc/) and Disability Confident Committed (https://disabilityconfident.campaign.gov.uk/).
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