Crazy Awesome Backend Developer

Do you want to solve really hard problems using cutting-edge web technologies with a team of awesome people (while taking a surprising amount of joy from goldfish crackers, beer on Wednesdays, and meeting rooms named after super-villain lairs)? Then please apply immediately, because SEOmoz is the right place for you!

About the company
SEOmoz is a small (just 51 of us today) but rapidly-growing, profitable technology startup. That said, we dream big--we aim to provide companies with the best, most advanced ways to measure and improve their organic web marketing (i.e. any traffic source you don’t pay for - SEO, social, blogs, viral videos, etc.).

We’ve got the reputation of a big player with the energy of a young, nimble organization. This allows us to do very exciting things when we smell opportunity. We pride ourselves on developing kick-ass (and good-looking) software, indexing the web, providing a robust API that serves hundreds of millions of queries each day, and hosting the web’s most vibrant web marketing community.

In our downtown Seattle offices, mere steps from Pike Place Market, we maintain a fun, supportive, laid-back work environment. We pay well (salaries are on par with the big guys - Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Sauron) and we work hard (sometimes long hours are a must, but we pride ourselves on working smart, not 80-hour nightmare weeks). We’re also very generous with vacation and flex time because we understand that our employees have lives, interests, and obligations outside of the office.

Our core values include being transparent (you’ll get every key metric about the business each week), having fun (pie-eating contests - check! Team bowling trips - check! Friday afternoon Kinect dance parties - check!) and creating exceptional products our customers love. We strongly encourage you to read more about the company - our core values, our history and what we do.

About the position

Our engineers work to crack tough problems to change the world of search for the better. Our systems crawl the web, generate a link graph of sites that connect to one another, apply lots of interesting algorithms (like heuristics and machine learning) to synthesize this data, and then serve up the TBs of data via a highly scalable API. Oh, and we do all this in the cloud. Because we work on the bleeding edge of a lot of technologies, we need someone who problem solves creatively, learns quickly, and works productively both independently and collaboratively.

This is a great position for you if you want to work on the most challenging problems you encountered in your computer science curriculum. While our code is mostly in C/C++ and Python (for performance reasons more than anything else), we are willing to talk with you if you haven’t written production code in either language – provided you are game to learn it.

Our ideal candidate has some experience with one or more of the following: highly distributed systems, high performance cluster computing, machine learning, large scale text search, zombie slaying, web services, and/or cloud-based systems. You should be prepared to design systems, write code, and test your applications. Startup experience is great, but not required.

Requirements

• BS/BA/MS/PhD in Computer Science (or a great reason for not having one, and
believe us, there are plenty)
• At least 2-5 years of relevant industry experience
• Hard core C/C++ and/or Python development experience, as well as the ability to quickly learn and apply new technologies (again we are willing to take someone
without C/C++ and/or Python assuming you have lots of other experience with an object-oriented language and are willing to learn)
• Experience programming and debugging in a complex, distributed environment
• Experience with one or more databases (such as MySQL, Oracle, HBase, Riak, Cassandra, Mongo, SimpleDB and others) in a production environment is a big plus
• Experience with massively distributed and large-scale software systems
• Knowledge of web services; experience utilizing and creating APIs
• Strong platform skills in Linux/Unix
• U.S. citizenship or permanent resident status

Compensation

We’re offering a very competitive salary for this position (based on experience) to attract exciting candidates. In addition, we also provide:
• Generous stock/ownership compensation (1 year to first stake, 4 years to full vesting)
• 3 weeks annual paid time off
• Opportunities to travel and attend/speak at industry events
• Paid Internet access for your home
• Multiple transportation options (Bus Pass, Flexcar, parking, etc.)
• Great benefits (medical, dental, etc)
• All-you-can eat goldfish crackers

How to Apply

Now that you know who we are and what we do, you totally want to apply, right? Awesome! Just send us your resume and a cover letter telling us why you’re a great fit to jobs@seomoz.org. We appreciate your interest in SEOmoz and look forward to hearing from you!