Search Wrangler

We are the company behind WordPress.com, Jetpack, WooCommerce and Tumblr. Automattic builds related content, recommendations, and search for websites, e-commerce sites and blogs. We connect millions of publishers with billions of readers every month and look for ways to help new publishers build an audience. Our system runs on open source: Elasticsearch, MySQL, Spark, Kafka, HDFS, Airflow (and tied together around WordPress of course).

We are looking for a Search Wrangler to join us in developing new search APIs, integrating with our front-end applications, iterating on our existing solutions and algorithms, and to keep everything running.

How do we work?

• We’re kind to each other and our users – we strive to build a positive, supportive, and inclusive culture of cohesive teams focused on delivering value to our customers.
• We work as a global and distributed workforce resulting in a unique way of working built around our creed.
• We offer flexible work arrangements allowing our team members to work when they feel best.
• We welcome collaboration, and you can be involved in any discussion across our many communication channels.

Here are some things we’re looking for:

• Desire to build, refine and operate fast and relevant search experiences. Great troubleshooting skills to debug failures if they occur, and a systematic approach to building reliable solutions.
• Experience with Open Source search systems like Elasticsearch, Solr, or Lucene. You enjoy combining different signals to craft novel search algorithms.
• Great programming skills in both dynamic and compiled languages (especially PHP and Java/Scala). The idea of using PHP every day should not be a blocker for you.
• A deep understanding of distributed computing and system performance. You will work on scaling search systems and should know about high volume indexing and querying.
• Familiarity with professional software engineering methods and standards such as coding conventions, code reviews, continuous integration, build processes, and testing.
• Openness and ability to travel 3-4 weeks per year to meet your teammates in person. We hold an annual all-company meeting every year, and meet up with our teams for a week once or twice per year.
• Curious about who we are and what we work on? Read our blog!

Like all positions at Automattic, you’ll work remotely, and can be based wherever you live. It’s not a requirement that you live in or relocate to the Bay Area to do this job. Automattic has more than a dozen full-time global nomads!

ABOUT AUTOMATTIC

We are the people behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Jetpack, Simplenote, Longreads, VaultPress, Akismet, Gravatar, Crowdsignal, Cloudup, and more. We believe in making the web a better place.

We’re a distributed company with more than 1100 Automatticians in 65+ countries speaking 75+ different languages. Our common goal is to democratize publishing so that anyone with a story can tell it, regardless of income, gender, politics, language, or where they live in the world.

We believe in Open Source and the vast majority of our work is available under the GPL.