Grooveshark is looking for talented web developers. We are looking to fill a wide variety of web dev positions. The next few posts I make will be job descriptions for each of the major positions we are looking to fill. For part 1, I’m listing our backend PHP position. If your skillset is more front-end leaning but you feel like you would be a good fit for Grooveshark, by all means apply now rather than waiting for me to post the job description. :)
Grooveshark is seeking awesome PHP developers.
Must be willing to relocate to Gainesville, FL and legally work in the US. Relocation assistance is available.
Responsibilities:
Maintaining existing backend code & APIs, creating new features and improving existing ones
Writing good, clean, fast, secure code on tight deadlines
Identifying and eliminating bottlenecks
Writing and optimizing queries for high-concurrency workloads in SQL, MongoDB, memcached, etc
Identifying and implementing new technologies and strategies to help us scale to the next level
Desired Qualities:
Enjoy writing high quality, easy to read, self-documenting code
A passion for learning about new technologies and pushing yourself
Attention to detail
A high LOC/bug ratio
Able to follow coding standards
Good written and verbal communication skills
Well versed in best practices & security concerns for web development
Ability to work independently and on teams, with little guidance and with occasional micromanagement
More pragmatic than idealistic
Experience:
Experience developing on the LAMP stack (able to set up a LAMP install with multiple vhosts on your own)
Extensive experience with PHP
Extensive experience with SQL
Some experience with Javascript, HTML & CSS though you won’t be required to write it
Some experience with lower level languages such as C/C++
Experience with version control software (especially dvcs)
Bonus points for:
Well read in Software Engineering practices
Experience with a SQL database and optimizing queries for high concurrency on large data sets.
Experience with noSQL databases like MongoDB, Redis, memcached.
Experience with Nginx
Experience creating APIs
Knowledge of Linux internals
Experience working on large scale systems with high volume of traffic
Useful contributions to the open source community
Fluency in lots of different programming languages
Experience with browser compatability weirdness
Experience with smarty or other templating systems
BS or higher in Computer Science or related field
Experience with Gearman, RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ or some other job distribution/message passing system for distributing work
A passion for music and a desire to revolutionize the industry
Who we don’t want:
Architecture astronauts
Trolls
Complete n00bs (apply for internship or enroll in Grooveshark University instead!)
People who want to work a 9-5 job
People who would rather pretend to know everything than actually learn
Religious adherents to The Right Way To Do Software Development
Anyone who loves SOAP
Send us your:
Resume
Code samples you love
Code samples you hate
Favorite reading materials on Software Engineering (e.g. books, blogs)
Tell us when you would use a framework, and when you would avoid using a framework
ORM: Pros, cons?
Unit testing: pros, cons?
Magic: pros, cons?
When/why would you denormalize?
Thoughts on SOAP vs REST
If you want a job: jay at groovesharkdotcom
If you want an internship: [email protected]
stef
May 16, 2011 at 6:09 pm
How come there isn’t a place to contact tech support. I have an issue with one of my playlists not loading and there is no help anywhere on Grooveshark to fix this issue. Am I missing it?
Jay
May 16, 2011 at 11:28 pm
Hi Stef, it’s a bit hard to find but I believe [email protected] is the email address you’re looking for. :)
jhsizemore
May 18, 2011 at 8:54 am
You want to hire some people to clean up the database.
/jedimindtrick
Jay
May 18, 2011 at 10:26 am
Trust me, that is one of many, many things this person will be doing. Though we actually already do a lot to clean up the DB…people don’t notice the 99 duplicates you fix behind the scenes, they notice the 3 dups that weren’t caught. :P
jhsizemore
May 18, 2011 at 12:27 pm
Hey Jay,
I certainly didn’t mean to sound thankless for the effort put into Grooveshark . I see your team as a model of user responsiveness and I realize that the designer/user relationship can be be frustrating.
That said, I still see search results like that of Bright Eyes (http://grooveshark.com/#/artist/Bright+Eyes/865?src=5) pretty often. As a user I have been fairly persistent in voicing what I see as a community desire to help clean up the database, sharing this view in the forums, on Grooveshark’s Facebook, on the blog, in email communications with your team and, when I lived in Gainesville, in conversation with Grooveshark employees I know.
I assume that whoever fills the position above can write up something that removes dupes and he or she might be able to check against a database like AllMusic to shape song collections into records, but it seems at some point you will need a human to check the work, make alterations, etc…
As my experience is more content focused (Journalism, extensive retagging of music collections with MediaMonkey using AllMusic metadata, front-end web development in HTML/CSS/PHP) I’m not the person for this job. But if you offered jobs, internships or even volunteer hours for people that wanted to hand-clean the databases, then you can bet I’d be first in line to apply.
viclou
May 18, 2011 at 8:15 pm
Haha, I’m sure Grooveshark doesn’t wanna hire 13-year olds (yes I am one) but I am a pro at design, HTML, CSS, WordPress, Conora, and a n00b at JS, databases & PHP (why I’m not probably not fit for this job!)
Anyways, I would like to work for Grooveshark as I get older and learn more things (after all, I am right in Gainesville, but where is downtown anyways!?)
Along with that, I have created the famous Grooveshark Google Chrome themes (which was just been taken down along with a few other ones not long ago…. http://twitpic.com/4zgqkf ) I just hope it is not because of the word “Grooveshark”!
George
July 19, 2011 at 6:17 pm
Are you interested in non-US residents?