Backend Developer
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
We’re looking for a backend developer to join the Fastmail
team in our Center City Philadelphia office.
About the Job
Together with the rest of our team, you’ll work on our email services Fastmail,
Pobox, and Topicbox. When the vast majority of people get email for free, the
reason people choose a paid service is because they value both privacy and a
great user experience.
We strive to build clean, well-tested, reusable code — to have our backend code
look as good, and work as well, as our interface. With a swiftly growing
customer (and code) base, we are looking to add new team mates to help make
sure we’re reaching our own standards.
We are a close-knit team, but do most projects individually. We are always
ready to jump in with an extra set of eyes, a lengthy explanation of why things
work the current way, or just to grab a coffee, but you should feel comfortable
making decisions solo.
Our backend infrastructure is widely varied, in both subject matter and style —
expect plenty of refactoring and converting in-place code to reusable methods.
We are also looking ahead to adding more integrations with other services, our
own new products, and improving existing features!
The Fastmail backend is written largely in Perl, and that's what you'll be
writing most of the time. There's a little bit of this and that throughout,
but we try to stick to Perl when we can. And we usually can. If you don't
know Perl, that's no problem. It's a lot like Python, Node, or Ruby, but with
more dollar signs.
About You
You may be a fit for this role if you:
-
Score "lines of code deleted" as high or higher than "lines written". Hearing
"refactor" sparks joy in your heart. The first time you saw a flame graph
profile, you thought of three pieces of code you were dying to get one from.
-
Enjoy developing, then working to, a specification document. Our user
interface uses a well-defined API to communicate with our servers, and you
will need need to be able to program to the specified API. We believe
implementing to a spec ends up with high-quality, maintainable code, and hope
you do, too.
-
Feel comfortable asking questions: we encourage dialogue with other team
members over ambiguous, dubious, or otherwise suspect specifications, quirky
code that doesn't make sense, or just the whys behind a task!
-
Are comfortable picking up new tools, evaluating existing solutions, or just
building your own. We think long term, and want to ensure we control our
future. We like to fully understand the code we run, whether it's something
we wrote ourselves or an open-source component we contribute to.
You will definitely need excellent written language skills, strong verbal and
interpersonal skills, patience, diligence, and an ability to gracefully adapt
to change. You love engaging with your colleagues to find the ideal
implementation solution.
Working at Fastmail
This is a full-time role. Like everyone on our team, you’ll get great benefits.
- 100% covered medical and dental benefits for you from day one
- generous contributions for partners and dependent coverage (also available from day one)
- four weeks of paid time off
- paid sick leave, holidays, and parental leave
- paid sabbatical for long-term staff
- annual professional development budget to fund your own growth
- supportive work environment
- team events to share your passions (from tech tools and user testing to crafts, movies, and games)
This job is based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We have a strong in-person
culture and are looking for someone who will be on-site and part of that
culture.
We also have an office in Melbourne, Australia, and we’re in close
communication with them. This means that you’ll need to be available for an
hour or two of evening calls each week. We are partners, parents and
caregivers ourselves, and we understand time-zone flexibility goes in both
directions. Talk to us if you’re unsure. (Also, once it’s safe to travel
again, you’ll have the opportunity to travel to Melbourne, an artsy and
charming Australian city!)
You can read about our values, and our
blog contains interviews with some of the people
who will become your colleagues at Fastmail.
We encourage employees to write and speak about the great work we do, and to
stay engaged with their professional peers. Many staff members choose to
attend conferences for learning and networking, and several staff members are
regular conference speakers.
We welcome all applicants regardless of race, color, religion, age, pregnancy,
gender identity or expression, disability, or sexual orientation. We can help
you relocate to Philadelphia if needed. The thing we can’t help with is a visa
or sponsorship. You must already have the right to work in the United States.
Sounds great, what’s next?
Email us at backend-dev@jobs.fastmailteam.com to introduce yourself and
tell us why you would be a good fit for the job. Send us a resume (as a PDF,
please). More importantly, though, have something else to say! Let us know
what you’re interested in, what makes the job interesting, and anything else
you want to tell us up front.
Job Type: Full-time