Junior DevOps Engineer
Founded by the creator of the YOU DON'T KNOW JACK® game series, The Jellyvision Lab, Inc. creates virtual teachers, advisors, and salespeople who make online learning and decision making delightful. In all that we do, our goal is to make complex topics simple and boring material interesting, using a combination of great design, unexpectedly funny content, and serious technology. Of all the virtual people Jellyvision has created, the tallest and least afraid of bears is ALEX®, the virtual benefits counselor (www.meetalex.com). ALEX helps companies talk their employees through the tricky choices they’ll have to make, like picking a health insurance plan, deciding how much to put in the 401(k), or whether they might want extra life insurance. Our customers love ALEX because he helps their employees figure out what’s best for their personal situations, which, in turn, saves our customers a boat-load of time and money - everybody wins! As we sell more and more of ALEX, we need more and more non-virtual (i.e., real life) people to keep the product amazing. That’s where you come in.
THAT'S LOVELY... BUT WHAT'S THE JOB?
We love engineers who are jacks of all trades and equally as comfortable writing application code as they are a bash one-liner. What we’re looking for, right now, are engineers who are early in their career and who are looking for an opportunity to work with great people, play with some great technology and become great engineers.
You’d be working on our products, platforms and tools doing things like troubleshooting websites, patching servers, deploying new code, and creating automation around repeatable tasks. You also will be participating in system design and application stack decisions right off the bat. Finally, we’re big on security here (who isn’t?), so you’ll be helping us enforce our existing security policies as well as have a hand in writing new ones!
SO WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
We’re looking for someone who isn’t afraid to dive into a new technology and learn all of its ins and outs. A degree is awesome, but hands-on experience working with distributed web applications is just as good. We just want to see that you know what it is to manage web applications and love doing it.
We utilize various technologies and languages in our web applications. You should be able to identify the different pieces that make up a multi-tiered web app environment and feel comfortable assembling them into one cohesive system.
A little scripting can go a long way! It saves us from making mistakes while performing tasks that are better suited for computers. You should be comfortable with one or more scripting languages to solve problems in Linux environments.
We handle a fair amount of data, so experience with databases is great. If you’ve worked with SQL or NoSQL databases before, we’re pretty confident you can learn the smattering of database technologies we use here.
Above all, you’re going to learn a lot; that’s gotta be something you want in a job. We’ll support you in your endeavors, but we really relish seeing engineers who have a passion for learning and improvement, and we’re going to expect that passion from whomever we hire.
NICE TO HAVES...
Being engineers, we love automating boring repetitive tasks, especially building and configuring servers. Experience using tools to automate the configuring and provisioning of servers is exceptional.
We use Amazon for more than shopping. Any experience using their various web services is a bonus!
It’s a boon if you have some experience using a source control management system. We use a git system at Jellyvision, but if you’ve got your hands dirty with SVN or Hg and you’re ready for something new, we’re open to that.
WHAT ABOUT THOSE NOT-TECHNICAL, BUT EQUALLY IMPORTANT SKILLS? We’re looking for folks with:
- A passion for learning and experimenting with new technologies
- Experience working in a team-based environment
- Great communication skills
- And, last but not least, a sense of humor. It just makes you more fun to work with.<strong<strong
Looking for a role for a more experienced engineer? Check out our Senior DevOps role here.
PHEW. THAT WAS A LOT. ANYTHING ELSE?
Yes. We share a commitment to excellence and a desire to work in a comfortable, friendly atmosphere, so we only hire nice, bright, funny people who are willing to work hard. Our credo is a simple one: be helpful. And we think we can be most helpful if our workforce is as diverse in thought, perspective, and culture as the people who use our products. We are looking to add amazing folks to our team who will bring diversity across many lines, including race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability, gender identity, sex, and country of origin.
ARE THERE ANY PERKS?
Yes, we love perks.
- Competitive pay, stock options and benefits. 401(k) with matching. And we pay 100% of the cost of premiums for medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance for our employees (as long as you qualify for our tobacco-free discount; if you’re a tobacco user, your medical premiums will be higher than $0). We also cover a really nice chunk of the cost of premiums for spouse/partner/dependent medical, dental and vision insurance.
- Casual dress and a flexible schedule. Come in a sweatshirt, jeans, whatever, like everyone else here.
- Creative work environment. We are lucky to work in a place that is full of intelligent, talented and innovative folks. Although most hours the place is deathly quiet (we're a focused bunch), this is punctuated with hilarious outbursts and general merriment, which makes a nice way to spend the day.
- Easy transportation. We’re really close to the "L" and the Halsted (#8) bus (right by the new Apple Store and Mega Whole Foods if that’s your kind of thing), and we have a transit FSA that allows you to dedicate pre-tax dollars to public transportation expenses. Since a number of our employees like to bike to work, we also have showers and lockers in the office.
- Did we mention our yoga class? We bring a pro instructor right to the office. Fully subsidized by Jellyvision and fully optional, btw.
- Oh! And you should know that we have a massage chair. And not just any massage chair, my friend. It’s the HumanTouch HT 5320 WholeBody™ Massage Chair. Feeling a little stiff? Sit down. Relax. Feel better? Good. Okay, back to work.
- Free food. Every week, we stock our kitchen with free healthy snack foods, and we have a “hot lunch” catered once a week to give people a reason to hang out and eat together.
INTERESTED? GREAT! HERE’S HOW TO APPLY:
We need:
- Your resume.
- A cover letter that highlights 3 reasons you think you’d be great for the gig. Writing is key to all that we do, and we weigh cover letters heavily. We’d love it if your cover letter could show us how you think about coding.
You should receive an auto-reply confirming that we’ve received your application. NO PHONE CALLS OR FOLLOW-UP EMAILS, PLEASE.
If you do decide to apply, please know that every complete application will be carefully reviewed. Seriously! We know it is a time commitment to prepare an application. We will respect that effort by thoughtfully reviewing every single complete application and responding one way or the other, and we are truly grateful for your interest.