New - Social Systems Engineering Team at Netflix

Michael Hart is now leading a new Social Systems Engineering Team here at Netflix. He has a couple of immediate openings. Here is a partial from the job description:

Netflix is the leading online movie and TV service, reaching almost 17 million households in the US and Canada and growing over 50% in the last year. Many of the other fastest growing companies today have achieved that growth in part by leveraging Facebook's social graph. As a founding member of the new Social Systems engineering team at Netflix, you'll be challenged with helping us leverage the social graph to propel Netflix's growth even higher.

I am really excited to see what Michael and his team will accomplish with this new dimension of the Netflix experience. Wouldn't it be a blast to be a part of this team? If you are interested apply for the job here.

Back at Netflix and Hiring

I am back at Netflix!

I am hiring (naturally). I am specifically looking for some talented user interface engineers to join my team. My team builds the experience for acquiring new members. We are at a critical phase as we expand internationally while supporting a wide range of devices. You can check out the job posting here.

I can't think of a better recommendation for Netflix than the fact that I have returned :-D

Why would I return? First a little about why I left.

In my previous position at Netflix the team had gotten large (15+) and was on a growth path to be 25 or 30. I no longer could be involved in the details as my group spanned every part of the Netflix business. It was a fantastic position -- really a dream job. But at the end of the day I needed to be more a part of the solution.

So I left Netflix and became the VP of Engineering & UX at Meebo. Meebo is really a stellar place. But after just a couple of months I realized I had moved in the wrong direction. And it became clear to me that all of the positions opening to me where at a level that mostly dealt with the organizational challenges with some limited high level strategy. So while Meebo was really a great place to work I knew that I had to figure out what level I wanted to work at.

After that I started consulting. During that phase I learned a lot about myself and how I want to spend my time. Consulting was especially rewarding as I had some amazing clients (PayPal, Adobe, Rypple and BagCheck to name a few). I got to do product strategy consulting, UX design (lots of wireframing) and JavaScript development. The most rewarding part was being hands on solving problems. And of course working with Theresa Neil (my co-author) was a blast.

During that time I was presented with a lot of really great opportunities by companies I respect deeply. After I started considering full time employment again I realized that I was happiest at Netflix. And coincidentally I had been giving recommendations to Netflix on people that I could recommend for a new role there. Then it dawned on me, why not offer myself for that role? And that is what I did.

My new role is much more focused than my previous role. I am the Director of ECommerce UI Engineering. Instead of leading all of the user interface engineers at Netflix, I am leading a smaller (but growing team) that is focused on solving specific problems on the marketing/customer acquisition/account side of the house. The cool thing is the solutions our team fields directly impact the growth of Netflix & the dollars that come in the door. Plus I am able to get much more involved in the day to day work of the product.

The bottom line: My recommendation couldn't be stronger for coming to Netflix. I believed in it so much that I decided to return. It's an amazing brand and we are poised for more amazing growth.

So want to join me? Check out the job description. Is that you or anyone you know? If so don't hesitate to apply or ping me at bscott _at_ netflix _dot_ com.

I am Hiring Again (Yes Again!). UI Engineers for TV & Web Site Experience

As of today 3/8/10 I am actively looking for two more user interface engineers to join my team. (I filled the previous posting with 2 engineers!)

Since late last year we have expanded the number of user interface engineers working on new, upcoming TV experiences. What is especially exciting about this area is the chance to utilize the latest technologies (HTML5, CSS Animations, and other Webkit goodness). We call this the "10 ft UI team" in reference to how far away from the TV the average person sits. Compared to the 2 ft experience with our desktops. In particular I am looking for an Sr. User Interface Engineer that gets jazzed about creating a fully cinematic, rich, fast experience in a 100% JavaScript client app that will be used by millions of Netflix members in their living rooms! How can you not get excited about that?

In addition, I am also searching for a user interface engineer for our main web site experience. Over the next year our main site experience will continue to change (most likely in some significant ways). With our site moving to the cloud, expanding into the international marketplace and our experience moving to multiple devices there are a number of challenges ahead. For this role you need to really understand cross-browser issues, know how to wield JavaScript and tame CSS to field numerous member experiences in our A/B testing framework. This is a senior role (as are all of the roles on my team). You will need to understand the principles of good, simple, clean design. As we continue to refactor the underlying infrastructure you will also need to be able to get your hands dirty in the Java/JSP layer as well. This means you can't just be an "HTML hack". No, you need to have a solid set of computer science skills. The perfect profile is usually someone who has at some point worked in enterprise web applications but more recently been developing public consumer web sites with an interesting mix of UI challenges they have had to solve. However, don't let that persona keep you from pinging me. I love to be surprised.

Netflix is a great place to work. We pay well. We work hard. We play hard. And we do have work/life balance! Check out our culture as explained by our CEO, Reed Hastings:

I will post the official job description in the next day or so.

Feel free to contact me at my email: bscott (netflix)

YANNI - Yet Another Ninja Needed Immediately!

UPDATE! I have hired 2 Engineers! So this role is filled. However, I have another opportunity... read it here.

Another new opportunity at Netflix as of today (1/4/2010)!

But if you are interested please contact me at the email shown on the t-shirt. You can find more out about this position at the Netflix Jobs site.

Several notes about this position:

• Will focus on the acquisition/non member side of the web site.
• Exciting new opportunity as we move to our first international offering.
  
• Not a User Experience Designer role, but a Web User Interface Engineering Ninja. Expert level in DHTML and general Computer Science skills required.
  
• Not a remote position and not relocating internationally (but will relocate the right candidate within the US).
• Part of the User Interface Engineering Team and as such reports to me.

(BTW, the shirt above was created and produced by Zazzle. Check them out at Zazzle.com)

Netflix needs another Javascript Ninja

Ok, so this role does not report to me but reports into our excellent Customer Service Engineering organization. The engineering effort is for an internal application suite and not for the main web site. The role actually touches a lot more technologies than the main web site does and is a worthy feat for any ninja to take on. This is really a great opportunity!

Last year I was fortunate to snag Greg Murray (former Sun Ajax Evangelist/Architect) who has been happily working in this role. I now have a new challenge for Greg and need another ninja like him to take his current role. If you know Greg then you will understand the caliber of person I am looking for :-)

Here is the description that the hiring manager sent me.

Here are some of the qualifications we would like for becoming a Netflix customer service UI ninja,

• Is passionate about designing and engineering great interfaces
• Has solid experience designing & building enterprise web applications in a Web 2.0 manner
• Has strong proficiency in server-side UI technologies (Java, Struts / GWT / Tapestry / JSP / JSF )
• Has a solid background in simple software architecture and design as well as can communicate their solutions to the rest of the engineering team
• Has experience working with distributed web services
• Experienced with scaling / performance tuning of highly interactive web applications (understands both client and server ramifications)

Your job profile will probably include a good deal of experience with building user interfaces for advanced, non-consumer oriented sites.

You will be part of the Customer Services Engineering Team. You will be responsible for the presentation layers of all current and new customer service tools. Since much of the work is green field you will have the opportunity to help design the user experience as well as build the web applications. In addition, the Netflix UI framework that the site runs on is shared with these applications. As such you will help flesh out this framework as we go forward.

So what technologies would you be using?

• HTML 5
• CSSS including BluePrint CSS
• JavaScript (custom components mixed with some libraries like jQuery)
• Java
• JSON

Nice to have experience with:

• experience with a Perforce or related version control system (Git / SVN / CVS)
• proficient in Photoshop
• proficient in Eclipse / IntelliJ

Know anyone? Are you that person? If so contact me at bscott _AT_ netflix _DOT_ com and I will connect you with the hiring manager.

I am Hiring! Looking for a Ninja Web UI Engineer - Oct. 7th 2009.

New opportunity as of today (10/7/2009).

UPDATE: All Positions are currently filled!

I will add the official job posting later this week. But if you are interested please contact me at the email shown on the t-shirt.

NOTE: This is not a UX Design role. This is a UI Engineering role. Looking for very sharp DHTML engineers (you can bend Javascript, CSS & HTML to do your bidding) with a strong background in OOP (Some Java experience or other OOP is desired).

Update: Details can be found at the official posting on the Netflix jobs site.

Job opportunity at Togetherville for UI Web Dev

I am an Advisor for the startup Togetherville.com.

Togetherville is an early-stage, funded startup that is centered around ways for kids and parents to engage online. If you are excited about getting a ground-floor startup experience and are a sharp UI engineer then please contact Rajveer Singh Tut (raj _AT_ togetherville DOT com).

Here is the job posting.

Are you interested in using your web dev skills to change the world? Togetherville is building our founding tech team. This is your big chance to get into a very early startup and help build its foundation. We want someone who is tired of the same ol’ same ol’ and wants to take their skills and capabilities to the next level as a technology leader and company builder.

You will begin your Togetherville experience working alongside the stellar engineers at Pivotal Labs (www.pivotallabs.com). This will help you build your skills (and show them off) as we rapidly build out an amazing new way for kids and parents to engage online.
If you are somebody who has:

• The skills/potential to build an amazing interactive social web environment
• Strong experience with the LAMP stack
• Comfort with Javascript/DHTML/CSS/AJAX
• Strong collaborative skills and ability to work in multiple roles both locally and with offshore development teams
• Experience with/ interest in Agile Software Development
• Passion, Strong values, Likability, Intellect and Skill

Then, WE WANT TO TALK TO YOU!

Togetherville (http://Togetherville.com) is an early-stage, funded startup that is sitting at the crossroads of learning, technology and society. Starting with our highly-respected and successful Funders and Advisors, we are building a team that is excited about getting a ground-floor startup experience and is capable of consistently meeting and exceeding the high expectations of success we have set for ourselves.

We are extremely passionate about what we’re doing and just as passionately looking for focused and fun people to join our team. We are not hung up how many years of experience you have. We’d rather start with your potential and what you can do and then go from there! If you think this job description was written with you in mind, contact us. We’ll tell you more about Togetherville, the job opening and the change we are making in the world!

Cooking, UX, Team Building and Job Opportunities

Over the last year I have fallen in love with cooking. I think what I enjoy most is taking some simple ingredients and from that creating a delightful experience. That is why I fell in love with user experience design & engineering so many years ago. Just a few instructions (well usually a lot more than a few -- but you get the idea) and you can create a delightful experience for others.

I was reminded of this today when I celebrated a new member joining my team (user interface engineering at Netflix). As I set up for some massive grilling action I got a lot of joy in talking about what went into each one of the items that I was going to grill. Then just laying out the food on the grill with all of the beautiful colors and watching it cook into mouth-watering delight was exciting. But the biggest thrill is when my team members got so much enjoyment from the food (or at least that is what they tell their boss ;-)

It also got me thinking about team building. Earlier in the year when I mentioned to a candidate that I was about to take my team to Angel Island he asked "for team building?" And I immediately said "NO". In fact my reaction was really strong. I have never really cared for official "team building" exercises or outings. I have never thought that engineering or design teams were built on the shallowness of forced activities. Instead I have always felt that team building is accomplished not as a goal but as a product of being in an environment generously peppered with hard problems, smart colleagues, respect & trust and yes a sense of humor. Outings like today are just icing on the cake.

And of course I am fortunate to have an amazing team and work for an awesome company.

By the way while I am not recruiting for my team at the moment Netflix has some great openings in Product Management, UX Design and engineering!

In particular, I want to call attention to a job that has been hard to fill but is a great opportunity -- Senior Software Engineer in the Software Infrastructure team. I have always been partial to these roles. And have worked in and led infrastructure teams. It takes a special breed of engineer who can grasp what the organization needs (understanding the real customer is our members) yet be able to craft flexible solutions that can multiply the efforts of the rest of the organization. If you are this person or know of someone let me know and I will pass along to the hiring manager.

You can reach me at "B" _dot_ "scott" _@_ yahoo DOT com.

Netflix is Hiring Test Engineers

We are looking for Test Engineers with solid software engineering skills. Interested?

Kevin McEntee, VP of Engineering, described to me what kind of talent we are looking for:

Netflix is hiring Software Developers for our Test Engineering team. The most difficult challenge in team building comes from staffing Test Engineering teams. I have seen many engineering organizations in Silicon Valley fail at this challenge because the development teams and engineering leaders don’t truly value what Test Engineering can bring to an innovative company. On my team at Netflix, the opposite is true. Test Engineering is a critical component of our technology innovation. Our model is to hire Software Developers to innovate and build our Test Engineering solutions.

Check out our job board where you can see some of our current openings.

Hiring! Sr. Web Flash UI Engineer - Interactive TV Position

* UPDATE: POSITION FILLED. Thanks everyone for your help! *

I am looking for a top-notch ActionScript developer to join my Web UI Engineering team. The special emphasis is building interactive experiences for the television. In particular experience with developing FlashLite for embedded devices along with a solid engineering background is needed.

Here is my job posting:

POSITION

Netflix is bringing its movie service directly into millions of homes with Netflix Ready Devices, partnering with companies such as LG, Samsung, Microsoft, Tivo, and Vizio. The TV-based User Experience team is responsible for building the reference Netflix experience which is launching on a variety of new devices this year. In addition, the team is responsible for prototyping and testing new user experiences, advancing the state of the art for all Netflix Ready Devices for years to come. Over the last ten years, Netflix has developed the world's best personalization and movie finding technology - this team's challenge is to bring it to the TV and create a fantastic experience used every day by our growing subscriber base of over 10 million customers.

In this role you will directly build and engineer the TV-based user experience applying your talent with FlashLite and ActionScript. The engineering effort includes prototyping concepts with the design team, building reference platforms and implementations for our device partners and primarily creating production ready user experiences for millions of customers. As such you will need to have solid engineering skills with a strong background in simple design, agile methodologies and object-oriented development as well as an understanding of what makes a great user experience.

In addition you need to have excellent communication skills and the ability to work closely with design, product management and engineering to provide rich interfaces that are highly performant in a constrained environment.

REQUIREMENTS

• Excellent knowledge of FlashLite, ActionScript 2.0 and 3.0
• Strong modular design and object-oriented programming skills
• Rapid prototyping skills
• Solid understanding of web architecture (Flash, Actionscript, DHTML, CSS, Javascript)
• Solid product development experience
• BA/BS in Computer Science or related technical field desirable

DESIRED

• Experience developing for embedded systems and/or TV set-top boxes
• Experience in developing for multiple devices, application types, and browsers
• Experience with C++ and/or Java

Interested?

[Link removed]

Sr. Web UI Engineer for Netflix Site - Still Open!

NOTE: This position is filled!

I am of course happy to announce that Kent Brewster will be joining my team working directly with Michael Hart on our developer API & Community team!


But just to make it clear I am still looking for a Netflix - Sr. Web UI Engineer to join the web site team.


From my earlier post:

As the new year has rolled around we realize that there are so many things happening and in the works that it makes sense to add a Sr. Web UI Engineer to our Web site team. Ever wanted to work at Netfix? Do you have awesome frontend engineering skills? Love to implement great user experiences? Then this is the role for you!

You can read all about it on the Netflix Jobs site or apply for the position on the LinkedIn posting. Or if you want contact me directly at b dot scott which is at yahoo dot com.

Hiring! Creative Director UX @ Netflix

We are looking for a Creative Director for our UX team! Are you the right person? Do you know someone who is? This is an amazing opportunity to lead an incredible team of designers and work in one of the best places to work.

Here is part of the description:

Netflix seeks a creative leader with bold ideas and the ability to deliver them – both on our website and on the TV user interface.

In order to lead our design team you will need strong training and background in interactive and graphic design. Consumer-based Internet experience is required, and, ideally, you have some TV UI experience as well. A passion for movies is also helpful.

You are interested in a company that feels and behaves like a big, successful startup -- that considers its $1 Billion DVD-by-mail business to be a warm-up act for delivering movies instantly to the TV.

Your job will be to continually improve the overall site experience. You will have a laser-like focus on making it easy for Netflix members to find and watch movies or tv episodes they will love.

For full details (and a cheat sheet for the interview) see the full job posting on the Netflix job site. You can also apply there.

Netflix Sr. Web UI Engineering Position - Open Feb. 2 2009

NOTE: This position is filled!


Netflix - Sr. Web UI Engineer

As the new year has rolled around we realize that there are so many things happening and in the works that it makes sense to add a Sr. Web UI Engineer to our main Web site team. Ever wanted to work at Netfix? Do you have awesome frontend engineering skills? Love to implement great user experiences? Then this is the role for you!

You can read all about it on the Netflix Jobs site or apply for the position on the LinkedIn posting. Or if you want contact me directly at b dot scott which is at yahoo dot com.

Sr. Web UI Engineer for Customer Service Engineering

** Update: Position Filled! **

We recently filled the position I posted earlier.

I now have a new position to fill -- Sr. Web UI Engineer for Customer Service Engineering. In this role you will help design and engineer a new suite of web-based customer service applications.

In the previous role it was challenging to find someone with the right mix of semantic markup skills, javascript prowess, css wizardry, and java/jsp experience. In this role the requirement to be a DHTML god is lessened. What I need is someone who:

• Is passionate about designing and engineering great interfaces
• Has solid experience designing & building enterprise web applications in a Web 2.0 manner (rich in features, more complex in interaction than our main Netflix site)
• Has strong proficiency in server-side UI technologies (Java, JSP, Struts, Tiles)
• Has a solid background in simple software architecture and design as well as can communicate their solutions to the rest of the engineering team

Your job profile will probably include a good deal of experience with building user interfaces for non-consumer oriented sites.

If you have always wanted to work for a site like Netflix, but were unsure you had enough consumer web site experience then this could be a great opportunity. The applications you will design and build are not for the main Netflix member site, but instead for our #1 rated customer service team.

The person in this role will be part of the Customer Services Engineering Team as well as a member of my Netflix Web UI Engineering team. Since much of the work is greenfield you will have the opportunity to help design the user experience as well as build the web applications. In addition, the Netflix UI framework that the site runs on is shared with these applications. As such you will help flesh out this framework as we go forward.

So what technologies would you be using?

• HTML, CSS
• JavaScript
• Java
  
• JSP
• JSP Tags
• Struts2
• Tiles2
• YUI Grid
• jQuery

For more details, check out the official job posting. Also, feel free to contact me directly at b DOT scott AT yahoo DOT com.

Here is the LinkedIn Posting.

Still Hiring

My new T-Shirt from Zazzle.

Interested?

New Job Opportunities

Netflix - Sr. Web UI Engineer
I recently filled a position for Sr. Web UI Engineer that I blogged about before.

But hey, we are hiring again. The description is the basically the same as the last position. You can read all about it on the Netflix Jobs site or apply for the position on the LinkedIn posting.

And while we are on the subject of jobs let me mention a few other opportunities.

Netflix - Design Team Positions
Nancy Mott (design lead) has 4 openings on her team. Lots of new ideas brewing in the design team. Come be a part of this exciting team.

• Senior User Interface Designer
• Senior Interaction Designer
• Senior Visual Concept Designer
• Design Project Coordinator

Slideshare Opportunity - Web Developer
And finally, my good friends Jonathan Boutelle & Rashmi Sinha have an immediate need at Slideshare (in SF). In the words of Jonathan:

Friends,

As many of you know, SlideShare has been growing like crazy lately! We closed a funding round two months ago and have opened up a snazzy new office in the SOMA neighborhood of SF.

I'm looking for a great web developer to join our merry band: someone who's good at straight-up app development and is fairly handy on the back-end as well. We're a Ruby and Python shop, but language is no bar if an engineer has what it takes otherwise. This job is located in either our San Francisco office or our New Delhi office.

Let me know if you or somebody you know is interested. We're offering a referral award of $1500 if you refer somebody we hire for this position.

You can contact Jonathan at jon AT slideshare DOT net.

Netflix Jobs - Two Positions Open (4/29/08)

Update: Both positions have been filled.


Sr. Web UI Engineer


At Netflix I have an immediate opening on my team. This is an exciting opportunity to ply your amazing web development/engineering talents to one of the most recognized brands on the Web! In this position you would join an absolutely amazing team of Web UI engineers at an exciting time in Netflix history.

We are currently refactoring the entire Web UI layer. As a team member you would be responsible for specific areas of the site and participate in moving our site to latest Web standards (think unobtrusive javascript, layered semantic markup, hijax, etc.), working to improve client performance (think yslow and beyond) and working to realize lots of new approaches to our interface.

Over the last few months we also have been growing the design team and our team works very closely with both product management & design to create cutting edge solutions.

Here is the job. Don't hesitate to contact me if you are interested. Email me at: b DOT scott _AT_ yahoo dot COM.

Sr. Software Engineer -- Open APIs
Michael Hart, our Director of Open APIs and Community is looking for an Open APIs Sr. Software Engineer. This is an incredible role. Netflix is in the midst of opening up a suite of developer APIs and you can help make this happen. Get in now and shape the way developers all over hack and mashup Netflix!

If you are interested drop me a note at the email I referenced above.

--
Bill

Really Super Cool Job Opening @ Netflix

Update: Position is filled.

We are looking for the following engineer:
This is a research opportunity on a small team trying to build the next generation of the Netflix user experience. The team is comprised of a designer, a UI engineer, a product manager and you. You’ll be working quickly to prototype and research user interaction models for new platforms for the Netflix service. At Netflix we intend to get our electronic movie delivery service to every screen hooked up to the internet. Many of those screens will require a very different site experience, and you will be part of this small team crafting that experience here at Netflix.

To this challenge you’ll bring strong Java, server and scalable systems development. You will need to help move our server architecture forward to allow for us to leverage existing personalization technology on brand new platforms. As the only software engineer on this team, you will be driving the server architecture powering this user interaction research.

Also, we need a really awesome analyst for tearing into all of our A/B testing data. You would be working with our Sr. Analyst, Lisa Mesh.

If you know of anyone that fits either of these jobs please contact me: b dot scott at yahoo dot com.

More New Jobs at Netflix

Update: Positions have been filled.


Nancy Mott recently joined Netflix to head up the design team. She is in the process of expanding the team. Netflix is in the midst of a lot of exciting new directions for the site that you can be on the ground floor creating.

Here are the jobs currently open:

Senior User Interface Designer

Senior Interactive Designer

Senior Visual Concept Designer

And in the world of web services, we snagged Michael Hart as Director of Community Engineering (formerly of MSN/Web Services). He is building open APIs so we need someone who is skilled at creating public developer APIs. If that is you then this job is for you:

Senior Software Engineer—Community Systems (Developer APIs)

All four positions will have a significant impact on Netflix going forward. If you are interested contact me at: b DOT scott AT yahoo DOT com.

We are Hiring

Ok, so I am still new at Netflix. But thought it might be interesting to write up my first impressions.

Sean Kane, my predecessor did a really great job of helping me understand the culture so there have been no surprises. No surprises, but a good bit of delight.

Here are some of the ways I would sum up what I have seen so far.

Treated Like Adults
This is a really important cultural trait. It starts with salary. You choose the mix of $ to equity and have the flexibility to switch it around from year to year. We pay extremely well (hey we even brag about it on the site). But it goes beyond that. It works it's way into HR, recruiting and all the other parts of the company that in other places tend to be out of sync. We don't make a bunch of rules. The HR policy manual is extremely small.

Transparency
There is an amazing amount of transparency of how the business is run as well as successes and failures. This makes it a great place to learn and thrive.

Blend of Science & Art
Truly it is consumer science here. A lot of experimenting and analysis. It is very intriguing to work at a place that really gets the importance of a great interface as well as balances it with the realities of business.

And did I mention that we have some of the most incredible work policies and pay anywhere in the country? And we are doing very well?

Ok, so we are hiring!

I am looking to fill two positions immediately on my team.

Sr. Staff UI Engineer
This is a senior position in which you will work closely with me and my team of engineers to improve, architect and code integral solutions that impact the whole site. This is a really key role that will take our site to the next level from a web development best practices, performance and infrastructure perspective.


Senior User Interface Engineer – Customer Service
This is a new position that we are opening up this week. In this role you will help re-design and engineer a new web based customer support center. We will put the same care in this site that we do with the main Netflix site. Many of the ideas, solutions may find there way into the general Netflix site as well. If you love building great web applications then please give me a ping.

Other Positions in Other Teams
Adrian Cockcroft, former Sun Distinguished Engineer and eBay research labs member is just one of the luminaries here at Netflix. Adrian has two immediate openings on his team.

Creative Director.
Yes, we are looking for a talented creative director to work directly with with our VP of Product Management, Gibson Biddle, on taking design for Netflix to a whole new level. Up for the challenge? Let me know.

Sr. Marketing Graphic Designer
Barry Enderwick is looking for a talented graphic designer to work in his team. Barry's team creates the brand, the advertising, the badges, the printed material, etc. If you are a graphic designer this is an awesome opportunity to work on one of the most recognized brands in America.

For all of these positions, feel free to email me. You can reach me at b dot scott at yahoo dot com.