In all my time working in this field, I’ve found that finding and hiring quality UI Engineers is incredibly difficult. So many people have entered UI Engineering from so many diverse backgrounds that finding the true engineers of the bunch can be quite a daunting task. For every great person, there are at least a dozen designers who’ve picked up basic coding skills and now fancy themselves capable of holding down a UI Engineer position. Now that I’m at Netflix, I’m truly among a team of the best UI Engineers I’ve ever worked with. And I’ve got good news: we want you to join us!
I work in the TV platforms group; which means I’m part of the team responsible for delivering the UI on (among others):
- Sony Playstation 3
- Nintendo Wii
- An absolutely massive assortment of connected devices
So…why would you want to join us?
Our engineering talent is top-notch.
We’ve gone way beyond the typical “progressive enhancement” and slightly improved experiences that many people are delivering on the web today. We’re building complete applications in Javascript leveraging design concepts that others working in JS are just beginning to explore including a robust state-chart system, event driven programming (pub-sub), and MVC–all on top of solid OO fundamentals. This isn’t your average: “throw some jQuery at it and spruce it up a bit” type place; and we’re looking for serious engineers who want to work with Javascript at a high level.
No IE!
Yes, I said it. I haven’t written a line of IE-compatible code since I joined Netflix. It’s kinda awesome.
We get to play with the coolest toys
On my desk at the office, I currently have a half a dozen various devices including TVs and game consoles. How cool is that? Want more? Think of just about any device you can connect to a TV and lets you watch Netflix. We have them. We get to take advantage of the latest technologies like GPU hardware accelerated compositing to make our UIs perform on even ultra-low-end devices, HTML5 storage for persistence, and CSS3 features without thought of backwards compatibility.
Want exposure, you’ve got it!
Very few, if any, other companies are doing Javascript applications as large and interesting as ours. These are long running, single page, data-driven Javascript applications with connections to HTML5-style video and audio. Fewer still are deploying these applications to an environment of over 20 million customers. I can honestly say it’s very satisfying to see the things I’ve done showing up in living rooms across the US, Canada, and Latin America!
Freedom and Responsibility
Netflix is an amazing place to work. No overbearing bosses, no extraneous meetings, no wasting time on process. Our culture is all about legitimately empowering people and giving them ownership of what they touch. Lots of companies say they do it; Netflix is the first company of more than 10 people I’ve seen that actually does it. Freedom and responsibility is the mantra: you’re free to decide how things happen; and you’re responsible for delivering. If it sounds simple: it’s because it is!
Needless to say, it’s a pretty cool time to be on this team. Post in the comments, send me an email, or apply through the Netflix website. However you decide to do it, get up and do it! We’re looking forward to talking to you!