Software Engineer, Geotrellis job in Philadelphia

Overview
Azavea is a civic technology firm based in Philadelphia that uses geospatial data to build software and data analytics for the web. As a B Corporation, our mission is to use advanced geospatial technology for civic, social, and environmental impact. Most of our work deals with local governments, non-profit organizations, and academic or federal research projects. We build custom web applications, perform geospatial analysis, and contribute to open source projects. Our engineers work across the technology stack, from modern browser-based front-ends to robust service-based backends residing on scalable infrastructure.

We are looking for a Software Engineer who is passionate about building and operating applications that will have a positive impact. Ideal candidates are interested in public service, but not necessarily in working for a government or a non-profit organization.

We’re excited about what we do, we’re growing, and we hope you will join us.

Skills & Requirements

Azavea has five software teams, all of which develop web software for processing and visualizing geospatial data. The teams differ in terms of the specific projects they develop and whether they are primarily product or service focussed. The GeoTrellis team develops an open source software framework that enables low latency, distributed processing of geospatial data; the majority of our work is currently funded by the U.S. Federal government. The project is based on Scala and Apache Spark. It is used in many types of web applications, including processing satellite imagery, climate change, precision agriculture, public transit travel-sheds, and watershed modeling. GeoTrellis is a member of the Eclipse Foundation’s LocationTech working group. A significant focus of the past year has been developing Python Bindings in an effort to expand the pool of developers that can benefit from GeoTrellis. GeoTrellis is growing, and we need your help to expand the framework and make it more useful to other developers.

What You’ll Do
Build scalable back-end software where performance is critical.
Implement new features, algorithms, data processing operations, benchmarks and tests for a large Scala-based software framework.
Engage in multidisciplinary work that applies an agile process (scrum board, daily stand-ups and two-week iterations) to design, architecture, development, testing and deployment.
Support the development of an open source community around the GeoTrellis project.
Contribute to both a growing company and to the open source communities that support our work.

You should
Demonstrate fluency with at least one functional programming language such as Scala, Clojure or Haskell.
Be able to adapt and lean in order to keep innovating on a cutting edge open source project.
Have experience with Amazon Web Service or another cloud-based architecture.
Interested in working with a small, collaborative team on meaningful projects.
Get excited about contributing to a large, complex open source project.

You get extra points for
Experience with Spark, Akka, or other Scala-based distributed processing frameworks.
Having worked with distributed data processing frameworks, like Hadoop, Amazon MR, etc.
Demonstrating your open source or other community service contributions.
Strong background in algorithm development where performance is critical.

You’ll notice that we don’t cite N years of experience or a Computer Science as requirements. Formal credentials like these are valuable, but we are primarily looking for people who have gained real-world experience successfully building sophisticated web applications.

Office and Benefits

Our Philadelphia headquarters is located in a brightly lit office on the 5th floor of a converted factory building in the Callowhill neighborhood, a short walk from Center City, the Reading Terminal Market, and SEPTA subway and regional rail stations. For bicyclists, we have in-house bike parking, a shower and lockers. The office itself is assembled as an open office plan with several smaller rooms for team meetings and concentration time. You get your own desk with a high-end Linux workstation or Apple laptop and extra monitors. We have flex-time to deal with personal stuff, and most people work a 40 - 45 hour week on a regular schedule. After the first six months, our staff can also spend up to 10% of their time on an open source, professional development, or R&D project. Recent 10% time projects include experiments with machine learning, Python 3, Reactive Native, and various forms of serverless processing with Amazon Lambda.

We offer a salary commensurate with skills and experience and a benefits package that includes:

Fully subsidized health care, dental, prescription plan, including for spouse/partner and children
Fully subsidized life and long term disability insurance, plus voluntary short term disability insurance
Medical reimbursement plan to cover what the health insurance does not
Retirement plan with matching percentage
Almost 4 weeks paid vacation plus additional paid sick/personal time off
Family and medical leave
Flexible work schedule
Paid maternity and paternity leave
Child care subsidy
Paid time off for voting and volunteering
Education assistance plan
Student loan assistance
Public transit and biking reimbursement plans
Monthly guest lectures with lunches on the house
10% time for research or learning projects
Profit-sharing bonus plan
Financial transparency through an open book policy
Kind, capable and thoughtful colleagues

We welcome qualified candidates from all walks of life and value diversity in our company. We prohibit discrimination based on race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, military service, disability unrelated to job requirements, marital status, or domestic partner status.