Platform Engineer
Anyone looking for a job at a US scale-up company?
GrayHair Software specializes in postal data processing and analysis for large US firms. They handle 25% of all US Postal data and track billions of pieces of mail every year for the top US banks and insurance providers. They already have four Spaniards in the development team and they are now looking for their fifth player, in the shape of a DevOps Engineer, to carry on growing. Are you ready?
Keep on reading! 👀.
What will you do?
Let's go back in time a little to see how they arrived to where they are today... Fasten your seatbelt and follow me ;)
The journey began in 2000 when GrayHair started as an email tracking service. Just a few years later, by 2008, they managed to build a robust client list and added four additional services. However, in 2016 the company lost its founder 🥲… and later went on to pivot towards being a data-centric company. By 2020, the entire team was fully active and refocused on remote culture and tech transformation 💪. They learned from the past to grow into the future and became what they are today 🚀
GrayHair is a tech-company that specializes in processing and analyzing postal data for some of the largest companies in the United States. They handle 25% of all US Postal data and track billions of pieces of mail every single year for the top US banks and insurance providers. They process over 125 billion data points annually for their clients, providing increased visibility into vital processes across the organization to advance business goals.
Since 2000, they have become the leading consumer and provider of postal data, and their mission is to turn data into Business-Ready Intelligence. This intelligence enables company leaders to make informed decisions that can significantly improve essential business processes, such as marketing campaign effectiveness, fraud prevention, customer experience, and mail operations.
GrayHair is also undergoing a global technological transformation, redesigning all its services from scratch, taking advantage of cutting-edge technologies to provide even better services to its clients.
Business solutions currently offered by GrayHair include: Postal Optimization, Marketing Effectiveness, Customer Experience, Fraud Prevention, Mail Delivery Performance, and Address Data Quality.
What are they looking for?🧐
GrayHair's wide product offering represents just a small percentage of their engineering. Most of their backend-driven work is based in Java and does not involve user interface. They are currently in the middle of migrating to AWS and revamping their services from the ground up. With three teams dedicated to this area, it is where the majority of their development efforts are focused. Their new infrastructure utilizes a wide variety of Amazon Web Services and relies on microservices with Java Spring Boot and is hosted on AWS ECS, with orchestration handled by step functions.
We are helping GrayHair in seeking a new member for their DevOps team, specifically an infrastructure engineer who is passionate about technology and eager to tackle challenges related to efficiency, technological innovation, and task simplification. They have a strong emphasis on system design, utilizing Jenkins and SonarQube for continuous integration and code quality analysis. The ideal candidate should have proficiency in scripting languages like Python and Groovy, as well as a solid understanding of AWS services and adherence to best practices.
The team is also looking for someone who is a team player, willing to share their knowledge and learn from others, fostering a culture of technological growth within the team. The new joiner will have autonomy and freedom to apply their expertise and contribute to the team's constant improvement efforts.
GrayHair's DevOps team offers an exciting opportunity to work with cutting-edge technologies, be part of a collaborative and growth-oriented team, and make a significant impact on the development and enhancement of their products and services.
Of course, they will provide you with autonomy and freedom to do things the way you know best, alongside a team that believes in constant improvement. 😉
Your evolution
In 1 month
Get ready for an exciting few weeks at GrayHair! We'll focus on getting you onboarded and up to speed. You'll meet awesome folks from Product, Business Development, Data, Shared Services, Development, Finance, HR, Postal, and Client Operations.
During the second week, you'll enjoy product demos and overviews with different teams to understand the value we bring to their clients. It's all about diving into the GrayHair world and making an impact right from the start!
You’ll be pulled into their recurring team meetings and daily stand ups with their project team to start becoming familiar with the active projects at GrayHair. The DevOps team operates as a horizontal team serving multiple sprint teams so it is a great way to familiarize yourself with the environment and partner teams.
Get pumped and let's make these weeks unforgettable!
Your responsibilities
Designing and implementing automated infrastructure solutions that are highly available, scalable, and observable.
Taking ownership of infrastructure components and ensuring their reliability and performance through testing and code reviews.
Collaborating with other engineers, stakeholders, and operations teams to understand business requirements and provide technical solutions.
Identifying and addressing pain points in the company's systems through automation and optimization.
Staying up-to-date with emerging technologies and industry trends in the DevOps/SRE space to drive innovation and continuous improvement.
Working in an agile development environment, utilizing tools like Jira and Confluence to manage work and track progress.
How will you do it?
Prepare to embrace the agility at GrayHair! The team operates within an Agile framework, following 3-week sprints to keep the momentum high. They prioritize collaboration and ensure each sprint begins with a Refinement session to define the objectives and requirements clearly.
But what truly sets us apart is their horizontal business structure and the remarkable company culture. They have cultivated an environment where everyone's input is valued and respected. Communication holds great importance to them, and we actively encourage constructive feedback from everyone. There are no barriers here; they believe in open dialogue and fostering a supportive atmosphere.
GrayHair leverages effective communication tools like Slack to stay connected throughout the day. They use this platform to exchange ideas, share updates, and offer assistance to one another. Their focus is on creating an environment that promotes growth and collaboration.
So get ready to immerse yourself in the dynamic agility of the team. They provide the necessary DevOps resources, follow the Kanban methodology, and have dedicated Sprint Teams that work their magic. Together, we will achieve remarkable results and make a lasting impact!
When will you work?
Since GrayHair is based in the USA, they ask that all members of the team to be available between 8.30am and 12.30pm (UTC-4). In Spanish mainland time, this means you have to be available between 2.30pm and 18.30pm (UTC+2).
The rest of the working hours are completely flexible so you can work whenever suits you best!
Working day
Full-time
Holidays
22 daysWhere will you work?
Remote
GrayHair Software is a 100% REMOTE company!
The headquarters are in Florida, USA. However, they are looking for someone to join the team they have based in Spain. Here they strongly believe in the advantages of working remotely and in work-life balance, so you might have colleagues from all over the country :)
Who will you work with?
Right now there are about 50 people in the GrayHair, 2 of which are in the DevOps team, although it is likely that by the time you join the team there will be a few more. Let us introduce you to some of your potential future team mates who you will interact the most with in your day-to-day work:
- Mike Norris (Head of Technical Operations) - Mike has been with the company for a little over 1 year. He has 30 years of technology experience in various aspects of Information Technology. Mike is responsible for DevOps, Production Support, HelpDesk, all ITIL related items along with Project Management and our Agile practices.
- John Hiltz (Head of DevOps) - John will make sure you lack for nothing during the initial onboarding from account setup, as well as helping with permissions and general access for any IT related issues. He will be there to provide guidance and help you navigate the organization.
- Eugene Vaynerman (Infrastructure Engineer) - Eugene has been with the company for almost 8 years. He specializes in their on premise data center infrastructure, scripting, and file movement processes. However, Eugene is a true jack of all trades and will tackle any problems or tasks head on.
They all work remotely, but they do a company offsite once a year, where all full-time employees are flown to the USA for a 3-day company retreat. Here are some pics from their most recent get-together in Florida:
What are they asking for?
They are looking for the right person, rather than just years and years of experience, although it is true that their main focus is to find a candidate with substantial infrastructure experience. However, they are flexible and open to both senior and senior-mid profiles.
It's important to note that strong communication skills are a must-have to join the team. The ability to communicate fluently and comfortably in English is a deal-breaker for this position.
As for the technical requirements for this position, here they are:
- Experience as Devops / Infrastructure engineer + 5 years with AWS services and infrastructure migration.
- Proficiency in programming languages, from an infrastructure perspective. They use Python and Groovy, but they don't mind if you use others like Ruby, NodeJS, etc.
- Knowledge of infrastructure as code (IaC) tools like Terraform or CloudFormation.
- Experience with monitoring and logging tools like CloudWatch or ELK stack.
- Strong understanding of DevOps principles and practices and familiarity with code quality analysis (they use SonarQube).
- Experience with Docker and containerization and used to work with continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.
(Bonus Points)
- Familiarity with AWS services such as Elasticache, Athena, EMR, API Gateway, SQS, and SNS.
- AWS certifications like AWS Solutions Architect Associate or AWS Developer Associate.
Technologies
Non-negotiable
AWS
Advanced
This would be good
Python
Advanced
This gives extra points
Terraform
Intermediate
Other skills
Non-negotiable
Good verbal communication
Mentoring ability
This would be good
Team player
Good presentation skills
This gives extra points
Emotional intelligence
Team management
Languages
What are they offering?
Salary
To €75KRemote
100%International full english enviroment
Perks
Budget for training
Budget for Conferences
Internal training events
Dynamics and teambuilding events
Possibility to choose your devices
What the FAQ?
You are only eligible for this position if you are a Spanish resident.
- There'll be an initial meeting with John, the Head of Devops, so you can get to know each other and find out more about the company.
- The second phase would be a technical QA based on your experience and knowledge with Robert.
- Culture and general experience with Mike.
- Then comes the HR meeting. This meeting will be mainly to talk about employee benefits and to resolve any questions you may still have
NO. The team is spread over many different locations throughout Spain and the US.
They organize a fun company offsite once a year, where all full-time employees are flown to the USA for a 3-day company retreat. Although attendance is not mandatory, I wouldn’t want to miss it if I were you!😜
Of course, they'll cover the cost of these trips for those who are overseas :)