Job Details

Description

Power Auctions is a leading provider of innovative software and services for custom high-stakes online auctions.  We build bespoke auction solutions to solve real-world problems, implementing the latest auction designs and ideas from academic research.  For example, we are currently helping the government of Botswana to sell the country’s diamonds directly to dealers, for a market price determined in a fair, transparent, and efficient auction.  Our forward capacity auction software is used in both New England and the UK to ensure their power grids have sufficient capacity to withstand peaks.  Our recent $81 billion FCC auction allocated telecommunications spectrum for 5G networks and was the largest auction ever.

Almost all of our projects are provided using a SaaS approach, hosted on cloud based Linux servers running on AWS, with a handful of dedicated servers at Rackspace.  We primarily develop applications using Ruby on Rails, Elixir, and JavaScript / TypeScript, utilizing PostgreSQL and Redis.  Most of our projects are orchestrated using our self-hosted Gitlab server.

We are looking for a diligent and detail-oriented software and systems engineer proficient with Linux, and with basic programming and script abilities.  You should be very comfortable working with git, and able to learn new tools quickly.  You should have a solid understanding of general Unix system concepts such as file permissions, services, sockets, and users.

You will be writing scripts and integrating different tools in order to support the release cycle - from development and integration testing to full production and live auction events.  You will be provisioning new server instances and maintaining existing ones.

Security of our systems is of paramount importance to us and our clients.  You should be keeping on top of the latest security issues and versed in best practices.  You will be assisting in producing implementation documentation needed to meet security requirements of our clients.

This position involves a normal workload, but it's not ideal for someone with a 9-5 mindset - our team and our customers work in many different time zones, and although it's rarely needed, availability during off-work hours for emergencies is important.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Required Qualifications and Skills

• Proficiency using Unix command line and grasp of general Unix concepts (permissions, file system, processes) and how they applied to system configurations on a typical Linux system
• Experience managing Unix systems responsibly in an environment where mistakes can be catastrophic (2 years min)
• Experience using git in a team of at least 5 people (2 years)
• Deployment of systems in a Cloud based environment (2 years)
• Basic programming abilities and problem solving mindset
• Understanding of security fundamentals and best practices
• Solid oral and written English communication skills and ability to express complex ideas clearly and succinctly in writing
• Enthusiasm to work in a fast-paced and dynamically changing environment
• Proven ability to multi-task
• Able to work autonomously with minimal supervision
• Ability and patience to pay attention to detail
• US Citizen preferred

Desired Experience

• Experience with the AWS cloud environment
• Docker experience and general containerization concepts
• Experience configuring NGINX and other Unix network services 
• Experience with FISMA / FedRAMP
• Administration of Red Hat Enterprise and similar servers
• Programming experience in Ruby on Rails