Job openings/Performance Engineer

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Revision as of 15:53, 18 November 2010 by MaxSem (talk | contribs) (typo)

YOU ARE ...

... a determined IT professional with a passion for system performance, always eager to squeeze the maximum out of any system. You are excited about the potential of doing so in a mission-driven, non-profit, open source environment, helping more people to get fast, reliable access to the world's information.

To date, Wikimedia Foundation web sites (including Wikipedia) serve 400 million people every month. It's your job to help us grow this number while creating the best possible site experience.

JOB TITLE

Performance Engineer

REPORTS TO

Director of Operations

JOB PURPOSE

Monitor, investigate and improve Wikimedia site performance, and work with Wikimedia's Operations and Engineering teams on maximizing the efficient use of available resources. This involves both our own development of MediaWiki as well as third party software used by the Wikimedia Foundation.

As a highly specialized position, this opening will remain posted until we have found the right candidate.

JOB SUMMARY

Duties include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Acute investigation and problem solving in case of unexpected performance problems
  • Development of tools that increase the visibility and understanding of the behavior of (sub)components in the system, such as profiling tools, graph systems, alerts, etc.
  • Setting up history tracking of metrics that allow seeing trending of data
  • Taking the lead in monitoring these metrics and identifying upcoming performance problems visible in data trends
  • Followup on identified problems and ensuring they get resolved before serious problems arise
  • Education of (new) engineers about performance and avoiding bottlenecks
  • Working with MediaWiki developers on improving MediaWiki performance and resolving (potential) problems
  • Working with third party developers on resolving bugs and performance in open source software relevant for Wikimedia Operations

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

  • Deep knowledge of the systems internals of LAMP stacks and other software often used for Web Operations
  • Deep knowledge of computer architectures, including (memory) caching effects, concurrency control, I/O strategies, etc.
  • Experience with debugging running programs, using tools such as gdb, strace, oprofile, etc.
  • Strong knowledge of and experience with the C programming language
  • You must be comfortable in a highly collaborative, consensus-oriented environment
  • You are able to work independently where needed, and can work remotely as part of a globally distributed team
  • You are able to learn quickly. Relevant hands-on experience and eagerness to learn and try new concepts is more important than having certificates
  • Previous experience with the PHP scripting language and relevant performance and debugging tools is a plus
  • Understanding of the free culture movement is a plus
  • Experience living or working outside of your home country is a major plus
  • The ideal candidate will be creative, highly motivated, and able to operate effectively in multiple cultural contexts
  • You are a proficient English speaker

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