Site Reliability Engineer
37signals

37signals is hiring a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) for our Operations team to help us deliver fast and reliable applications to our customers—Basecamp, HEY, and our ONCE product line. Our Operations team led our effort to leave the cloud and is now dedicated to running our applications in our data centers efficiently and for the long term.  We are only considering candidates based in the Asia-Pacific region (UTC+5 to UTC+13) for this opening. The salary range is 165,000 to 209,458 USD.

About the work
The job of operating fast and reliable systems is mainly about making life as boring as possible by considering and mitigating all the things that could go wrong before they can go wrong. Operations shines the brightest when there's nothing to see – systems just run. But getting there and sustaining that is challenging work.

It's also impossible to get it perfect all the time! So part of the work includes being available for on-call duty, which may include getting woken up in the middle of the night when it's your turn to be first responder. We rotate that responsibility on a regular schedule, and you won't be on your own during your first several months.

Here are some things we’ve worked on recently that might give you a better sense of what you’ll be doing day to day:

While most of your time will be spent supporting Basecamp, HEY, ONCE, and any new software we may launch, you'll also maintain our legacy apps until the end of the Internet. You need to be as comfortable helping pay down technical debt from our past as you are building for the future.

You’ll be working hand-in-hand with a tight knit, globally distributed team that is always there to answer questions and share their collective wisdom at each step of the way. And your experience and background will join ours. We have worlds to learn and we’re eager to do it together. You can expect to teach us, coach us, and expect the same in return.

About you
You should be familiar with most of our basic stack, which includes Linux, MySQL, Redis, ElasticSearch, S3, Ruby on Rails, Postfix, and Kamal. What you don't know well, you'll be able to pick up quickly. And you must be comfortable working remotely.

You're comfortable with the Unix toolchain, basic networking concepts, and you're a passable programmer capable of writing or amending existing systems in Go or Ruby. You enjoy solving challenging technical problems. You're comfortable with long-term project work, as well as unexpected ad hoc requests.

All that said, we fully understand that you won’t know how all our systems work on day one... or even day 51! Our Ops team does deep, critical work. Most people take a full year to feel completely comfortable working at full capacity, and that's okay with us.

You can expect a mindful onboarding process with structured ramp-up time. You can expect a team that listens. You can expect to be counted on and the freedom to do your best work. We build our apps, our teams, and our company for the long haul, so you can build your career here if you choose to.

You might have a CS or engineering degree. You might not. That’s not what we’re looking for. We care about what you can do and how you do it, not about how you got here. A strong track record of conscientious, thoughtful work speaks volumes.

We value Managers of One. We appreciate people who can take a stand yet commit even when they disagree. We subject ideas to rigorous consideration and challenge each other, but all remember that we’re here for the same purpose: to do good work together. That comes with direct feedback and a high degree of trust.

This is a remote position. We are specifically seeking candidates based in the Asia-Pacific region (UTC+5 to UTC+13). Our Ops team operates on a follow-the-sun coverage model, and this role will help us distribute that responsibility more evenly in the region.

We respect everyone's right to participate in political expression and activism, but avoid having political debates on our internal communication systems. 37signals as a company also does not weigh in on politics publicly, outside of topics directly related to our business. You should be at peace with both of these stances.

Pay and benefits
37signals pays in the top 10% of the industry based on San Francisco rates. Same position, same pay, no matter where you live. You will be offered a contractor role on comparable terms and equal pay with our US-based employees. The salary range for this position is 165,000 to 209,458 USD.

Our benefits support a life well-lived away from work. Ample time off and all the resources you need to support you in doing the best work of your career. Here's more on the benefits we offer.

How to apply
Please submit an application by Wednesday, November 6th at 5:00 PM US-Central time. Introduce yourself to us as a colleague. Tell us why you want this job and why you’d like to work at 37signals. We value great writers, so be yourself, be creative, and take your time.

We expect to take a few weeks to closely review all applications. Please note that we’re unable to offer individual feedback during the screening process. We usually see hundreds of applications for Operations roles, and our small hiring team simply doesn’t have the bandwidth to offer personalized feedback before the interview stage.

You can expect to hear from us regarding the status of your application by the end of November. 

Our interview process consists of four steps. First, we will invite a group of candidates for a 30-minute audio chat via Zoom with our People Ops team. From there, a smaller group will be asked to complete a take-home technical exercise that reflects the day-to-day work of our SREs; you should expect to spend around 6 hours on it. Candidates who pass the exercise will move on to an interview with our Asia-Pacific Ops team, and then finalists will have an interview with our Ops leadership team. For all interviews, you can anticipate a one-hour video call with your future colleagues and leaders. We’ll discuss your background and technical knowledge, but no gotchas, brainteasers, or whiteboards.

We hope to extend an offer at the end of December, with a flexible start date in January.

We encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply for a job where you can do the best work of your career. We appreciate you giving us your consideration, and we promise to give you our full attention in return. We look forward to hearing from you!