Overview

Unsplash is still at the very early stages of what it will be – a new type of community that stands to make the internet a more beautiful place. We see it as an exciting opportunity to reinvent a major industry run by the old guard and covered in red tape.

Let’s not sugar-coat it though, building a company to reinvent an industry isn’t easy. There are successes and triumphs, sure, but also roadblocks and challenges. We have to be decisive yet thoughtful. We have to be experimental yet focused. We have to stare risks and uncertainty in the face every day. It’s not for everyone so it’s important to be excited by the contribution we aim to make and the journey of starting a company together.

How to apply

The work you do at Unsplash will impact millions of people across every continent and country. You’ll regularly work with members of the Unsplash community, many of whom happen to be people who shaped the web we see today.

If you decide to apply, all we want to see is a message that feels like a human wrote it. That’s why we don’t want you to send us your resume.

Instead, tell us who you are. Show us work you’ve already done that you’re excited about. Don’t worry. Our team is like a big, friendly, quirky family. We’re looking for real people who are looking to be part of something for the long haul.

You’ll help build core Unsplash API features that are instantly used by millions of people, powering 100s of millions of requests per month. A few things we have planned for the future: a mobile app, better discovery, and remixes. The rest we’ll tell you about when you join 😉

We use a pretty standard set of tools for the backend:

  • Rails, Grape, Rspec
  • Postgres, Redis, ElasticSearch
  • Heroku & Google Cloud

We’ve got big plans for the future of Unsplash. If you want to help us create it, we’d love to hear from you. We owe a huge thank you to the selfless Unsplash contributors who give their work for free in support of the community. Without them, none of this would be possible.

Though we love having a small team, one of the disadvantages is it makes it hard for us to get back to everyone who applies. If you take the time to write to us, we really appreciate you. You may not get a response from us but we want to let you know that we’re very grateful you took the time to write.

About Unsplash

In 2013, Unsplash launched as a modest Tumblr blog. Since then, Unsplash evolved far beyond a blog into one of the most impactful online communities. Today, over a billion photos are seen on Unsplash every month. A photo featured on Unsplash is now viewed more than the front page of The New York Times and the cover of TIME magazine.

The Unsplash community is fueled by contributors who offer their photos freely for anyone to use inspiring millions of creators from 13-year-old graphic designers to multi-platinum recording artists.

Unsplash is a special community, where the powerful principles of sharing and openness have taken the place of strict copyright and legal red tape.

The web was meant to connect, inform, and inspire us in unprecedented ways. And the Unsplash community embodies this philosophy fully. Unsplash has become a place where the impact of our connected world is on full display. Instead of photos being hoarded and shut down, photos on Unsplash are given as fuel for creativity.

You don’t need to know someone, or have an agent, or have a name to be great on Unsplash. We're a place where creators meet their audience. A place where individuals become a community. And a source of inspiration for millions of people from every country in the world. We’ve seen how the willingness to give a single photo can unlock so much more than a few bucks.