Overview

Stack Overflow is growing fast, and our infrastructure needs just keep getting bigger.  We’re looking for a senior sysadmin to join our team of outstanding sysadmins and developers working on sites that see 4000-6000 hits per second during peak times.

In addition to having a passion for working with software and keeping a top 50 website on the web, you need to love hardware. We love pushing hardware as hard as we possibly can. This means hands-on maintenance from time to time.

At Stack Overflow we’re passionate about our technology.  We own and operate our own infrastructure, and take the time to do it right.  We like to stay on the cutting edge of technology, so you will always be working with or working towards using the latest and greatest there is.  We get all the hardware we need for redundancy and performance.

Because we take the time to do things right, our on call responsibilities are very light. We get paged very infrequently.

Some projects that we’ve recently completed or are working on:

  • Improving how wemonitor service internals.
  • Automating firmware upgrades.
  • Improving HBase reliability.
  • Migrating to a new CDN.
  • Reinventing how DNS ismanaged.
  • Evaluating new security and VPN technologies.
  • Hardware upgrades for all our Microsoft SQL Servers with 0 downtime.
  • We’re involved in Microsoft TAP programs (early access).

Technologies you’ll work with:

  • Windows 2012 R2 and 2016
  • Modern Linux distributions – we’re running CentOS 7
  • Haproxy, Redis, Puppet, Elasticsearch
  • IIS, DFS, Multi-site AD, SQL Server 2012 and 2014
  • Fortinet Firewalls, Cisco Routers, Switches, HSRP / Keepalived / BGP
  • PowerShell, C#, Go, Bash, Python

What you’ll do:

  • Maintain the services and infrastructure platform used by the Stack Overflow websites.
  • Help us handle traffic of 4000 hits/sec and plan for growth to 10,000
  • Tackle big projects from inception to deployment
  • Coordinate daily with atop-notch team of sysadmins and developers
  • Handle alerts on all parts of our infrastructure as part of a 24×7 on-call rotation (approximately 1 week out of 5)
  • Be awesome and teach others to do the same byblogging about it

Skills & Requirements

What you’ll need to have:

  • Comfort working in both Windows and Linux environments (and some in-depth experience with one or the other)
  • Experience working hands-on with Server class hardware (we are a Dell shop)
  • Basic understanding of networking: the HTTP protocol, how load balancers work, IP addressing. (We use HAProxy, Fast.ly/Varnish, Keepalived, IIS)
  • Experience with a configuration management system (we use Puppet)
  • Knowledge of programming beyond scripting (we use Golang, C#, and others)
  • A track record of taking on challenges and delivering thorough, stable, and maintainable systems

Non-Technical skills we expect:

  • A track record of getting projects done in a timely manner.
  • Works well in a team.
  • Document as you go, not at the end of a project.

Not required, but would be considered a plus:

  • You live near our Denver or Jersey City datacenters.
  • You have experience with HBase system administration.
  • A security-oriented mindset.
  • Experience in a SOX or PCI environment.
  • Experience with Azure.

Added bonus if you have a public history of accomplishments in the field: public speaking, blogging, awards, or contributions to open source projects

About Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow is the largest online community for programmers to learn, share their knowledge, and advance their careers. Developers trust Stack Overflow to help solve coding problems and turn to Stack Overflow Careers to find job opportunities.

Founded in 2008, Stack Overflow is visited by more than 30 million developers each month and is the flagship site of the Stack Exchange network, 140+ Q&A sites dedicated to niche topics.

We believe in hiring smart people and getting out of their way. Stack Overflow currently employs more than 250 people in its head offices in New York, Denver, and London as well as remote workers from Israel, Brazil, Japan, Germany, Slovenia, France, Russia, the Philippines, Canada, the UK, and the United States. The company is committed to diversity in the workplace and is currently hiring. We keep meetings and ceremony to an absolute minimum, and will never poke you with a sharp stick.