Job openings/Performance Engineer: Difference between revisions

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YOU ARE ...

... a determined IT professional with a dedication to find innovative ways to improve the database and system performance of the global top 5 web property, always eager to optimize the throughput of any system resources. 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.

You are passionate about Wikimedia's mission to bring free knowledge to every person on the planet and want to use your expertise and talents for advancing awesomeness in the world and making the world a better place.

JOB TITLE

Performance Engineer (Database and System)

REPORTS TO

Director of Operations

JOB PURPOSE

Explore and implement creative ways to improve site availability, performance and scalability, may it be in the application, systems or database components. Work with Wikimedia's Operations and Engineering teams in optimizing the use of available system resources.

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:

Investigate and troubleshoot unexpected database, systems and/or application performance problems.
Develop or use open source tools that increase the visibility and understanding of the behavior of (sub)components in the system, such as profiling tools, graph systems, alerts, etc.
Establish capacity planning framework. Monitor and trend key metrics to identify potential performance problems that comes with the global growth of our on-line readership and new contents.
Explore and seek out new concepts, tools and technologies to keep our operations and systems technology stack current and updated.
Educate and mentor engineers about database and systems performance and avoiding bottlenecks.
Work with MediaWiki developers on improving MediaWiki performance and resolving (potential) problems.
Work with third party developers on resolving bugs and performance in open source software relevant for Wikimedia Operations.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Expert level experience with MySQL database internals and administration, e.g., designing HA, tuning for performance and scalability.
Deep knowledge of Linux internals and various file systems
Deep knowledge of the systems internals of LAMP stacks and other utilities and tools often used for operations diagnostics
Deep knowledge of computer and storage architectures, including (memory) caching effects, concurrency control, I/O strategies, etc.
Strong expertise in scaling large web site, including caching layers (memcached, HTTP caching), storage scaling concepts
Experience with systems programming and development in languages such as C, Python and PHP
Experience with debugging running programs, using tools such as gdb, strace, oprofile, maatkit, etc.
Inquisitive and yearn to learn new concepts and technologies and apply them to the job
Comfortable working in a highly collaborative, consensus-oriented environment
At easy working remotely as part of a globally distributed team
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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@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 '''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.
+... a determined IT professional with a dedication to find innovative ways to improve the database and system performance of the global top 5 web property, always eager to optimize the throughput of any system resources. 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.
+You are passionate about Wikimedia's mission to bring free knowledge to every person on the planet and want to use your expertise and talents for advancing awesomeness in the world and making the world a better place.
-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.
 </div>
 '''JOB TITLE'''
-Performance Engineer
+Performance Engineer (Database and System)
 '''REPORTS TO'''
@@ Line 17: / Line 18: @@
 '''JOB PURPOSE'''
+Explore and implement creative ways to improve site availability,  performance and scalability, may it be in the application, systems or database components. Work with Wikimedia's Operations and Engineering teams in optimizing the use of available system resources.
-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.
@@ Line 25: / Line 26: @@
 Duties include, but are not limited to the following:
-* Acute investigation and problem solving in case of unexpected performance problems
+* Investigate and troubleshoot unexpected database, systems and/or application 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.
+* Develop or use open source tools that increase the visibility and understanding of the behavior of (sub)components in the system, such as profiling tools, graph systems, alerts, etc.
+* Establish capacity planning framework. Monitor and trend key metrics to identify potential performance problems that comes with the global growth of our on-line readership and new contents.
-* Setting up history tracking of metrics that allow seeing trending of data
+* Explore and seek out new concepts, tools and technologies to keep our operations and systems technology stack current and updated.
-* Taking the lead in monitoring these metrics and identifying upcoming performance problems visible in data trends
+* Educate and mentor engineers about database and systems performance and avoiding bottlenecks.
-* Followup on identified problems and ensuring they get resolved before serious problems arise
-* Education of (new) engineers about performance and avoiding bottlenecks
+* Work with MediaWiki developers on improving MediaWiki performance and resolving (potential) problems.
-* Working with MediaWiki developers on improving MediaWiki performance and resolving (potential) problems
+* Work with third party developers on resolving bugs and performance in open source software relevant for Wikimedia Operations.
-* Working with third party developers on resolving bugs and performance in open source software relevant for Wikimedia Operations
 '''REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS'''
+* Expert level experience with MySQL database internals and administration, e.g., designing HA, tuning  for performance and scalability.
-* 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.
+* Deep knowledge of Linux internals and various file systems
+* Deep knowledge of the systems internals of LAMP stacks and other utilities and tools often used for operations diagnostics
-* Experience with debugging running programs, using tools such as gdb, strace, oprofile, etc.
+* Deep knowledge of computer and storage architectures, including (memory) caching effects, concurrency control, I/O strategies, etc.
-* Strong knowledge of and experience with the C programming language
+* Strong expertise in scaling large web site, including caching layers (memcached, HTTP caching), storage scaling concepts
-* You must be comfortable in a highly collaborative, consensus-oriented environment
+* Experience with systems programming and development in languages such as C,  Python and PHP
-* You are able to work independently where needed, and can work remotely as part of a globally distributed team
+* Experience with debugging running programs, using tools such as gdb, strace, oprofile, maatkit, etc.
-* You are able to learn quickly. Relevant hands-on experience and eagerness to learn and try new concepts is more important than having certificates
+* Inquisitive and yearn to learn new concepts and technologies and apply them to the job
-* Previous experience with the PHP scripting language and relevant performance and debugging tools is a plus
+* Comfortable working in a highly collaborative, consensus-oriented environment
+* At easy working remotely as part of a globally distributed team
 * Understanding of the free culture movement is a plus
 * Experience living or working outside of your home country is a major plus