Date: Jan 10, 2011 @ 1:27pm
Subject: Chess.com is Hiring - Senior Web Developer (PHP/MySQL)
We are looking for one full-time, top-level PHP web develper. Chess.com is a very complicated site with lots of advanced technologies, so we are only looking for a highly-skilled PHP/MySQL programmer. This person will help us build the next set of awesome tools and features on Chess.com!
See the job description below:
Chess.com: Senior Web Developer
We are looking to fill a critical role: Senior Web Developer at Chess.com. This role requires an experienced, unique, multi-talented individual who can code for HIGH traffic websites as well as advise on technical issues such as architecture, mobile development, API integration, and analytics. If you love code + business + technology, and want a flexible, fun, challenging environment, this might be the perfect role for you.
Chess.com is the #1 online chess site and gets millions of monthly visits and hundreds of millions of monthly pageviews, and you will work to keep them happy 
We have more than three million members across our main Chess.com site, Facebook app, igoogle, mobile chess, and ChessKid.com. Our site is always growing both in users and features. We have an awesome team of staff that manages customer service, content creation, marketing, and programming. Our team members live all around the world - from USA to Argentina to London to Poland to Russia. We are a hard-working, fun group of people who love chess and enjoy building a successful website that serves so many people. We are a profitable company. We are looking to add another senior developer to work on the main site functionality of Chess.com.
Your role will be to work with our team on development of our main site: from php (using the OOP qcodo framework) coding, to mysql tuning, to javascript enhancing, to memcached tweaking, to API development, to user experience testing, to feature wireframing, to funnel analysis… you need to be a well-rounded, top talent in web development. Our users will ask for features, and you will need to spec them, design them, build them, test them, and push them out.
WHO YOU ARE
•You speak and write fluent English and are online during at least 6 US business hours.
•You enjoy games and hopefully chess, though you are not required to be a great player. But you understand the passion that chess inspires.
•You want to work at a real company. Not so big that you’re lost in the shuffle, but not a crazy napkin-idea startup that will probably fail.
•You know how to communicate ideas, not just write code.
•You love tinkering with and learning new web technologies.
•You are easy to work with, have a fun personality, and like to work hard.
•You have great references and a portfolio of sites you can share.
WHAT YOU WILL DO
•You will integrate our main site, facebook, and igoogle into one database.
•You will enhance our API to support new mobile features on iPhone, Android, etc.
•You will enable our site to support multiple languages and build a community-driven translation environment.
•You will build a gaming ladder using input from our members.
•You will write clean code that will serve millions of per day.
•You will be proud of what you do.
WHO WE ARE
•We’re web people. We know how to build scalable, popular, friendly, useful web businesses.
•We’re a stable, privately-held business with no outside investors.
•We’re chess players who were lucky enough to have the opportunity to change the face of online chess forever. We love working every day.
•We’re a small, fun, distributed team sprinkled around the world: from California to Buenos Aires to Poland to Russia to London to North Carolina. And we’re all friends.
YOUR COMPENSATION
•You will get an above-market salary because you are a well-above-average, amazing person.
•You will get a meaningful piece of equity, not a token slice.
•This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be a part of a huge and growing website. You will be paid by the rewards of loving your job every day.
HOW TO APPLY
First, please make sure you qualify. We are only looking for expert-level programmers with experience in high-level, high-traffic web development, not junior programmers.
Next, please answer the following questions:
•Who are you? What do you care about in life?
•Why do you want this job? Be specific.
•Write a sentence about each of the 3 best sites on the web and why you love them.
•What are 3 things you like, and 2 things you don’t like about Chess.com?
•What singular programming accomplishment are you most proud of to date?
Please send your resume, cover letter, and any questions you have via email to job01@chess.com. If you seem like a potential match, we will reply with a set of questions that will help us get to know you and your abilities.
Thanks!