Description
Element is the startup that employs the core team behind matrix.org— the leading project for secure, open decentralised communication.
Matrix’s mission is to make messaging as open as email— allowing everyone to choose where their data is hosted, enjoy private conversations thanks to advanced encryption, and ultimately be in control of their own communication.
The Matrix protocol is used by millions of people globally, from the French and German governments through to community groups and open-source projects like Mozilla, KDE, GNOME and Wikimedia.
Matrix powers Element, our flagship messaging apps for the web, iOS & Android, along with EMS, our SaaS platform for personal & professional use.
We build things for everyone, and we know we can’t succeed without a diverse team. Our hiring process is designed to be humane and give candidates the best chance to show us what you can do. If we ever fall down on this, please let us know.
The role
You'll spend your time working in the Trust and Safety team designing and building the tools needed to keep the Matrix network free of abusive activities and spam. These tools are used to achieve the ultimate goal of keeping our 14M (and growing) users safe from negative experiences and helping protect the health of the overall Matrix network.
We're looking for someone with a strong interest in well designed and easy to use tooling and who can help us push the boundaries of what’s possible when it comes to building tools that empower users to better visualise and take action against abuse. We have blogged about some of our long term plans here.
Almost everything Element does is open source, so please feel free to take a look at some of our repos to get a sense of how we work.
The core of the Trust team work in Western Europe. We are open to remote applications, although you would need to have regular working hours compatible with UK time zone.
Requirements
Technically, we don’t have hard requirements, we just want to build the best possible team, but it would be great if some of the following are true.
- Extensive experience with JavaScript/React and ideally Python.
- Experience with React or other front end technologies.
- Experience working on tools that people depend on every day.
- Experience working in a continuous delivery environment.
Bonus Points for
- Experience with Rust
- Experience working in the Anti-Abuse, spam or fraud detection, trust & safety domain
- Experience maintaining and/or contributing to open source projects
Most importantly, we are looking for someone who is
- Smart, curious and enthusiastic but pragmatic
- Likes to ship early and often
- A tireless advocate of code quality and testing (understanding the need for trade-offs in the short term whilst keeping us honest in the long term)
- Is articulate and empathetic.
- Is comfortable with the pace, trade offs and ambiguity of an early stage startup (specifically how to take care of yourself and get your work done without working crazy hours).
- The most important thing is that you believe passionately in easy to use tools that enable people to work efficiently and happily.
Finally, Element is a mission driven company, we believe passionately in the importance of decentralising the internet. We hope you feel the same way.
If you have any questions before making an application reach out to Mischa (@mischawalmsley matrix.org) via https //app.element.io
Benefits
Our general approach is to treat people like adults and acknowledge that by being flexible we create an environment for people to do their best work. For more details here is our manifesto. That said specific points that differentiate us include
- Work (almost) full time on FOSS projects with high visibility and a large enthusiastic community
- Since our technology is relevant to anything that requires real-time comms, the role provides exposure to a wide range of domains from web and app dev through to VR, VoIP and IoT.
- Family friendly environment, many of the team have small children and we look to accommodate that as best we can.
- People tend to stay with the company for a long time, we take this as a sign that we have a cohesive, supportive culture, that we have engaging challenging work and that people can develop their skills and careers here for the long term.
Element does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, colour, religion, age, national origin, marital status, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other reason prohibited by law in provision of employment opportunities and benefits.