Mozilla is looking for a Senior Staff Software Engineer to work on their Mastodon server at mozilla.social
Mozilla is looking for a Senior Staff Software Engineer to work on their Mastodon server at mozilla.social
Mozilla is hiring a Sr Staff Software Engineer - Moz.Social in Remote US
I would apply, but I don't understand why they have "remote" but then tied to a specific country. I live in Korea and I'd understand some kind of a problem with time zones but before that I lived in Sweden and then I couldn't have applied either.
Usually it's tied to employment regulations, funding requirements, the administrative overhead of dealing with a foreign tax code.
If you really want to make it work, open a loan out company in the jurisdiction of the enploying company. The employing company hires your loan out corporation, and your loan out corporation then pays you. That way your loan out corporation does all the work of paying and managing you in a different country. And the employing organization doesn't have to worry about any administration, overhead, legal issues. You're taking all of that on. I've seen it work. But most companies don't want to volunteer for that extra work, having a loan out is very helpful.
tax gets complicated
Legal business contract stuff, most likely. Different countries have different employment law requirements, so Mozilla would realistically need legal representation in those places. That gets pricy fast.
I'm also excluded, for what it's worth.
If you like conspiracies you could ask yourself how much work on Firefox could have been done if Mozilla had invested their ad billions globally.
I'm not a tech fella -- just a refugee from the Reddit collapse trying to find my way in a social media environment that feels more authentic, less corporate, and more free. So -- here's wishing all of you good luck in this position but for me, I'm just amazed that a major browser has the Fediverse on the radar. Isn't this kind of a big deal?
Mozilla doesn't just make Firefox. At its core, Mozilla is a non-profit foundation with basically the goal of making the internet a better place for everyone.
And well, the Fediverse is an independent push for making social media better for everyone. And social media is an important part of the internet, so it's certainly in the range of things that Mozilla's donors would expect that donation money to be used.
AAA organization making a lemmy instance? I'd say so.
They're a former client. (Happenstance hit up old contact yesterday to pitch my current company)
Incredible humans. Meritocracy Everyone has a voice. And they get shit done. It's almost like open source community plus money is good.
Where does Mozilla money come from?
I have this huge fear that working for an actual good cause that I admire would make me feel constantly guilty that I'm not doing enough, or doing a good enough job. I find a lot of comfort in knowing I work for a soulsucking for profit corporation.
And yes, I also hate that I feel this way
Their US compensation tiers are not well-calibrated.
Interviewed with a recruiter for a senior role and realized the same. On top of that, the recruiter couldn’t answer some questions I had about the role, nor would connect me with someone who could but wanted me to do a coding round first. Overall not good experience. Later learned anecdotally that work culture at Mozilla isn’t great. I love what Mozilla is trying to do, use Firefox as my primary browser, and wanted to contribute my time to supporting the company, but came away disappointed.
I've been working there a long time, there are valid complaints, but poor work culture isn't one I've normally heard. Of course it depends a lot on the specific manager, so I won't deny specific anecdotal experiences. But generally I'd say the work culture is quite healthy.
Yeah Mozilla is only a shell of what it once was. They need some fresh blood
Yeah wow, hard to keep up with the rest of big tech without stock compensation.
Their EU compensation is excellent. Nearly as good as FAANG.
Absolutely moving to this instance when it's up. Love seeing them invest so much into it!
No pay listed?
Positions like this often have very negotiable pay and for the employer it's usually way more important to find the right person for the job than to find someone who's within the budget.
How often in the software industry is the title "engineer" a sop to give applicants a flashy title; and how often is there actual engineering involved? When I worked as an engineer some years ago, it seemed inconceivable that software development would become actual engineering because how could the engineering standards of care and professional liability ever be imposed? Today, virtually all software is either privately licensed or open source - there is no such thing as public software infrastructure under the development supervision of a professional software engineer (as far as I know). So I guess Mozilla can call their software developers anything they like, but it seems to be an ongoing cheapening of the engineering title - like why not call this position Chief of Software Surgery? Lead Software Counselor?
There is quite a big difference between a software developer and a software engineer. Most of the time, a developer just does what has been assigned to them. An engineer will be taking part (or completely doing) the architecture/design process as well.
Eh, as someone who's first software job was as an "Associate Software Enginner" while still in school (undergrad), I'm pretty sure I can say it's not that cut and dry. I've actually never had a software job that didn't use the "engineer" title. I've found "developer" and "engineer" are used interchangeably.
this seems to reflect the simultaneous co-opting of the titles "architect" (one who designs physical edifices such as buildings) and "engineer" (one who applies math and science principles to problems of infrastructure and industrial production). We all understand what is meant by design, but that does not mean a software design must be devised by an "engineer" or an "architect" anymore than an interior design (though there are also some self-styled "design architects" roaming about). So is it possible to say what is different about software development and software engineering without saying the engineer is an architect? Is it that software developers do not design anything (which in its simplest terms is 'artful arrangement')? That seems arbitrary - though I agree that there can also be a fine line sometimes between, say, architecture and structural engineering.
The answer to your question is because you’re confusing very specific job titles that refer to specific industries and jobs, with a single word with centuries of history and has a far more broad meaning that predates the usage that you prefer which only dates back to evidently 1907 America.
“Chief of software surgery” would be a play on a specific job, which is a “surgeon” a word which here means “a medical specialist who practices surgery” so it refers to one particular thing in one particular field of work.
“Engineer” on the other hand, refers to someone who “devises or contrives” something, and more broadly if you look at its Latin origins, “Cleverness”. So the term “Engineer” is linguistically appropriate for all kinds of jobs that fit into its fairly broad definition, unlike Surgeon, which has a more specific meaning. The “Engineering standards of care and professional liability” you’re referring to is no less made-up than the word Engineer itself.
I get your point that people with “Engineering” degrees who work in the fields of like mechanical or electrical engineering want to hold onto that word as some kind of earned title, but if we’re being honest, if they wanted that they should have picked a more distinct word.
I think engineers have been held liable for the soundness and fitness-for-purpose of what they "engineered" since ancient Rome - though they have certainly been called upon to engineer a greater variety of things in the past couple of centuries. And I think if someone proposes to engineer software, I am all for that! We could do with a great deal more of it in fact. And let's dispense with this perpetual disclaimer of warranty for merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose, and such terms. If an engineer designs it and it does not work, the engineer is generally held to be negligent and liable . . . except if they are a software engineer, of course.
Unfortunately the software industry (at least in the US) has applied the term "engineer" basically across the board to software developers instead of only for properly trained and licensed engineers as in other fields (civil engineering, mechanical engineering, etc). Part of this is due to a lack of a formal software engineering licensing system, but the desire for fancy titles is certainly something that played a role in this.
My understanding is that other countries, like Canada, do have strict requirements for the use of the term "engineer", but unfortunately that ship appears to have sailed in the US due to inertia and the intransigence of Silicon Valley-type companies.
it seemed inconceivable that software development would become actual engineering
If you go back to the root word, "actual engineering" is someone that builds or operates an engine. That's why train drivers can be called "engineers".
When I worked as an engineer some years ago
This is way too vague. What type of engineer?