Careers

Socrata is trying to unlock government and other public data one dataset at a time by making data social. Our Socrata Social Data Platform helps organizations publish and distribute data in ways that are engaging socially. The result is that citizens, scientists and journalists can discover and make sense of public data in ways not previously possible.

We’re looking for a few exceptionally talented and passionate individuals to join the Socrata team:

Director of Inside Sales

We’re looking to hire our first Director of Inside Sales to help transition the company from predominantly CEO-led early adopter sales to a repeatable web-based sale. We offer a service that has demonstrated customers can understand and purchase through a sequence of web-based demonstrations and calls. The Director of Inside Sales will help define and develop that repeatable sales process and will build the team of inside sales representatives who will be responsible for meeting the company’s inside sales goals. You must be a hands on, self-directed go-getter who thrives in a fast-paced, startup environment. You’ll be involved in sales, marketing, business development and will even help shape the product. This is a great opportunity to get in early as the company is enjoying early success in a new and blossoming data transparency market.

Responsibilities Include:

  • Helping define and develop a sales funnel conversion strategy
  • Developing a repeatable sales process (script) which other sales reps can use to successfully engage customers
  • Working with the Director of Marketing to help define appropriate lead generation marketing systems
  • Contacting potential customers by phone and email
  • Conducting web demonstrations
  • Writing proposals
  • Closing early customers
  • Helping the CEO and company management develop appropriate sales management processes
  • Recruiting inside sales representatives
  • Ensuring that inside sales representatives are adequately prepared

Requirements:

  • BA/BS or equivalent experience required, plus a minimum of 7 years professional sales experience including at least 4 years of sales leadership/management experience, preferably in software and/or software-as-a-service
  • Ability to verbally communicate effectively and confidently with a wide variety of audiences - prospects, customers, management, CEO, board of directors, etc.
  • Sufficient technical ability to conduct web demonstrations and answer basic questions without the support of a technical sales engineer
  • High energy
  • Ability to thrive in a startup environment that includes long hours, frequent randomization, tight schedules, changing priorities, etc.

This is a full-time position based in our headquarters in Seattle, WA. If you are ready to roll your sleeves up and make a huge difference, email your resume and cover note to hr at socrata dot com.

Senior Software Engineer

We’re looking for an exceptionally strong and accomplished senior software engineer with significant experience in building massively scalable, distributed computing systems to help lead the development of our core service offering. The ideal candidate will have the following attributes:

  • At least 8 years of professional software engineering experience including at least 3 years experience as a senior software engineer and/or dev lead
  • Demonstrated mastery of at least one strictly typed, object oriented language like C++ or Java
  • Proficiency with at least one dynamically typed scripting language like Ruby, Python, Perl or Smalltalk
  • Demonstrated excellence working with database technologies including RDBMS, Berkeley DB’s, etc.
  • Familiar with distributed hash tables
  • Experience developing distributed web applications
  • Experience developing distributed database systems and/or distributed storage systems is preferred.
  • Comfortable working with XML and JSON
  • Comfortable working occasionally on the front-end, including javascript, HTML and CSS
  • Comfortable working in a heterogeneous development environment where you’ll be working with multiple development languages and technologies
  • Competent developing web services APIs
  • Excellent communicator
  • Natural mentor and teacher
  • Self starter who’s anxious to start producing
  • If you can ride a unicycle or juggle or have other krazy circus skilz, you’ll probably fit right in

A bachelor’s degree in computer science, math or physics is required. A masters degree in computer science is preferred.

This position is based in our office in Seattle, WA.

If you are an accomplished senior software engineer with the experience and drive to succeed at Socrata, email your resume to senior_software_engineer at socrata dot com. While we’re reviewing your resume, start thinking about our programming challenge below (at the bottom of the page). We’ll ask you to submit a solution to it before coming in for a full interview with us.

Front-End Developer/Designer

We’re looking for a strong and accomplished front-end developer with experience building highly dynamic and interesting websites with a high focus on usability. The ideal candidate will have the following attributes:

  • At least 4 years of professional front-end web development experience
  • Proficiency with at least one dynamically typed scripting language like Ruby, Python, Perl or Smalltalk
  • Experience developing distributed web applications
  • Strong track record in user-centric and standards-compliant web design and development, proven by a robust portfolio of previous work
  • Significant experience with HTML, CSS, and Javascript
  • Experience in Ruby on Rails, Haml+Sass and jQuery a plus
  • Knowledge of version control, especially Git
  • Strong communicator
  • Self starter who’s anxious to start producing
  • If you can ride a unicycle or juggle or have other krazy circus skilz, you’ll probably fit right in

A bachelor’s degree in computer science, math or physics is required. A masters degree in computer science is preferred.

This position is based in our office in Seattle, WA.

If you are an accomplished front-end designer/developer with the experience and drive to succeed at Socrata, email your resume to software_engineer at socrata dot com. While we’re reviewing your resume, start thinking about our programming challenge. We’ll ask you to submit a solution to it before coming in for a full interview with us.

Programming Challenge:

Allow the user to enter two times of the format “[H]H:MM AM”. Mentally picture these times on two analog clocks, each having an hour hand and a minute hand. Without using any built-in date or time routines, calculate the number of degrees the minute hand on the first clock must travel in order to have the second clock show the exact same time as the first clock. Assume that when you move the minute hand, the hour hand moves automatically. The minute hand may only move in the clockwise direction. You may assume that the minute hand always ends up on a perfect minute boundary.

As example solutions, if the two times entered are “10:15 AM” and “12:45 PM” the minute hand must travel 900 degrees (2.5 rotations). If the two times entered are “10:00 PM and 9:00 PM” the minute hand must travel 8,280 degrees (23 rotations).

Solve the problem in any language you like, but write professional quality code as if you were going to check this in to the master branch at Socrata. Your solution to the coding challenge is part of the interview process, designed to give you an opportunity to do your best work without time constraint and with all your tools at your disposal.

Program Manager

We're looking for a Program Manager (PM) who loves helping tell a story with data and who has off-the-charts passion for helping customers succeed in achieving the objectives of their projects and in fulfilling program and mission goals. This position can be based either out of our headquarters in Seattle or in the greater DC area.

The core responsibilities of a Socrata PM are:

  • Represent Socrata in a way that embodies the spirit of our company, our vision and mission. We are insanely customer focused. The foundation of success in this role is an off-the-charts enthusiasm for thrilling and delighting customers.
  • Aligning project goals and outcomes with the goals of the program or mission.
  • Managing multiple customer engagements simultaneously, with each managing several Socrata resources and acting as primary point of contact and liaison with corresponding customer teams.
  • Represent Socrata customers from the field by ensuring their needs are captured and communicated to our product management and engineering teams.
  • Working with newly signed customers to help them successfully launch the deployment of our platform within their agency or organization.
  • Helping customers identify and inventory their data assets for public consumption.
  • Helping customers transform their data in captivating, engaging, consumption-focused ways by mapping it, visualizing it or simply reformatting and sprucing it up.
  • Helping customize the look, feel & capabilities of our privately brandable, highly customizable data sharing platform. This includes helping cohesively integrate their Socrata powered data site into their parent website.
  • Helping customize the look, feel & capabilities of our embeddable data player so that when customer data is embedded in foreign hosts, it represents the branding and experience our customers want to project.
  • Training new customers on how to use the data publishing capabilities of our platform.
  • Training new customers on how to use the data publishing API in our platform.
  • Listening to customers and then helping solve their data related problems with our technology.
  • Assist prospective customers in understanding the benefits and value proposition of our platform by conducting demonstrations of our platform and answering any technical pre-sales questions they might have.
  • Developing conference room pilots and other proofs of concept to demonstrate to potential customers how our platform can solve important data related problems.

    • The ideal candidate will have the following attributes:

    • Gregarious, outgoing and friendly yet with a technical foundation and technically capable and strong.
    • Off-the-charts enthusiasm for customers and empathy for feeling their pain.
    • A devoted and accomplished listener.
    • Enjoyment in demonstrating software in person and via web-based demos.
    • Great communication skills, including the ability to articulate technically founded concepts in laymens terms.
    • Passion for data and the stories it can tell.
    • Solid foundation in working with data, including data modeling, data analysis, data visualization and data transformation.
    • The abiity to write simple programs, typically in scripting or dynamic langauges such as Ruby on Rails, perl, python, etc.
    • Basic ability to work with HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
    • Expert SQL skills.
    • Experience using ETL tools.
    • Basic ability to visualize data - charts, graphs, maps, etc.
    • Basic understanding of geographic information systems (GIS) and geospatial data.
    • Familiarity with concepts related to the semantic web - open linked data, RDF, OWL, SPARQL, etc.
    • Ability to train programmers on the use of our API, which generally implies the ability to write sample programs around it in a number of host languages like Ruby on Rails, Java and C#.
    • Ability to write functional specs.
    • Self starter who's anxious to start producing.
    • Self-disciplined, resourceful and independent who can succeed working remotely, away from the corporate office with little direction and supervision and sometimes infrequent communication.

    A bachelor's degree in computer science, electrical engineering, math, statistics or similarly rigorous major is required.

    This visible, key, customer facing position is based in the either Seattle or DC. You must be able to visit customer and prospect sites in the greater DC area easily and regularly as well as spend time in our headquarters in Seattle.

    If you are an accomplished program manager with the experience, education and drive to succeed at Socrata, we encourage you to reply. Send your resume and cover letter to hr _at_ socrata.com.

    Self-representing individuals only. We aren't working with recruiters or staffing agencies.

    Data Analyst

    We're looking for a Data Analyst who enjoys consultative customer engagements solving data related problems, including transforming data from a business-process-optimized storage format to a consumption-optimized format. This is an ideal position for programmers and analysts interested in taking an active, participatory role in open government, transparency or open data. This position can be based either out of our headquarters in Seattle or in the greater DC area.

    The core responsibilities of a Socrata Data Analyst are:

    • Represent Socrata professionally, helping our customers succeed at sharing their data in the most engaging ways.
    • Working with newly signed customers to help them successfully launch the deployment of our Social Data Platform within their agency or organization.
    • Helping customers identify and inventory their data assets for public consumption.
    • Helping customers transform their data in captivating, engaging, consumption-focused ways by mapping it, visualizing it or simply reformatting and sprucing it up.
    • Helping customize the look, feel & capabilities of our privately brandable, highly customizable data sharing platform. This includes helping cohesively integrate their Socrata powered data site into their parent website.
    • Helping customize the look, feel & capabilities of our embeddable Social Data Player so that when customer data is embedded in foreign hosts, it represents the branding and experience our customers want to project.
    • Listening to customers and then helping solve their data related problems with our technology.

    The ideal candidate will have the following attributes:

    • Strong passion for transparency and open data, especially with respect to open government.
    • Gregarious, outgoing and friendly yet with a technical foundation and technically capable and strong.
    • Off-the-charts enthusiasm for customers and empathy for feeling their pain.
    • Good communication skills, including the ability to articulate technically founded concepts in laymens terms.
    • Professionalism, including the ability to work independently with customers on data-related engagements.
    • Passion for data and the stories it can tell.
    • Expert skills in working with data, including data modeling, data analysis, data visualization and data transformation.
    • The abiity to write data extraction, transformation and loading (ETL) programs, typically in scripting or dynamic languagges such as Ruby on Rails, perl, python, etc.
    • Expert SQL skills.
    • Expert ETL skills.
    • Ability to visualize data - charts, graphs, maps, etc.
    • Capable working with geographic information systems (GIS) and geospatial data.
    • Basic ability to work with HTML, CSS and JavaScript desired.
    • Familiarity with concepts related to the semantic web - open linked data, RDF, OWL, SPARQL, etc.
    • Self starter who's anxious to start producing.
    • Self-disciplined, resourceful and independent who can succeed working remotely, away from the corporate office with little direction and supervision and sometimes infrequent communication.

    A bachelor's degree in computer science, electrical engineering, math, statistics or similarly rigorous major is required.

    This customer facing position is based in the either Seattle or DC. You must be able to visit customer and prospect sites in the greater DC area easily and regularly as well as spend time in our headquarters in Seattle.

    If you are an accomplished program manager with the experience, education and drive to succeed at Socrata, we encourage you to reply. Send your resume and cover letter to hr _at_ socrata.com.

    Self-representing individuals only. We aren't working with recruiters or staffing agencies.

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