[TriLUG] have a job - Python, Django, Postgres, Flask

[Alan Porter via TriLUG]

The place where I work, BitSight, has another job opening for a 
middleware developer on the team that I work on.  We manage the database 
of all of the companies that have "internet assets" (domains and IP 
addresses).  It's on the order of a million companies and growing every 
day.

OK... what?

We have a Django system that sits on a Postgres database, and that web 
portal is used by 80 or so curators/researchers.  But we also have a 
bunch of automated tools that look up stuff like domain registrations, 
IP/CIDR registrations, DNS queries and responses, and certificates found 
by crawlers.  All of this stuff runs 24x7, trying to keep our inventory 
of companies up to date.

BitSight uses this database of companies and assets by correlating 
billions of "findings" (bad thing X happened on IP address Y at time Z) 
with the companies that own/operate those IP addresses.  Those 
correlations are used to generate a numerical grade (a "security 
rating") and a bunch of other letter grades (A-F) on specific kinds of 
security practices.

So this position is for developing and maintaining software that is 
used internally as one of the key data sources for the company's 
mission.

See https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2347:_Dependency

We are that little block at the bottom that everything else rests upon. 
We have three people in the group, and we need probably six... but 
right now we'll get by with four.

What is daily life like at BitSight?  We use pretty modern tools 
(although we sometimes run some old and crusty application code on 
them).  We use kubernetes to allocate a developer sandbox, where we can 
deploy the various pieces of code we might be working on, while 
connecting to shared instances of the parts we're NOT working on.  We 
work in week-long "sprints", but really more of a Kanban board setup, 
following tasks left to right.  We deploy small increments very often.  
We have very little overhead - few meetings for developers, and lots of 
heads-down time.  We work from home or from our office on South Glenwood 
Ave, close to the Raleigh Beer Garden - that's for spatial reference, 
but you can read more significance into that statement if you want to.

We have lots of funding, with the backing of Moody's.  We have 500+ 
employees in Raleigh, Boston and Lisbon, with some scattered "all over". 
One guy even lives in an RV.

We're looking for someone with a few years of experience.  Along their 
career path - not really a new grad, and not an old grey beard like me, 
but somewhere in between.  Most of the work will be in Python, but we 
dabble in Javascript when we have to (and when we do, we use simple 
libraries like JQuery).  If you have done web UI's and you suck at it, 
that's probably a plus.

If you or someone you know would be interested in hearing more about 
BitSight and this open position, let me know.  Or "reply all" and let us 
all have a laugh.

Alan Porter
porter at trilug.org