Ness

Join us.

We're looking for intelligent, talented people with an eye for detail and the ability to think big. Please send resumes to join@likeness.com.

Jobs

  • Backend Engineer

    You’re someone who loves technical challenges and is motivated to produce effective and elegant solutions to problems that others might describe as “impossible.” You are a self-starter, who is comfortable solving new problems, but also likes to collaborate and learn from others. As a member of Ness's backend team your role will be part architect and part systems builder. We have an ambitious product and engineering roadmap and are looking for people who can develop rapidly and embrace the challenges and responsibilities and of being a critical member of a highly skilled team.

    Responsibilities:

    • Rapidly develop proof-of-concept prototypes to prove out hypotheses 
    • Design, architect, implement, and debug robust, high-volume production services
    • Implement and integrate data ingestion, analysis and data-mining systems
    • Write server-side code for web-based applications

    Strongly Positive Background Correlations:

    • Demonstrated history of rapidly developing proof-of-concept prototypes to prove out hypotheses
    • BS/MS in CS or solid understanding of computer science and software development from work experience
    • Extensive programming experience (5-10+ years, though not necessarily professionally)
    • Strong competencies in data structures, algorithms, and software design
    • Experience with databases (PostgreSQL in particular), and cloud computing tool chains like Amazon EC2 and S3
    • Expert knowledge developing and debugging Java on Unix 

    Positive Background Correlations:

    • Experience with NoSQL data stores
    • Contribution to open source projects
    • Knowledge of distributed data analysis environments like Hadoop/Mahout or MapReduce/Sawzall
    • Knowledge of one functional programming language 
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  • iOS Engineer

    Ness is looking for an eager, fast-learning iOS developer with a passion for creating software that delights users. We’re looking for someone who wants to help push the platform to its limits, with implementation approaches beyond even Apple’s first-party apps.

    You are someone who shares our love of beautifully designed, immersive products. You are detail-oriented, believe the little things matter, and won't consider a task complete until everything is just right. These qualities are more important than experience, but practice implementing user interfaces and iOS applications is a plus. An ideal candidate will know Objective-C and Cocoa Touch well, but is always ready to learn more.

    Responsibilities:

    • Help create the Ness Experience on iOS, using Ness internal APIs
    • Work with the Product team to define, design and implement user experience and interactions
    • Manage the development and release pipeline of the Ness iOS application
    • Communicate application requirements to backend engineering team

    Positive Background Correlations:

    • B.S. in Computer Science or related field
    • Proficient knowledge of Objective-C, or experience with at least two other C-based languages
    • Functional knowledge of the iOS SDK
    • Examples of iOS applications you wrote, even if unreleased
    • Experience with client-server applications
    • Experience with debugging and profiling tools
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  • Machine Learning Software Engineer

    We are world-class, machine learning specialists who work together on real-world challenges. Everyone on our team takes ownership of problem-solving, from ideas all the way through implementation. Our favorite types of problems are the ones that others consider impossible.

    Everything the ML team builds is product-driven to solve a specific customer pain. While we are looking for people who are experts in a specific area, we believe that the best solutions come from collaboration. We expect people to apply their expertise to domains they have not previously worked in.

    We use principled machine learning approaches, and encode product-level intuition and needs, but are comfortable with using heuristics to get the last mile.

    We're looking for people with:

    • A Ph.D. in Computer Science, Statistics, or Mathematics, or 5 years of experience in the application of ML to solving real-world problems
    • A track record of developing new approaches and methods for solving noisy, data-driven problems
    • Specific experience in multiple machine learning and inferencing techniques, such as regression, SVMs, Boosting / Ensemble methods, HMMs / Graphical Models, Mixture Models, and clustering techniques
    • Experience with general software development, preferably in Java or C++, as well as SQL and *nix
    • Familiarity with recent ML literature

    Bonus points if you have:

    • A deep background in one of the following: information retrieval / search ranking, natural language processing, collaborative filtering, ontology management / data normalization
    • Experience with data mining packages such as Weka, SAS, EViews, Matlab and R
    • Experience with "big-data" frameworks such as Hadoop, HBase, or Cassandra
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  • Data Analyst

    Ness is delivering the first personal recommendation search engine based on your unique tastes, and we are growing. We are seeking a technical data analyst to mine and analyze data pertaining to our customers’ product experience to discover critical business and product insights.

    The ideal candidate will have most of the following skills and be able to learn those they are missing.

    Analytical
    • Excel, including pivot tables
    • Statistical expertise
    • Regression analysis
    • Expertise with Google Analytics, Flurry, or comparable leading product analytics package
    Technical
    • Proficiency at querying Postgres (or other SQL) databases
    • Ability to pull data from various sources (e.g. log files)
    • Knowledge of HBase/Hive/Hadoop
    • Unix shell scripting
    Product
    • Has worked on customer facing applications (i.e., that have a UI and features that customers interact with)
    • Has led the development of customer facing products/features (as a product manager or developer)
    • Has interacted with product endusers through usability testing, focus groups, and/or surveys
    Communication
    • Strong written and verbal skills that are effective for a variety of audiences
    • Powerpoint preparation and presentation
    Bonus Points if you have
    • Previous startup experience
    • Business acumen
    • Experience optimizing viral user metrics
    • Restaurant/food applications domain expertise (e.g., Yelp, OpenTable)
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  • Product Designer

    Ness is hiring product designers to help prototype and define the Ness user experience across a variety of platforms. The design challenges you will face are complex. You will be pushing the boundaries of predictive software. You will collaborate with an interdisciplinary product team, and possessing a wide breadth of knowledge and personal interests will increase the likelihood of coming up with unexpected solutions.

    Specific background expertise in print, web or mobile is less important than a deep interest in the way people choose and use products, creativity, a keen sense of aesthetics, and a strong grasp of visual communication. You’ll work with a high degree of autonomy and will have ownership over large parts of the product, but you should always be receptive to user feedback.

    You’ll shape the future of Ness into something that’s intuitive, serendipitous, and magical.

    Requirements and responsibilities:

    • A portfolio of design projects or case studies (self-started or professional)
    • An interest humanizing sophisticated backend technology with user-centered, emotionally arresting design
    • Observational skills and user empathy
    • Your task is one of profound opposites. You’re comfortable with balancing complicated ideas and thinking in opposites: large and small-scale, conceptual and pragmatic, human and technical, micro and macro. You understand the strategy and business dynamics behind a product or a feature, but you’re also capable of finessing visual designs until they’re pixel-perfect
    • The ability to adapt and iterate quickly in a collaborative environment
    • The ability to clearly and effectively visualize and communicate ideas, whether with pencil and paper or software
    • Impeccable production skills paired with a high level of expertise in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Bonus points for Adobe After Effects. Knowledge of Fireworks and InDesign is also nice to have
    • Passion for your craft. You constantly evangelize the power of design as a discipline for problem solving, not window dressing
    • You’re a perfectionist

    Positive background correlations:

    • Mobile design experience. Again, knowledge of specific methodologies or frameworks is less important than an understanding of the context
    • Knowledge of data-driven usability testing methods and techniques for measuring user experience.
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