[Haskell-cafe] [Job] Cross Compass is hiring Haskell developers

[Ramin Honary]

Cross Compass ( https://www.cross-compass.com/ ) is a data science and
machine learning consultancy located in Tokyo, Japan. We are hiring
Haskellers to work on a machine learning platform. We are mainly
looking for people skilled in either web programming, machine
learning, or embedded development.

Technical skills used on our team
=================================

Our machine learning platform has quite a few moving parts:

  - two web frontends (one written in PureScript, and one written
    in TypeScript)

  - two backends (one written in Haskell, and one written in
    Ruby)

  - a deep learning engine (written in Haskell, calling out to
    Caffe2)

  - a library for running models on embedded devices (written in
    C, C++ and CUDA calling out to oneDNN and cuDNN)

Given these various parts, we end up touching a lot of different
technologies:

  - Haskell, including the following libraries:

      - conduit

      - JuicyPixels

      - lens

      - servant

  - PureScript, including the following libraries:

      - affjax

      - argonaut

      - protobuf

      - react-basic

  - Nix (and a little Docker)

  - Ruby

  - TypeScript

  - C (and a little C++ and CUDA)

  - machine learning (we are currently mostly focused on deep
    learning)

We have long-term plans to move away from Ruby and TypeScript (and
towards Haskell and PureScript), but no concrete time-frame for when
this will happen.

What sort of developers are we looking for?
===========================================

In the short term, we are planning on hiring two developers. We want
to hire developers who know some combination of the above
technologies, or would be interested in learning.

We imagine hiring one developer who is familiar with Ruby, TypeScript,
and Haskell. Machine learning experience wouldn't be necessary, but
helpful. They would start out with web development in Ruby and
Typescript, along with some Haskell work. Over time they would
probably move more towards doing web development in Haskell and
PureScript.

We imagine hiring one other developer who is familiar with machine
learning, Haskell, and possibly embedded development. They would help
with the Haskell deep learning engine, as well as the C-based embedded
library. They would probably also have the chance to help with the
Haskel web backend and PureScript web frontend.

We are also interested in any other candidates that have unique
combinations of the above skills, or interesting backgrounds. Please
don't hesitate to apply based on your background or skills. Previous
working experience with Haskell or any of the other technologies
listed above is not a requirement.

Non-technical requirements
==========================

We would prefer to hire developers that can work locally from
Tokyo. We sponsor visas for developers who want to move to Japan.

If we don't find anyone who is willing to relocate to Japan, we will
considering hiring remote-only candidates. Most of our meetings take
place in the afternoon in JST (UTC+9), which is around 5 AM
UTC. Although we are flexible on this point.
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20201104T050000&p1=248

We prefer to hire developers who want to work full time (40 hours per
week).

Pay
====================

The salary range for this position is 6 to 8 million yen (about USD
$57,000 to $75,000).

Application and hiring process
==============================

If this sounds interesting, please feel free to email us at
recruit at cross-compass.com .

We are not too big on standard resumes, but you are welcome to send us
any information that you think would catch our attention, including
things like:

  - relevant work history (e.g. work somewhere before using Haskell?
    Or maybe doing frontend development with TypeScript?)

  - relevant education history (e.g. took a class on machine
    learning?)

  - open-source software links (e.g. author any interesting libraries?
    have a cool machine learning project?)

  - papers, articles, blog posts, social media, or anything else which
    reflects well on you

We'd also like to know your situation regarding on-premise work
vs. remote, including whether or not you would be interested in moving
to Japan.

There will be one interview to learn more about you and for you to ask
us questions.

We will invite promising candidates to a part-time, one-month paid
trial period. During this trial period we see what it is like working
with you, and you get to see how we work as a team. Ideally, you'd be
able to work at least a couple hours a week (so we both have an idea
what is it like to work with each other when the month is over), but
we are flexible with the details here.

We would make you an offer after the trial-period.

Haskellers at Cross Compass
===========================

There are already a few Haskellers at Cross Compass. You may have
interacted with us online or at various meetups and conferences.

  - Viktor Kronvall ( https://github.com/considerate )

  - Jonas Carpay ( https://github.com/jonascarpay )

  - Ramin Honary ( https://github.com/RaminHAL9001 )

  - James Brock  ( https://github.com/jamesdbrock )

  - Dennis Gosnell ( https://functor.tokyo/ )

Other Considerations
====================

  - We would consider hiring someone part-time with a lot of
    experience, although we would probably only do this if we don't
    find someone willing to work full time.

  - Being able to speak Japanese is not a requirement.

  - HR will often help employees new to Japan with things like finding
    an apartment, opening a bank account, getting a cell phone, etc.

  - We don't particularly have any requirements regarding years of
    experience.

Coronavirus
===========

  - It is currently possible for people to get a work visa and come to
    Japan. (At one point foreigners weren't able to enter Japan, but
    this restriction has been relaxed and now people can enter with a
    work visa.)

  - Over the last few months, there are on average a couple hundred
    cases per day in Tokyo.

  - Most people in Cross Compass have been working remotely since
    Coronavirus became a problem in Tokyo. Some people go in to the
    office once or twice a week. I imagine this will continue until
    cases of Coronavirus start to drop. I don't know what the plans
    for what the remote working situation will be like when
    Coronavirus is no longer a problem. If you're concerned about
    this, please make sure to ask about this in your application
    email.