SparkFun Electronics is an online shop for the do-it-yourself electronics enthusiast. Our customers include inventors, artists, students, hobbyists, and just plain curious individuals looking for some fun tinkering with electronics.

SparkFun is also very committed to bringing electronics education into the mainstream by curating free educational materials and working with schools and institutions around the country to bring electronics into the classroom. Lastly, SparkFun is a staunch advocate of the open source movement, most recently being a leader in Open Source Hardware.

Collaborate with a team of professionals in an open source company to build cool stuff that matters!

About the Department

SparkFun's Information Technology department is responsible for all company computer systems, including a 350 sqft on-site data center for internal data storage, network services, building security, and a full production web stack for all SparkFun web properties. The department also runs custom development on all web properties including the primary ecommerce website (sparkfun.com), the primary educational resources website (learn.sparkfun.com), and Sparkle, SparkFun's custom-built ERP system.

Open source languages, tools, and technologies are prevalent throughout the stack. Where possible code developed by SparkFun is open sourced and associated communities are actively managed.

The Daily Workflow

Systems administration at SparkFun involves, foremost, maintaining uptime and performance of all critical SparkFun services. This includes maintaining the internal network for the 80,000 sqft office/factory/warehouse, maintaining all internal servers, and maintaining the production web stack, as well as securing devices and monitoring usage for malicious activity.

Candidates for these positions can expect to work in a small team of 2-3 Systems Administrators (one of whom is Lead). The Systems Administration team works in coordination with the Desktop Operations Team of 2 (user workstations, printers, phones, etc.) and the Development Team of 10 (eCommerce, ERP system, analysis, etc.)

Required Qualifications

• Proficiency administering Linux-based systems
• Experience with administering networking and routing for dozens of VLANs / hundreds of users
• Experience provisioning cloud-based resources such as EC2
• Experience administering OpenStack
• Experience with server configuration version control systems like Chef or Salt

Preferred Qualifications

• Proficiency in the Debian ecosystem
• Working knowledge of administering relational databases like MySQL or PostgreSQL
• Working knowledge of administering caching systems such as Memcache or Redis
• Working knowledge of administering NoSQL databases such as MongoDB
• Experience working with modern version control systems such as Git
• A visible public track record of contributions to open source

Workplace Benefits

Note: all benefits become available after an initial on-boarding period of six weeks.

• Health, dental, and disability insurance (with FSA and HSA options)
• 401k matching up to 5%
• Eco pass
• Full on-site gym
• 2 weeks paid vacation to start, 3 weeks after one full year of employment
• $1000/year continuing education/professional development fund
• $25/month gym/massage benefit

Perks

Note: some perks only become available after an initial on-boarding period of six weeks.

• Flex time – days/hours in the office can be a compromise between work life and home life
• Liberal work from home / work remote policy (note: not interested in permanent remote employees for this position)
• Free and/or deeply discounted access to tools, parts, and education to tinker with electronics and physical computing
• Frequent Lunch and Learns – presentations by other employees and special guests on all manner of topics (often catered)
• Occasional opportunities for travel to technical conferences and other professional development opportunities