thread

Hi! We’d like to introduce Thread – a company reinventing retail so guys can dress well without being subjected to the horrors of high street shopping, or having to trawl through millions of items online.

They do this by using a clever combination of algorithms and human stylists to give guys the perfect selection of things that will look amazing on them. Their goal is to create the new global default for how men buy clothes.

They’re live, have lots of customers who absolutely love the product, and revenues are growing very quickly. [Job application details are down below!]

Building one of the best engineering teams worldwide

One of their ancillary goals is to build one of the best engineering teams and cultures anywhere in the world. This means putting a lot of time into ensuring they only hire truly exceptional developers and creating the best working environment possible.

They’re lucky to already have a number of exceptional developers on the team which you’ll get to work alongside, learn from and no doubt teach. For example, their co-founder/CTO was formerly a lead engineer at Google, their technical architect is a core Debian developer, etc. If you want to work somewhere where you will be learning from some of the best engineers around, this role would be a good fit.

You’ll work everyday with an awesome technology stack consisting of Python, Django, Git, Debian, Redis, jQuery, Jenkins, Postgresql, Gunicorn and many other things.

They place a high value on learning and personal growth so you’ll have time to learn new technologies and attend conferences at the company’s expense. They also host a bi-monthly meetup at their offices for engineers interested in startups called Many to Many.

Beyond this, you will get the chance to demonstrate your deep technical ability by tackling some hard technical challenges including recommendation algorithms and machine learning. They release 20-30 times per week (just push to master) so your cool new features will be live on the site within moments.

Not your average software engineering role

As employee number 12 and engineer number 4, you’ll work directly with the founders and the rest of the outstanding technical, design, product and styling team in the office in Shoreditch, London to build the core features that will improve people’s wardrobes and in turn their self-confidence and happiness.

You won’t merely be handed specs: you’ll be in charge of taking ideas from the whiteboard all the way through to them being live, tracking the results, and iterating to make them better. For this reason, this role is only suitable for someone who likes being closely involved in product – what to build and how it will work as much as the technical implementation itself.

Beyond your engineering team mates, you’ll be working closely with a cross-discipline group of designers, quantitative marketers, operations and stylists. You should love the idea of the whole company working closely together to hit shared goals.

This role is especially suited to someone who wants to found their own startup one day. All our current team are future founders and they view working there as an entrepreneurial bootcamp that will give you the necessary skills and experience to launch your own company in the future.

Are you the one? You are, if you:

  • Love agile development, working independently on your own challenges, and together in a team on the bigger vision
  • Are completely fluent in at least one scripting language such as Python, Perl, PHP or Ruby and have experience with web frameworks and the MVC concept
  • Have used MySQL or PostgreSQL extensively and you know your way around Apache, nginx or other server
  • It’s a bonus if you have good JavaScript skills (we use jQuery)
  • Get excited by the idea of scaling web apps to millions of users
  • Often find yourself as the best developer in your peer group, and want to be at a place with other exceptional engineers where you can learn and grow as a person
  • Get obsessed about the problem you’re solving and don’t stop until you’ve cracked it
  • Have a thirst to learn new skills and technologies, and can pick things up easily
  • Want to have fun building lots of new features and get stuff done
  • Are full of positive energy, relish the thought of being part of a small, fast-moving team and enjoy brainstorming about new ideas

Benefits

  • Opportunity to become recognised as one of the best in your field through being a core developer for a high-profile startup
  • Relaxed, sociable work environment with lots of freedom and independence
  • Building an exciting app that millions of people will use and appreciate everyday
  • Gain first-hand experience of how to start, grow, market and raise funding for startups (perhaps useful for your own company one day)
  • Working with awesome technologies (Python/Django/jQuery/Debian/Git/Redis/Jenkins/Postgresql/Gunicorn)
  • As part of one of the top technical teams in the UK, alongside super smart people who have a lot of fun, devoid of any politics
  • With dual-widescreen monitors, a new computer of your choice and and comfy ergonomic chair
  • Free team lunches once a week (we take turns choosing), beer together as a company on Fridays, monthly company trips to fun things like comedy shows, unlimited vacation time.
  • Being part of a company where you will get to help set and shape the company culture in a big way
  • A competitive salary and a generous equity stake in the company (you’re working hard to make the company successful, so we believe you should share generously in the reward!)

A little more about Thread:

  • Backed by some of the top investors anywhere in the world, including the founders of LoveFilm, Wonga and Bebo, the former owner of Warner Music, the former head of Harrods, founding investor in Spotify, Y Combinator, and many others.
  • Founded by serial entrepreneurs who have started two successful startups which both exited.
  • They’re very deliberate and intentional about creating a high performance, warm and effective company culture. They set weekly goals together as a team, and celebrate every Friday with a fun shared treat if they all hit them. Lots of thought has gone into the working environment they’ve created – please ask them about this if you meet!
  • Lastly, they’re not just some social app hoping to go viral and make money from ads – they’re already generating real revenue which are growing very quickly.

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If this sounds exciting and you’d like to have an informal chat, send an email to ben@thread.com with a few sentences about yourself, your resume and links to your Github/LinkedIn/site/etc.

Image credit: Thread.com (follow them on Twitter and Facebook)