[LRUG] Talented developers wanted at Guildford-based startup

[Gavin Heavyside]

I'm a long time lurker on this list, but LRUG is on the wrong night
for me so I've never made it to a meeting. I lead the engineering at
MyDrive Solutions, a startup based in Guildford, and we are growing
our team. We use a lot of Ruby, amongst a range of tools, and I would
love to hear from developers who are interested by the info below.

You can contact me at gavin.heavyside at mydrivesolutions.com. I will
also be at the Surrey Rubyists meetup in Woking on Tuesday evening
(http://surreyrubyists.tumblr.com/)

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MyDrive Solutions is looking for senior and junior software developers
to help evolve our GPS data analysis platform and systems.

* What do we do?
We are building the world’s best platform for understanding the
behaviour of motor vehicle drivers, by analysing GPS data from
telematics devices installed in cars. Our technology and services
enable insurance companies to create innovative insurance products
that understand how people drive their cars, and can offer cheaper
premiums to safer drivers. We are working with the biggest names in
the insurance industry to launch a range of market-leading products.

We have a unique approach to understanding driving behaviour that
combines observations of the driver (acceleration, braking etc) with
the road context. Our analysis engine combines elements of GIS systems
and digital maps with distributed computing to create metrics for all
kinds of behaviour, including anticipation, consistency, pace,
smoothness and aggression. We calibrate our scoring against a fleet of
highly-trained expert drivers.

Our development office is at the Surrey Research Park, in Guildford, UK.

* What do we use?
Our platform runs on Linux and is built on solid open-source
foundations. We use Ruby, Rails, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, Redis, Resque,
Hadoop, C++, AWS, Chef, Git, and whatever is the best tool for the
job. We use lightweight agile development processes, with a strong
emphasis on TDD.

* Who are we looking for?
We want to find senior and junior developers to join our development
team permanently, but we would also be happy to hear from talented
contractors who can help us meet some shorter term objectives over the
next few months.

* Senior roles
We are looking for enthusiastic, experienced developers comfortable
using a range of languages and platforms. Our go-to language is Ruby,
with rspec and cucumber, and we use some C++ for computationally
intensive number crunching. We have a small development team, so you
need to learn quickly, and be the kind of person who gets things done.
You have delivered finely crafted, robust software that has been used
by real, paying customers. Relentlessly curious about new ideas and
technologies, you have a solid grounding in the fundamentals of
software development and engineering.
A background in robust scalable web services and APIs is desirable.
We use Hadoop for large-scale analytics, so any experience of data
analysis, statistics, and handling big data is definitely a plus.
Contributions to open-source projects, conference speaking, an active
Github profile or similar community involvement makes it easier for us
to get to know your work and will be looked on very favourably.

* Junior roles
If you’re a talented developer with experience of just some of the
technologies we use, and you are enthusiastic, curious, and hungry to
learn and do more, then we’d love to hear from you. We want to see
passion, insight, and a track record of getting things done. Again,
open-source contributions, a Github profile, or similar community
involvement is a big plus.

* How to get in touch
Please send your resume, a cover letter, and links to your blog,
github, twitter, and any other useful information to
gavin.heavyside at mydrivesolutions.com