Do one billion page views per month make you excited?
Do you want to work for one of the largest and most popular web sites in the world?
If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, then ESPN.com is the place for you. ESPN.com offers a wide array of opportunities for technically-oriented individuals interested in building the Internet's leading sports destination.
Members of the ESPN.com technology team conceive, develop, and deploy industry leading web products and applications. Technology drives many of the most successful, popular, and highest-profile features on ESPN.com, including ESPN360, Fan Profiles, Fantasy Football League Manager, SportsNation, RealTime Scores, GameCast, and countless others.
We’re looking for software engineers and web developers at all skill levels who want to help us create the greatest Internet sports destination in the world. This is your chance to play a leading role in the creation of industry leading web applications that are used by millions of sports fans across the globe. There are opportunities within several development groups, including Live Events, Advanced Development, Architecture, Data, Automation, Site Development, Premium Products, Fantasy, Site Support, and International.
ESPN's Bristol campus features 27 satellite dishes that receive more than 40,000 broadcast feeds per year, recording approximately 200 hours of highlights and program content each day. Our Digital Center, the world's most advanced HD facility, opened in June 2004 and the campus spans across 64 acres and occupies 600,000 square feet of building space.
ESPN production operations function 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Health and Fitness
The 5,000 square foot fitness facility provides employees with the opportunity to utilize a vast selection of both cardiovascular and resistance training equipment, all at no cost.
The ESPN Health and Fitness Center has one of the largest selections of free weights known to the corporate fitness world.
In addition, a full outdoor basketball court is located in the center of campus for recreational or competitive use.
Studio Production
SportsCenter is ESPN's flagship studio show and television's only nightly, one-hour sports news program. Offering in-depth reports on breaking news, creative highlights, features and in-depth analysis from award-winning journalists, SportsCenter is television's most comprehensive and longest-running sports news show.
As many as 88 million people a month watch SportsCenter.
ESPN.com
ESPN.com is one of the largest sites on the internet, and the leader in sports content.
The site gets over 1 billion page views per month.
As the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Specialist for ESPN.com, you will be executing the SEO strategy for one of the most recognized brands in the world. Your primary goal will be to increase relevant, organic search traffic to our Web sites through SEO. This is a hands-on position that requires SEO, Analytics, and Web development experience, including the ability to research keywords, optimize pages, implement new best practices for editorial and technology teams, and create custom Web applications for the purpose of increasing traffic to ESPN.com.
Optimize Web pages including copy, meta tags, alt tags, and streamlining code for SEO.
Work with technology and marketing teams to maximize the ESPN.com shelf space on search engines.
Work with development teams to improve site architecture for SEO.
Use 3rd-party software and internal tracking tools to identify high-value search phrases.
Recommend content development strategies.
Produce custom Web applications (XML feeds, etc.) for the purposes of improving ESPN’s presence in search engines.
Create education programs for both development teams and marketing personnel on how their decisions affect SEO.
Consistently analyze changing opportunities and monitor trends in search engine algorithms and important keywords.
Required Qualifications
Expert knowledge of HTML/XHTML and CSS, and strong understanding of benefits and constraints of current Internet technologies.
2+ years of middleware language experience, such as PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, Coldfusion, JSP, etc.
1-2 years of search engine optimization (SEO) for a high volume website.
Previous experience with keyword research, density analysis, reporting and link building tools.
2+ years hands-on Web development experience in a professional environment.
2+ years experience writing technical specs and driving them through development.
Experience writing XML/RSS feeds.
Bachelor’s degree, preferably in Information Technology, Web Development, Computer Science, or Online Marketing, or work experience equivalent to formal qualification.
Strong presentation, communication and interpersonal skills.
Ability to operate effectively in a team-oriented and collaborative environment.
A passion for sports!
Software Engineer
The position is part of ESPN.com's Sports Engineering group in Bristol, Connecticut. Sports Engineering is responsible for innovation, development, and support for all sports covered by ESPN.com. This engineer works closely with other software engineers, site architects, technical producers, and system operations specialists. Sports engineers design, develop, test, and implement new Java web applications, integrate new features and functionality in existing applications, and support and maintain current systems. Languages, technologies, and platforms used include XML, Java, T-SQL, SQL Server, and several home-grown, innovative technologies. Our sports engineers are passionate about sports and technology, push the boundaries of modern technology, and make the user experience their priority.
Below are the three open software engineer positions. Please attach your resume and cover letter (optional) to the email.
Design, develop, test, and implement new java based applications.
Develop new features and functionality for existing applications.
Support the existing infrastructure and applications.
Provide support to production staff by developing functionality needed to create new web applications and features.
Identify areas that require improvement and recommend/implement solutions.
Required Qualifications
Degree in Computer Science or related field, and/or equivalent work experience.
2+ years experience with Java, servlets and web applications.
Knowledge of Microsoft SQL Server, including stored procedures, index strategies, and transactions.
Understanding of multi-tier web architectures, and OO design patterns and concepts.
A strong understanding of the Transact-SQL (T-SQL) language.
Demonstrated ability to work on a diverse scope of software and database projects requiring detailed analysis, creative/practical problem solving, and sound judgment.
Ability to operate effectively in a team-oriented and collaborative environment.
Must demonstrate solid organization/communication skills.
Manage multiple projects within a short development cycle with routine supervision
Design, develop, test, and implement new java based applications.
Develop new features and functionality for existing applications.
Support the existing infrastructure and applications.
Provide support to production staff by developing functionality needed to create new web applications and features.
Identify areas that require improvement and recommend/implement solutions.
Required Qualifications
Degree in Computer Science or related field, and/or equivalent work experience.
4+ years experience with Java, servlets and web applications.
Knowledge of Microsoft SQL Server, including stored procedures, index strategies, and transactions.
Understanding of multi-tier web architectures, and OO design patterns and concepts.
A strong understanding of the Transact-SQL (T-SQL) language.
Demonstrated ability to work on a diverse scope of software and database projects requiring detailed analysis, creative/practical problem solving, and sound judgment.
Ability to operate effectively in a team-oriented and collaborative environment.
Must demonstrate solid organization/communication skills.
Manage multiple projects within a short development cycle with routine supervision
This position participates actively in the solution design process, and will lead the technical requirements and development process.
The primary responsibility of this position is to create systems design and analysis which properly consider software architecture, hardware configuration, existing frameworks and applications, network configuration, integrations, security, extensibility, scalability, reliability, etc, and to lead (as well as participate in the code writing) of the development effort for several concurrent projects, and will ensure on-time and to-specification delivery of these systems.
The candidate must be able to anticipate common problems and propose pre-emptive solutions, and work closely with all members of the Digital Media Technology team to identify and resolve system problems after implementation.
Required Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related technology field.
5-7 years experience in a development role (Java experience preferable) that includes system architecture design, and leading a small group of engineers.
Demonstrated understanding of multi-tier web architectures, and OO design patterns and concepts.
Thorough knowledge of software development process, and demonstrated experience leading process-improvement initiatives.
Demonstrated ability to write product specifications and carry it through to technical delivery and maintenance.
Must have demonstrated an ability to quickly learn a diverse scope of software projects requiring detailed analysis, creative and practical problem solving, and possess sound judgment.
Ability to operate effectively in a team-oriented and collaborative environment, including working with individuals at remote locations, and vendors, partners, other internal groups and clients.
Interests in sports and digital media products required.
Strong communication and presentation skills required.
Technical Producer (Web Developer)
Technical Producers work with design, engineering, and editorial groups to create the products and features you see on ESPN.com. If you spend your late night hours working with technologies such as HTML, CSS, Javascript, AJAX or Flash, then you might want to consider applying for a technical producer position. This is an opportunity to play a key role in the development of some of the most successful and highest profile applications on the web.
Below are the three open technical producer positions. Please attach your resume and cover letter (optional) to the email.
Assists the technical production staff with the development and maintenance of the ESPN.com site.
Participates in the creation of templates using front-end web technologies such as Tea, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.
Provides general technical support and troubleshooting.
Serve as bridge between engineering, design, editorial groups.
Assists in the technical analysis and evaluation of new technologies, products, and product enhancements.
Required Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree, preferable in Computer Science or a related technology field, or work experience equivalent to formal qualification.
Strong understanding of object-oriented programming.
Experience working with a structured programming language (Java, C/C++, ASP, JSP, PHP, etc.)
Ability to write technical specs and drive them through development.
Ability to operate effectively in a team-oriented and collaborative environment.
Strong communication skills.
Good understanding of benefits and constraints of current Internet technologies and familiarity with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, AJAX, Flash, and DHTML is a plus.
Assists the technical production staff with the development and maintenance of the ESPN.com site.
Participates in the creation of templates using front-end web technologies such as Tea, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, etc.
Provides general technical support and troubleshooting.
Serve as bridge between engineering, design, editorial groups.
Assists in the technical analysis and evaluation of new technologies, products, and product enhancements.
Mentors fellow producers in the technical development of features for the website.
Lead the development of assigned projects and tasks.
Required Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree, preferable in Computer Science or a related technology field, or work experience equivalent to formal qualification.
2+ years hands-on web development experience in a professional environment.
Strong understanding of object-oriented programming.
2+ years experience working with a structured programming language (Java, C/C++, ASP, JSP, PHP, etc.)
Good understanding of benefits and constraints of current Internet technologies and familiarity with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, AJAX, Flash, and DHTML is a very strong plus.
2+ years experience writing technical specs and driving them through development.
Ability to operate effectively in a team-oriented and collaborative environment.
Strong communication skills.
A passion for sports!
Systems Engineer
The Systems Engineer works as part of a team responsible for planning and executing the integration of Internet based products and services for ESPN into a complex data center and network environment in an efficient, secure, scalable, reliable and cost effective manner.
Primary responsibilities include evaluation, implementation and support for Internet based solutions developed for these business units. This includes any content delivery systems, hardware configuration, custom software implementation, database administration, network and systems design, performance and process improvement, and systems documentation.
This position is also responsible for planning and executing small-to-medium scale projects within the Technical Operations team. Typical projects would include new business unit initiatives and updates to existing products and services that require planning, incredible attention to detail, and flawless execution.
Systems Administration and Support: executes day to day maintenance tasks including problem determination and resolution, as well as root-cause analysis. Responsible for responding to live site issues and for executing software, platform, and configuration changes.
Documentation and Training: provides and maintains documentation of systems architecture, troubleshooting and support guidelines, system metrics, project information and plans, and training information for both Site Integration and Service Operations Center staff.
Systems Management: ensures the use of performance data and historical metrics to effectively plan for growth needs, plan upgrades, migrations, and optimizations, new implementations, identify and resolve efficiency issues, and improve functionality.
Product Testing: provides support for integration testing, system testing, regression testing and load testing prior to the final release of new and upgraded products and services.
Standards and Best Practices: participates in the development of best practices including capacity planning, monitoring, configuration, security, historical metrics, recovery strategies, and migration strategies. Responsible for validation of and adherence to these defined standards.
Process: participates in the continual refinement of processes and policies to ensure the highest possible performance and availability of our storage systems.
Required Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field or equivalent experience in technical operations or software engineering.
4 or more years experience designing and/or deploying Internet-based products or services.
Detailed knowledge of hardware technologies and systems support - administration, configuration, troubleshooting, performance tuning, security, and general maintenance of Intel platforms.
Detailed knowledge of core Internet and networking protocols (DNS, DHCP, TCP/IP, ARP, HTTP, HTTP/S, SSH, BGP, EGP, and IGP), IP communication, packet structure, load balancing equipment, and troubleshooting.
Experience with enterprise operating systems including Microsoft Windows and Linux.
Experience working in a high capacity mission-critical web serving environment with significant Internet components.
Experience with web application development platforms, tools and utilities including JSP, ASP, PHP, Javascript, Flash, PERL, and VBScript.
Experience with database schema design for OLAP and OLTP and database management systems including Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle.
Experience with F5 load balancing helpful
Experience with CDN solutions helpful
Proven ability to participate with other functional teams in systems integration and design including writing operational specifications, test plans and requirements management with attention to detail.
Superior judgment, problem resolution, team building, negotiation, budgeting, and decision-making skills as well as the ability to work under continual deadline pressure.
Superb written and verbal communications skills; excellent presentation skills.
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