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Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2018)

587 points whoishiring | 16 comments | 01 May 18 15:02 UTC | HN request time: 2.424s | source | bottom

Please state the job location and include the keywords REMOTE, INTERNS and/or VISA when the corresponding sort of candidate is welcome. When remote work is not an option, include ONSITE.

Please only post if you personally are part of the hiring company—no recruiting firms or job boards. Only one post per month, please. If it isn't a household name, explain what your company does.

Commenters: please don't reply to job posts to complain about something. It's off topic here.

Readers: please only email submitters if you personally are interested in the job—no recruiters or sales calls.

You can also use kristopolous' console script to search the thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10313519.

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DMEA ◴[01 May 18 15:31 UTC] No.16967873[source]▶
Defense MicroElectronics Activity (DMEA) | Electronics Engineer, Embedded Hardware Engineer, Embedded Software Engineer | Full-time | Sacramento, CA | Onsite | $70 - $120k

Who: A Department of Defense (DoD) field activity that has been operating since 1997. Small and engineer-centric: ~200 employees of which ~180 are engineer/scientist.

What: Provide solutions to other US Government agencies and allies. Some tasks are engineering brand-new products and some tasks are re-engineering devices to keep legacy systems running. We do not compete with private industry but regularly work side-by-side with industry to get stuff done. We also have the only semiconductor foundry (90nm) still operational within the federal government.

Why: US Government agencies sometimes want products built that are so technologically risky or low-volume that private industry does not want to do them. Wes step in to fill the gap.

Where: Sacramento, CA -- California's fourth largest metro area. Home to two major state universities (CSU-Sacramento and UC-Davis). The farm-to-fork (and regular) capital of California.

Benefits: We are federal employees and receive federal benefits (google "opm benefits" for more info). Time off starts at 36 days/year (13 vacation + 13 sick + 10 federal holidays) and grows to 49 days/year over time (26 + 13 + 10). We have flexible schedules and most of us work a "9-to-5.” Hiring is for GS-11/12/13 engineers (google “gs pay scale 2018” and look at the Sacramento locality).

==Interview==

Must be a US citizen. Must be able to achieve and maintain a security clearance.

2 x Phone call [1 hr] >> Onsite w/team [full day]

==Apply==

Apply on USAJobs: https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/496037600

hn@dmea.osd.mil with questions (please do not contact if you are a recruiter)

replies(1): >>16973352 #
1. throwaway55356 ◴[02 May 18 02:17 UTC] No.16973557[source]▶
The OPM hack is something that already happened, in the past, to files that were current at that time. It is not known to be ongoing.
replies(1): >>16973643 #
2. walrus01 ◴[02 May 18 02:41 UTC] No.16973643[source]▶
And it left me with such great confidence in the OPM's security!
replies(1): >>16975573 #
3. weber111 ◴[02 May 18 03:06 UTC] No.16973742[source]▶
Translation: accept lower pay because you're doing interesting work in the national interest with good job security and benefits; go through a background check because that's part of getting a job like this
replies(1): >>16973836 #
4. walrus01 ◴[02 May 18 03:32 UTC] No.16973836[source]▶
For all you know they'll task you with writing assembler for a 1980s vintage cpu controlling m113 Bradley internal combustion engines.
replies(3): >>16973921 #>>16973937 #>>16974902 #
5. DMEA ◴[02 May 18 03:42 UTC] No.16973874[source]▶
The background check process is involved (taking ~3-24 months), and since clearance is condition of employment, employees are sometimes let go if they fail to obtain a clearance. For anyone interested, clearedjobs[1] has a good faq about how clearances are obtained and adjudicated. Before applying, it's worth asking yourself if you want to go through the process and possibly risk having to leave the job if you fail to obtain a clearance.

As far as compensation goes, government pay will always be a little lower. Our new grad pay is notoriously low (GS 5-9), but we'll pay for your background check and a Masters/PHD if you're interested. For engineers with ~5-10 years experience GS-13 pay ($95k-$120k) is pretty competitive when you consider the cost of living in Sacramento (A nice 4bed/2bath house, in a great neighborhood is ~$400k). Additionally, we have management and technical promotions tracks within the organization of which both go up to GS-15 (non-management GS-15 jobs are pretty rare within the federal government).

[1] https://clearedjobs.net/security-clearance-faqs

6. DMEA ◴[02 May 18 03:54 UTC] No.16973921{3}[source]▶
We do a lot of work on ARM Cortex processors and TI MSP430s. On a recent project the main processor was an Atmel ATSAMA5D3x running embedded linux. Most of the embedded work is C but some engineers use C++. There's a lot of peripheral support software we write as well, which is usually in C# or python. It's easily been 15+ years since we've done any projects in assembly.
7. shub ◴[02 May 18 03:57 UTC] No.16973937{3}[source]▶
That sounds interesting as hell. Also, when else do you get to test your code by driving an armored vehicle.
8. burfog ◴[02 May 18 07:39 UTC] No.16974902{3}[source]▶
Programming jobs don't get much better than that. I guess you could program the Voyager probe for NASA, which is even older. Programming missiles would be fun too; I've heard that memory leaks are accepted because it will be set free upon impact. Medical implants and spy equipment are probably fun too, with 8-bit CPUs being likely.

This kind of stuff sure beats web and phone app programming to sell ads, cause addiction, and scoop up people's lifestyles.

replies(1): >>16975988 #
9. lmeyerov ◴[02 May 18 10:22 UTC] No.16975573{3}[source]▶
The OPM hack was a succession of hacks over a few years with long detection & dwell times. Hard to turn that kind of ship..

Anyways, pretty fascinating.. as long as you and your colleagues aren't in the database. We work on tools to bring visibility & reliability to these kinds of incidents, it's pretty wild in practice!

10. lesss365 ◴[02 May 18 11:45 UTC] No.16975988{4}[source]▶
Psychological manipulation vs instruments for killing

No win either way.

replies(1): >>16976518 #
11. PostOnce ◴[02 May 18 13:04 UTC] No.16976471[source]▶
There's more to life than money (like getting to work on cool stuff), plus you know the government isn't going to shut down in 9 months like every startup, or get acquired, or "restructure" your job to puff up the numbers this quarter.
12. PostOnce ◴[02 May 18 13:13 UTC] No.16976518{5}[source]▶
If you want peace, you have to be prepared for war. We're currently the better part of a century into The Long Peace, something that has never happened before in human history, and it came about in part because of weapons development.

The same tools that provide the means for evil also provide the means for subjugating evil.

That said obviously we get into a lot of unnecessary war where a lot of people die who didn't need to. Still, you'd be a fool to sit on your hands while Russia and China race ahead in weapons development, with lower regard for human rights than the rest of us. You don't want them knocking on the door.

replies(1): >>16977233 #
13. Jedi72 ◴[02 May 18 14:35 UTC] No.16977233{6}[source]▶
https://youtu.be/UC9pc4U40sI
replies(1): >>16978233 #
14. PostOnce ◴[02 May 18 15:58 UTC] No.16978233{7}[source]▶
"without you all this killing cant go on": It's impossible to disarm, because it's impossible to prove the other guy (russia, china) is being honest about disarming.

The long peace has lasted 50 more years since that song was written.

Do you have a particular point to make regarding the song?

replies(1): >>17002031 #
15. plasticchris ◴[05 May 18 14:51 UTC] No.17002031{8}[source]▶
Long peace? The US is in the longest war in our history.

Edit: second longest, but still > 16 years. We'll break the record soon enough.

replies(1): >>17005355 #
16. PostOnce ◴[06 May 18 05:30 UTC] No.17005355{9}[source]▶
The Long Peace means there have been no wars between major powers since 1945, we fear nuclear weapons. All wars now engaged in by great powers are asymmetric.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Peace

also see http://www.fallen.io/ and https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-59-the-destroyer-...