Safety Engineer
Element, United Kingdom

Element is the startup that employs the core team behind matrix.org the leading project for secure, open decentralised communication.

Matrix’s mission is to make messaging as open as email allowing everyone to choose where their data is hosted, enjoy private conversations thanks to advanced encryption, and ultimately be in control of their own communication.

The Matrix protocol is used by millions of people globally, from the French and German governments through to community groups and open-source projects like Mozilla, KDE, GNOME and Wikimedia.

Matrix powers Element, our flagship messaging apps for the web, iOS amp; Android, along with EMS, our SaaS platform for personal amp; professional use.

We build things for everyone, and we know we can’t succeed without a diverse team. Our hiring process is designed to be humane and give candidates the best chance to show us what you can do. If we ever fall down on this, please let us know.

This role will lead the fight against abusive activities on servers hosted by Element, including Matrix.org itself. You’ll be tasked with the ultimate challenge of keeping our 14M (and growing) users safe from negative experiences and helping protect the health of the overall Matrix network.

We’re looking for someone with a strong interest in moderation and community management who can push the boundaries of what’s possible when it comes to building tools that empower users to better visualise and take action against abuse. We have blogged about our plans here.

Almost everything Element does is open source, so please feel free to take a look at some of our repos to get a sense of how we work

Requirements

We are looking for someone who is:

• Smart, curious and enthusiastic
• Likes to ship early and often
• Likes to write tests :)
• A tireless advocate of code quality (understanding the need for trade-offs in the short term whilst keeping us honest in the long term)
• Is articulate and empathetic.
• Is comfortable with the pace, trade offs and ambiguity of an early stage startup (specifically: how to take care of yourself and get your work done without working crazy hours).

Finally, Element is a mission driven company, we believe passionately in the importance of decentralising the internet. We hope you feel the same way :-)

We don’t have hard requirements, we just want to build the best possible team, but as a bonus it would be great if some of the following are true.

• Experience with Python and/or Javascript
• Bonus Points for prior experience working in the Anti-Abuse, spam or fraud detection, trust amp; safety domain

• Experience maintaining and/or contributing to open source projects
• Experience working in a continuous delivery environment

If you have any questions before making an application reach out to Neil (@neilj:matrix.org) via https://app.element.io

Benefits

Our general approach is to treat people like adults and acknowledge that by being flexible we create an environment for people to do their best work. For more details here is our manifesto. That said specific points that differentiate us include:

• Work (almost) full time on FOSS projects with high visibility and a large enthusiastic community
• Since our technology is relevant to anything that requires real-time comms, the role provides exposure to a wide range of domains from web and app dev through to VR, VoIP and IoT.
• Family friendly environment, many of the team have small children and we look to accommodate that as best we can.
• People tend to stay with the company for a long time, we take this as a sign that we have a cohesive, supportive culture, that we have engaging challenging work and that people can develop their skills and careers here for the long term.

Element does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, colour, religion, age, national origin, marital status, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other reason prohibited by law in provision of employment opportunities and benefits.

Job Rewards and Benefits