Full-Time

Director of Platform & Infrastructure

Updated on 11/15/2024

Academia

Academia

201-500 employees

Digital platform for sharing academic research

Data & Analytics
Consumer Software
Education

Compensation Overview

$216k - $293kAnnually

Expert

San Francisco, CA, USA

Requires in-office presence in San Francisco three times a week.

Category
DevOps & Infrastructure
Platform Engineering
Site Reliability Engineering
Required Skills
Chef
Kubernetes
Microsoft Azure
NoSQL
Ruby on Rails
SQL
Postgres
Docker
AWS
Terraform
Ansible
Development Operations (DevOps)
Linux/Unix
Django
Google Cloud Platform
Requirements
  • Over 10 years of experience in SRE, DevOps, or Software Engineering, with leadership roles involving operating on public clouds like AWS, GCP, and Azure, with a strong preference for AWS experience.
  • Proficient in managing large-scale web infrastructures, skilled in optimizing both legacy and contemporary systems, and well-versed in Linux environments and technologies like Docker and Kubernetes.
  • Expert in dynamic web frameworks such as Ruby on Rails and Django, proficient in managing, troubleshooting, and optimizing a large, mature codebase.
  • Comfortably advocates for a robust, well-maintained monolith architecture and empowers skilled developers with sharp, powerful tools.
  • Experienced in utilizing tools like Terraform, Ansible, or Chef for configuration management and in automating cloud-based deployments.
  • Highly adept at scaling and securing databases using SQL and NoSQL technologies.
Responsibilities
  • Lead an existing team of 6 Platform and Infrastructure engineers, grow the team according to the hiring plan, and own our Infrastructure roadmap and initiatives.
  • Creates plans that turn big ideas from leadership into clear steps for the near and far future.
  • Takes projects from start to finish, keeping them on track and within budget. Able to dive deep into details and operate at a granular level.
  • Looks after system design, development, and operations, ensuring they work well now and can grow to meet future needs.
  • Hire, grow and develop a team of 6 (and growing) Infrastructure and Site Reliability Engineers.
  • Sets clear goals and manages performance, offering regular feedback to help team members grow professionally.
  • Improves team dynamics and productivity by fostering a culture of high achievement and continuous improvement, and keeping work processes efficient.
  • Explains plans clearly, making sure everyone from the team to top management understands what’s going on and why it matters.
  • Improves teamwork, encouraging everyone to talk openly and align their efforts towards common goals.
  • Keeps all stakeholders informed about project progress and important developments.
  • Quickly handles problems, spotting any slip-ups early and sorting them out fast, while keeping everyone affected in the know.
  • Use pgBackRest to improve our PostgreSQL backup processes.
  • Upgrade and resizing Aurora clusters for more efficient utilization.
  • Transition system components to private networks to enhance security.
  • Teach teams how to manage and report on their AWS spending effectively.
  • Strengthen system defenses with AWS Shield and advanced firewall setups.
  • Include static analysis tools like Brakeman in our CI/CD pipeline to routinely check for security vulnerabilities.
  • Refine our software deployment process to make releases more reliable and efficient.
  • Enhance the reliability of the test suite to ensure higher software quality.
  • Provide tools like DBLab to enable developers to use production-like data safely, boosting development speed and accuracy.
  • Streamline development with containerized environments that mimic production settings.

Academia.edu is a digital platform that enables academics to share their research papers and connect with other researchers. Users can upload their work, making it accessible to a global audience, and track its impact through detailed analytics. The platform hosts over 55 million papers and attracts 103 million users monthly, serving academics, researchers, professionals, and students interested in scholarly work. Unlike many competitors, Academia.edu operates on a freemium model, offering basic services for free while generating revenue through premium subscriptions that provide advanced features like enhanced analytics and insights on readership. The goal of Academia.edu is to facilitate the dissemination of academic research and enhance the visibility of scholarly contributions.

Company Stage

N/A

Total Funding

$54.7M

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Founded

2008

Growth & Insights
Headcount

6 month growth

15%

1 year growth

46%

2 year growth

75%
Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Recent $23M Series D funding led by Tencent positions Academia.edu for significant growth and expansion into peer-reviewed journals.
  • The launch of Academia Letters demonstrates the company's commitment to innovation and providing new avenues for academic publishing.
  • Academia.edu's large and active user base offers substantial networking and collaboration opportunities for researchers.

What critics are saying

  • The competitive landscape of academic platforms is intense, with established players like ResearchGate and Google Scholar posing significant threats.
  • Reliance on a freemium model may limit revenue growth if users do not convert to premium subscriptions.

What makes Academia unique

  • Academia.edu's freemium model allows it to cater to both casual users and those needing advanced features, unlike many competitors who offer a one-size-fits-all approach.
  • The platform's robust analytics and impact tracking tools provide researchers with valuable insights into their work's reach and influence, setting it apart from simpler academic repositories.
  • With over 55 million papers and 103 million monthly users, Academia.edu's extensive database and user base offer unparalleled visibility and networking opportunities for researchers.

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