Data Scientist

Purpose & Background of Role
We're seeking a top notch data scientist with strong programming skills to join the data team at Last.fm. This is a full-time position, based in London.

Are you an experienced scientist as well as a hands-on implementer who is able to work around constraints in disk speed, memory size and CPU cycles? Do you want to help design, implement and evaluate playlisting and recommendation algorithms that reach millions of music lovers each month? Do you take pride in being clever and solving difficult problems creatively? Are you full of ideas and always looking for new ways of making use out of data? Are you an advocate for data-driven development and fully capable of conducting a proper A/B test?

The data team works with large volumes of audio (millions of tracks), user data (tens of billions of scrobbles), and metadata (7,593 different spellings of Britney Spears). We run data processing and analysis jobs on our own Hadoop Cluster, and write and maintain scalable realtime services including several recommendation and playlisting engines. We encourage publication of research results and contribution to open source projects.

We're looking for a talented and enthusiastic scientist to help us explore and learn from our rich datasets, build services and infrastructure, conduct data-driven evaluations and experiments, improve our recommendation and playlisting services, and help drive innovation in our website, API, client and mobile applications.

Desirable skills:
•Fluent in C++ and either Python or Java (or both)
•Passion for machine learning and data mining
•Proficient with databases, both relational and non-relational
•Experience with Hadoop and analysing terabyte-scale datasets
•Familiar with data-driven development and split testing
•Basic understanding of common web technologies
• Comfortable with the Unix CLI and shell scripting
•MS or PhD in computer science or equivalent
• Track record in music information retrieval or recommender systems research is a plus

Purpose of Role
Last.fm is looking for a QA Test Engineer professional to join our agile team of web engineers. As part of this team you will help to assure us that the software we develop is of a high standard, remains stable and bug free, and provides our users with a quality experience.

The ideal candidate will be an experienced Last.fm user with a QA or Testing background, excellent problem solving and communication skills, the ability to define processes and implement them, and a passion for user experience and music.

Responsibilities

• Support the web team as part of our scrum group by reviewing product requirements and providing feedback to product managers
  
• Help us realise the goal of a bug-free experience
  
• Be responsible for the regression testing and QA strategy
  
• Work with Product Managers and the Development Lead on release schedules and project management
  
• Ensure the application of proven QA techniques
  
• Develop, maintain and execute functional and acceptance tests
  
• Develop efficient and comprehensive test plans and test strategies
  
• Apply and encourage acceptance testing of the team’s output
  
• Support your team with advice and input on testability
  
• Manage QA activities during the deployment of software changes
  
• Play a significant part in the reviewing, agreement and execution of production deployment plans with the aim of minimal disruption
  
• Ensure that the regression test pack is maintained
  
• Keep an eye on the testing work-load, in order to increase or reduce release scope so that we ensure projects remain on track
  
• Assess product usability and reliability and provide recommendations to developers and product managers
  

Essential

• A desire to make Last.fm better and to ship bug-free features
  
• A cunning mind, ready to try things nobody else has thought of
  
• A sense of adventure, and a creative approach
  
• A knack for spotting things that are subtly (and not-so-subtly) wrong
  
• A systematic approach to identifying and reproducing problems, and giving feedback on them
  
• An understanding of the importance of user experience
  
• An understanding of browser compatibility issues
  
• Proficiency in test case generation and execution
  
• Experience with HTML, CSS and Javascript
  

Desirable

• Experience working in a Scrum / Agile team, including Agile Estimation and Planning techniques
  
• Experience with a ticket tracking systems such as JIRA
  
• Automated testing
  
• Experience working on high-volume websites
  
• Knowledge of various QA and Testing techniques, such as Test Driven Development
  
• Working knowledge of Linux
  
• Working knowledge of source control systems (such as Subversion)
  
• Experience with web development debugging tools such as Chrome Developer Tools, Firebug, Charles Proxy, VPNs
  
• Experience with Windows, Mac OSX, Linux and other devices such as those running Android or iOS
  

Purpose of Role
Last.fm is looking for a hands-on technical team lead to lead the team which develops the back-end powering the biggest music site on the planet including music streaming, music catalogue, scrobbling, charts, recommendations, playlisting, search, reporting and analytics.

You are a technology leader with experience managing agile development teams (preferably using Scrum). You have experience architecting large-scale systems and love writing code. You really understand scalability and performance. You're comfortable working with technical, product & commercial teams, from very senior to very junior people and everyone in between.

We have an open mind about specific technology experience but you should have a background in Java development. It also wouldn't hurt if you have some experience with any of the following:

• Java, Spring etc.
  
• C++
  
• Python
  
• Service-oriented and event-driven architecture
  
• Hadoop and related technologies
  
• PostgreSQL
  
• Linux
  
• Recommender systems and machine learning
  
• Object Relational Mapping tools (specifically Hibernate)
  
• XML
  
• Unit testing (we take Quality seriously - see here for more: http://blog.last.fm/2008/08/01/quality-control).
  
• API design
  
• Last.fm (being a user of the site doesn't hurt ;) ).
  
• Foosball or retro arcade games.
  

Last.fm is looking for a Front End Developer to join our small team of enthusiastic, music loving experts. You will help millions of users find music they don’t yet know they’ll enjoy every day. You will help to invent and then create new music discovery features that build on Last.fm's unique understanding of the listening habits of a worldwide community.

You will be part of a team that likes to deliver well thought-through and measured features each sprint. We think that everyone should be hands-on and there are opportunities to tinker and build across the whole stack, from back-end to front-end, as well as to solve interesting interaction problems. We collaborate closely with everyone in the company - product, design and support, through to the infrastructure and commercial teams. We also collaborate closely with each other - we like to design things, review each other’s work and share techniques as a team.

You will:
* prototype then build features, working together with the design and product teams.
* build responsive, accessible features that work across multiple platforms.
* work on a user-facing product used by millions of people
* hack on things and not be afraid to innovate to get the job done.
* improve existing journeys on the site, with a user focus.
* maintain and update style guides as new interface problems are solved or designs changed
* have many opportunities to be inventive, and have your ideas expanded into full features.
* hone your skills by drawing on the strengths of your colleagues.
* learn about and solve the unique problems that come with a website that operates at such a large scale, such as performance, A/B testing, service architecture and lazy-loading.
* gather hard evidence to support your ideas

You are:
* a professional with 5+ years experience
* willing to tackle the hard problems first
* proud to work to a high standard
* able to put yourself in the shoes of many different users
* not afraid to change your mind when the evidence leads to unexpected conclusions

You have:
* the skills for the job - HTML, CSS, Javascript and some imagination.
* experience with a server side language (we use PHP, amongst other things).
* enough Linux experience to get by.
* experience with version control (Subversion / Git)
* a passion for music

As a bonus, perhaps you also:
* feel comfortable with Test Driven Development
* have a keen eye for graphical and/or interaction design
* know how to conduct user testing sessions
* know how to set up effective experiments in Google Analytics
* have worked with mobile apps or other non-web interfaces
* are good at Juggling, or perhaps Trapeze

When will we hear from you? How about right now?

Purpose of Role
Last.fm is seeking a hands-on Head of Technical Operations. Reporting to the CTO, you will help to define and then be responsible for implementing Last.fm's datacentre & infrastructure strategy, assessing options including datacentre moves/consolidation and/or moving to the cloud.

Responsibilities

• Management and hands-on technical leadership of a small technical operations team including systems, networks & database admins
  
• Sytems and technical architecture
  
• Systems administration, incident management
  
• Operational planning and capacity management for Last.fm infrastructure
  
• Working with internal development teams on initial systems design for new services
  
• Management of 3rd Party relationships with data centre and telecoms providers
  
• Specification and provisioning of new servers and network hardware
  
• Technical management of production network, including upstream BGP relationships
  
• Project management for major implementations and upgrades
  

Technical skill areas

• Architecting systems for high availability & scalability
  
• Strong networking, with knowledge of Cisco IOS, routing and switching
  
• Strong knowledge of Linux, specifically Debian
  
• Virtualisation
  
• Configuration management (cfengine3)
  
• Monitoring and alerting (nagios3, ganglia, cacti)
  
• Understanding of web stack components (apache, nginx, varnish, php, memcache)
  
• Load balancing (DNS based, layer 3 and layer7)
  

Job Purpose
As Account Manager you will be responsible for maximising revenue from a territory of major UK agencies and generating new business. You will work across our market leadingUK Consumer brands: GameSpot UK, CNET.co.uk, Last FM and TV.com, dependant on your previous experience and skills. This particular role is in need of someone that has previous experience across Tech sites/channels.

This individual will need to highly motivated, command the respect of both clients and colleagues and demonstrate strong interpersonal and sales skills. They should be a strong team player and a professional with an interest and experience in the online/digital sales marketplace and a strong understanding of content and brand selling.

Reporting line
Sales Director / Account Director

Working relationships
Commercial Operations Team
Ad Operations team
Product Marketing Manager
Publishers, Product and Edit Teams

Main Tasks & Responsibilities

• Responsible for account managing, increasing and maximising revenues from named key accounts
  
• Developing new business accounts
  
• Being accountable for and managing quarterly account planning, strategy and pipeline
  
• Directly involved in commercial decisions that impact the strategic direction of the sites
  
• Identify market trends to grow incremental revenue and commercial opportunities
  
• Liaising with other CBS Interactive business units to maximise overall company sales
  
• Working with Campaign Managers to deliver campaign optimisation, excellent customer service and client retention
  
• Must be able to sell on both vertical segments as well as a wider demographic portfolio lead sell
  

Experience & Skills

• Proven sales experience
  
• Online advertising sales experience
  
• Account management experience
  
• New business development experience
  
• Face to face agency experience
  
• Strong administrative and reporting skills
  
• Successful experience within online media
  
• Goal driven and resourceful
  
• Demonstrates leadership skills
  
• A polished, professional outlook
  

Competencies for Success

• Presentation skills
  
• Composure
  
• Listening
  
• Negotiating
  
• Drive for results
  
• Time management
  
• Customer focus
  
• Learning on the fly
  
• Peer relationships
  
• Action oriented
  

To apply for this position, please email your CV with a covering letter stating your salary expectations to ukhr.recruitment@cbsinteractive.com. Please state clearly in the subject line which post you are applying for.

Last.fm is looking for an intern to join our Customer Support team. This position is a Part-Time (three days a week) paid internship for three months, based in our London office.

What you’ll be doing:

• Responding to enquiries received from members of the community, through support tickets and in the support forums.
• Capturing and forwarding new support issues to appropriate parties within the company.
• Documenting resolved cases in a manner useful for future reference, both internally and externally (e.g. FAQ).
• Investigating and troubleshooting technical problems and escalating these to the technical team if necessary.
• Supporting other team members and moderators in moderating user-generated content and community support issues.
• Performing other related tasks as assigned, such as assisting with quality assessment of upcoming site features and software releases.

Requirements:

• Experienced user of Last.fm with a very good knowledge of our products.
• Excellent writing and communication skills.
• A positive customer service attitude.
• Willingness to investigate technical issues and follow through.
• Ability to use own initiative and work with minimal supervision.
• Good computer software use and basic problem-solving knowledge of software needed to use Last.fm, incl. the Last.fm desktop client and supported web browsers is desired.
• Knowledge of at least two of the three major computing platforms supported (Windows, Macintosh, UNIX) is advantageous.
• Previous customer services or IT support experience is advantageous.
• Experience with helpdesk and support ticket systems such as OTRS and JIRA is another plus.
• Loving music is a must :)
• Knowledge of at least one other of the following languages would be advantageous: Portuguese, Russian.

If none of these roles take your fancy, take a look at our other London based roles within the rest of CBSi. http://www.cbsinteractive.co.uk/jobs/