Android engineer

We're looking for an Android engineer to help us build Knock for Android. Here's what building a company with us will be like:

You will own the entire development process for Knock for Android.

• You'll be our resident Android expert, and we'll rely on you to make decisions like handset support, OS compatibility, etc
• You'll be solely responsible for bringing the current iOS app's functionality to Android.
• You'll help us build the mobile architecture for what's next for Knock, and keep your Android development cycle in sync with the iOS app.
• You'll build features you presently think are impossible to build on Android.

You will basically live outside your technical comfort zone.

• You'll apply your well-rounded intelligence to solve hard problems in a ton of different areas— not just Android engineering. We believe broad exposure produces better engineers.
• You'll try new things. A lot. Most of them won't work. You'll be okay with that and won't fall victim to the sunk cost fallacy.
• You'll add a ton of meaningful product experience to our small team, having previously shipped a product where you worked on at least one of: embedded systems, hardware engineering, operating systems, distributed systems, digital signal processing, cryptographic protocols.

You will move mountains to create the right user experience.

• You'll come to work every day knowing you are building a 99th percentile user experience other people look up to.
• You'll be proud as hell of this fact.
• You'll never say “that can't be done.” Instead, you'll go try 100 different ways of doing it.
• You'll be proud as hell of this, too.
• You'll sweat the details. Because you understand the details are not just details.

You will shape our company's culture.

• You'll help us begin to refine a hiring process that is both extremely rigorous and extremely fair. Joining Knock will be incredibly difficult. But once you're in, you can rely on your team to be the best of the best and always have your back.
• You'll be comfortable giving and receiving criticism without taking it personally – particularly with the work about which we care most deeply. You won't save this feedback for an annual review. You will offer it immediately and kindly and in the appropriate context.
• You'll define what success means for your projects and measure it constantly. But you will celebrate — not discourage — failure. Especially your own failures.
• You'll consider yourself part artist, part scientist. You understand that life is very rarely black and white— that there are times to be analytical, that there are times to trust your gut, and that most of the time the right answer comes from some combination of both.
• You'll continue loving — and having time to love — things outside your work. Bicycles, woodcarving, tea brewing— whatever you're into, you'll eagerly share your knowledge and passion with anyone who'd like to learn.
• You'll think constantly about what impact your work has on the world around you.
• You'll focus on building a business for the long term. You aren't focused on getting rich, and you actively avoid people who are. Besides, you understand that when you work hard to be the best at your game, the score often takes care of itself.

If all that sounds too good to be true, that's okay. We'll state up front that it's incredibly difficult to balance these tensions in practice. What's important to us is that you share our belief that attempting to create this culture is a noble goal and one worth striving for. We recognize that this isn't the right culture for everyone, but that the right folks will seek us out and be thrilled to help us build it. We can't wait to hear your ideas about how to get there.

To apply:

Send an email to people@knocktounlock.com. Tell us about yourself. Include examples of your Android apps.