About Thunderbird
Thunderbird is a email client depended on daily by 25 million people on three platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux (and other *nix). It was developed under the Mozilla Corporation until 2014 when development was handed over to the community. The Thunderbird Council, who lead the community effort, has begun hiring contractors in support of this venture and to guarantee that all vital service are provided in a reliable fashion.
You will join the team that is leading Thunderbird into a bright future. As a software engineer you will be maintaining and improving the existing Gecko-based Thunderbird but also pave the way for its transition to being based on web technologies.
The Thunderbird team works openly using public bug trackers and repositories, providing you with a premier chance to show your work to the world.
About the Position
The Mozilla Thunderbird project is looking to hire software engineers to help maintain Thunderbird. You’ll be expected to work with community volunteers, the Thunderbird Council, and other employees to maintain and improve the Thunderbird product.
This is a full-time, remote 6-month contract position (with the possibility of continuing). You will be expected to have excellent written communication skills and coordinate your work over email, IRC, and Bugzilla.
As a software engineer for Thunderbird you will…
- Fix bugs and regressions and address technical debt.
- In collaboration with Thunderbird’s Engineering Steering Committee, replace/rewrite modules to prepare Thunderbird for the transition to a new platform.
- Maintain and improve Thunderbird to ensure that both nightly builds and releases are always possible.
- Follow improvements made by Mozilla engineers for the Firefox platform process and implement those for Thunderbird.
- Be a self-starter. In a large code-base like Mozilla’s it’s inevitable that you conduct your own research, investigation and debugging, although others in the project will of course share their knowledge.
- Work with both volunteers and employees across the world to fix issues.
- Collaborate with QA, Security, Localization, and Release Engineering for coordinated code releases.
Your Previous Experience
Since we are looking to fill one or more positions, we are interested to hear from junior and senior candidates who can offer the following:
- Solid knowledge and experience developing a large software system (7+ million lines of code).
- Solid knowledge of C++ as well as JavaScript, HTML and CSS.
- Ideally exposure to the Mozilla platform as a voluntary contributor or add-on author with knowledge of XPCOM, XUL, etc.
- Some experience using distributed version control systems (preferably Mercurial, Git would be acceptable).
- Some prior exposure to Python and build systems (preferably make) would be beneficial.
- Experience developing software cross-platform applications is a plus.
- B.S. in Computer Science would be lovely, but real-world experience is preferred.
Professional Level
None specified
Minimum Education Required
No requirement
How To Apply
If this position sounds like a good fit for you, please send us your resume with a cover letter to [email protected]. A cover letter is essential to your application, as it shows us how you envision Thunderbird's technical future. Tell us about why you're passionate about Thunderbird and this position. Also include samples of your work as a programmer, either directly or a link. If you contribute to any open source software, or maintain a blog we'd love to hear about it. By applying to this job, you are agreeing to have your applications reviewed by non-staff members and/or volunteers who are a part of the hiring committee.