Live the dream job for travelers!"I don't go to work, I go to my home. I don't just have colleagues, I have a family. I don't do work, I do what I love."
Jackie Buerger
CS Staff Member
|
We're actively seeking highly qualified and extremely motivated candidates for several part-time and full-time roles to help maintain our fast-growing community and to innovate exciting new services for CS members. If you don't see a role that interests you below, check back here soon. New job opportunities become available frequently.
CouchSurfing is a non-profit, and we can't offer you the same financial compensation that you might receive in the private sector. However, we can offer you benefits that you just can't find with most jobs:
- Freedom & Flexibility:
Work from home, travel anywhere, ditch your commute, join the "virtual work-force."
- Rewarding & Meaningful Work:
Serve the community you love while aiding CouchSurfing's non-profit Vision of a world where everyone can explore and create meaningful connections with the people and places they encounter.
- Talent-Focused Culture:
CouchSurfing's success in its Mission to create inspiring experiences depends entirely on its talented paid staff and volunteer team members. That's why our working culture focuses on putting people first. Our culture is anchored by our Guiding Principles, which include respecting individual freedom and providing opportunities for personal and professional growth.
- A Fun-loving Family:
Join our family of smart, creative travel lovers who work hard every day to create a better world. The principles that guide our working culture include fostering interpersonal connections amongst our professional staff and keeping the fun in everything we do.
- Face-to-Face Collaboration
Though we all contribute virtually, many staff members choose to live near each other and work in the same space, and new employees may choose to do the same. CS values face-to-face interaction and believe that it can lead to greater efficiency. For that reason, CS offers an efficiency compensation. This is a monetary reward for a demonstrated increase in efficiency due to working face-to-face with other co-workers. Additionally, all paid staff members are invited to attend regular business purpose conferences that bring everyone together for face-to-face job training and strategic business discussions.
| ‡ | Unfortunately, some restrictions apply to "work from anywhere." While many countries allow foreign visitors to enter on a tourist visas while working and receiving income from a US company, some may not. CS employees should always check with an attorney before working for CS from a new location. CS does not provide advice on foreign visas or work-permits, and CS employees and contractors are solely responsible for obeying the laws of their chosen location and country of citizenship. Non-US citizens (non-resident aliens) may not work in the US without a valid work-permit. |
How to Apply: Please find the role that matches your passion and carefully note the professional experience, skill set, and application requirements before clicking to apply. In addition to the requirements specific to each role, all applicants will be interviewed for excellence in the following skills:
- Fluency in the English language - your application and resume/CV must be written in English
- Written & verbal communication skills
- Ability to juggle many tasks & prioritize within a fast -paced team
- Self-motivation and strong work-ethic
- Friendly, cooperative, & professional attitude
Please also note the number of paid hours CS can provide for the role. Some are full-time roles and others are part-time. Incoming staff members may be classified as employees or as independent contractors based upon several factors.
You do not need to be a current CouchSurfing member in order to apply. CouchSurfing is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate based on national origin, race, gender, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or religion.
We strongly recommend that you join the CouchSurfing Staffing Information group and subscribe to instant updates. Subscribers will receive updates about staffing priorities and newly available positions.
What happened to CS Collectives? Previously, CouchSurfing relied heavily on volunteer staff members who lived and contributed from CS maintained home-offices called "Collectives". Since 2006, volunteers at Collectives have met CouchSurfing human resources needs while maximizing donor resources. Thanks to the support of thousands of donors and volunteers, we have grown into a successful non-profit able to pay wages for many of our key roles. CS no longer maintains physical office or living spaces, and operates entirely virtually with staff members who contribute from all around the globe.
Active Roles: Now Accepting Applications
Systems/Business AnalystPurpose- To create documents and systems that translate raw ideas for projects into actionable tasks for team members.
Responsibilities- Gathering and documenting user requirements
- Translating user requirements into functional requirements and system design specifications
- Liaising with the software development team
- Confirming that the final product meets user requirements
- Maintaining all the adherence of projects and document to the development lifecycle
- Fluency with project management and system development methodologies and best practices
- Fluency in project lifecycle support, including:
- interviewing stakeholders in order to gather requirements
- documenting user requirements
- translating user requirements into functional requirements and system design specifications
- writing use cases and test cases
- Understands and utilizes system modeling tools such as use cases, UML, agile, etc.
- Ability to recognize where and why projects are held up and recommend solutions
- Ability to work effectively both independently and within teams of stakeholders from every department
Minimum Required Experience & Education- B.A. or B.S. in Business Info Systems or Computer Science or other relevant degree
- 1 year professional experience as Systems Analyst or Business Analyst
Supplemental Skills & Experience- Programming language knowledge (PHP and MySQL)
- Project management skills & experience
Hours We Can ProvideContract & Compensation Details- Yearly: $30,000 - $40,000
Sysadmin / System Administrator Purpose · To ensure maximum uptime and reliable performance of CS servers · To ensure future scalability through system design and development Responsibilities · Supporting in the design of back-end systems that are scalable to the future needs of our users · Responding to emergency downtime · Setting-up, configuring, managing, and maintaining servers (web, database, SMTP, load balancers, backup) · Automating repetitive sysadmin and developer tasks · Recommending and establishing policies for systems and services · Maintaining up to date backups (database and others) · Keeping server systems secure · Troubleshooting and fixing sysadmin related bugs · Creating thorough systems documentation · Working with developers on programming projects that require back-end support. Minimum Required Skills - Expert knowledge of Unix/Linux, MySQL, Apache, and OO PHP
- Good experience administering 10+ servers
- Web programming ability
Supplemental Skills & Experience
- Experience with MVC frameworks
Minimum Required Experience & Education · 3+ years professional experience as a sysadmin Hours We Can Provide · 40 hours per week Contract & Compensation Details · $30,000 to $40,000
Market & Survey ResearcherPurpose- To assist CouchSurfing's ability to understand CS website user needs by conducting qualitative research through interviews and focus groups then using this research to design scientifically valid quantitative surveys. To communicate research findings and present recommendations based on those findings in a way that is clear and accessible to non-experts. (Please see the companion role, Quantitative Research Analyst).
Responsibilities- Designing qualitative and open-ended questions to address research goals
- Conducting individual and group interviews
- Performing qualitative analysis of open-ended responses
- Creating online unambiguous and unbiased quantitative surveys based on this analysis
- Liaising with the Quantitative Research Analyst
Minimum Required Skills- Ability to lead groups of volunteer research subjects
- Ability to conduct qualitative research interviews
- Ability to design unambiguous and unbiased quantitative surveys
- Ability to explain things in ways that can be easily understood by non-experts
- Proficiency with online survey tools (e.g. SurveyMonkey, SurveyGizmo)
Minimum Required Experience & Education- Bachelors or higher degree in cognitive science, behavioral science, social psychology anthropology, marketing research, or related fields of study
- Expert knowledge of qualitative research principles and methodologies
- 2+ years professional experience in initiating and leading research projects
- 1+ year professional experience conducting focus groups and/or research interviews
- 1+ year professional experience designing surveys
Supplemental Skills & Experience- Ability to write MySQL database queries
- Proficiency in the use of statistics
- Professional experience in marketing
Hours We Can Provide- 5-10 hours per week with potential for more
Contract & Compensation Details- Yearly: $30,000 to $40,000
- Hourly: $28
Quantitative Research AnalystPurpose- To assist CouchSurfing's ability to understand CS website user needs by analyzing quantitative data from surveys and database queries. To communicate research findings and present recommendations based on those findings in a way that is clear and accessible to non-experts. (Please see the companion role, Market & Survey Reseacher).
Responsibilities- Writing database queries
- Compiling database of research data
- Performing statistical analysis of quantitative research data
- Creating findings and recommendations reports
- Liaising with the Market & Survey Analyst
Minimum Required Skills- Expert knowledge of basic research principles and methodologies
- Fluency with statistics and data analysis techniques
- Ability to explain things in ways that can be easily understood by non-experts
- Ability to stay unbiased
- Fluency with graphing, charting, document, and spreadsheet software
- Proficiency with online survey tools (e.g. SurveyMonkey, SurveyGizmo)
- Experience writing MySQL database queries
Minimum Required Experience & Education- 2+ years professional experience in initiating and leading quantitative research projects
- 2+ years professional experience in data analysis
- Bachelors or higher degree in cognitive science, behavioral science, computer science, statistics or related fields of study
Hours We Can Provide- 5-10 hours per week with potential for more
Contract & Compensation Details
Coming Soon...
HTML/CSS DeveloperPurpose- Assist CouchSurfing's software development and user interface teams in creating new website functionality by convert visual mockups and designs into web markup code.
Responsibilities- Slicing and coding web page visual mockups
- Wrapping HTML and CSS around raw database output
- Light JavaScript for buttons, menus, and effects
Minimum Required Skills- Fluent in standards compliant HTML 4, CSS, and JavaScript programming
- Fluent in cross-browser and cross-platform issue resolution (IE, Firefox, Safari, etc.)
- Fluent in IE6 issue resolutions and workarounds
- Ability to slice and code Photoshop and design files
- Ability to code pure CSS layouts
- Basic Photoshop skills
Minimum Required Experience & Education- 1 year of freelance HTML/CSS coding
Supplemental Skills & Experience- Advanced JavaScript programming
Hours We Can Provide- 10 to 20 hours per week with full-time potential
Contract & Compensation Details- Yearly: $25,000 to $30,000
- Hourly: $19 (higher for JavaScript experts)
Special Notes- Please note that an online portfolio is required in order to apply to this role. Applications that do not include an online portfolio will not be considered. Your portfolio must contain links to live webpages or full HTML source-code.
- If you have the relevant skills, please feel free to also for the Junior Graphic Designer role.
Junior Graphic DesignerPurpose- To create visual elements and designs in the CS website visual style.
Responsibilities- Digital imaging and illustration with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Fireworks
- Create graphics, icons, and layouts
- Photo selection and light photo editing
Minimum Required Skills- Photoshop
- Fireworks
- Illustrator
- Superior knowledge of current web-design trends and techniques
- A strong online portfolio displaying user-centered design
Minimum Required Experience & Education- 2 year of freelance web/graphic design
Supplemental Skills & Experience- Formal education is a plus.
Hours We Can Provide- 10 with potential for more in a few months
Contract & Compensation Details
Special Notes- Please note that an online portfolio is required in order to apply to this role. Applications that do not include an online portfolio will not be considered. Your portfolio must contain your original artwork.
- If you have the relevant skills, please feel free to also for the HTML/CSS Developer role.
Interaction Designer / User InterfacePurpose- To translate well defined functional requirements into user interfaces that define the interaction of CS members with the CS website. To create navigation, prototypes, storyboards, and other design mockups to pass to the software development team.
Responsibilities- Creating user interaction models, screen flows, & navigation based on functional requirements and user experience research
- Creating flow-charts, prototypes, storyboards, and and other interaction design documents
- Designing wireframes, page layouts, forms, and other interactive elements
- Liaising with user experience researchers to iterate designs based on their findings
Minimum Required Skills- Ability to understand user requirements, functional specifications, and other technical project documents
- Ability to design interaction models, screen flows, & navigations
- Ability to create design documents such as flow-charts, prototypes, and storyboards
- Ability to design wireframes, page layouts, forms, and other interactive elements
- Fluency with cutting edge web interaction techniques, industry standards, and best practices for web-based applications
- Fluency with design software including Photoshop, Visio, and Dreamweaver
Minimum Required Experience & Education- 2 year of professional experience in user interface design or interaction design
Supplemental Skills & Experience- Formal education in user interface design or interaction design
- Experience designing in Flash and Visual Studio
Hours We Can Provide- 10 hours per week with full-time potential
Contract & Compensation Details
PHP DeveloperPurpose- Turns ideas into reality by translating well defined design specifications and wireframes into software architecture, web applications, and online tools.
Responsibilities- Developing new PHP code
- Debugging, optimizing, and updating existing PHP code
- Interpreting design specifications, functional requirements, and wireframes
- Creating code documentation
Minimum Required Skills- Fluency programing in PHP
- Fluency with code & repositories, and versioning tools (SVN, git, or similar)
- Fluency with Apache and setting up a local servers
- Strong knowledge of MySQL
- Experience with XHTML, CSS, & JavaScript frameworks
Minimum Required Experience & Education- 2+ years professional experience developing in PHP
- 1+ years professional experience architecting entire applications
Supplemental Skills & Experience- Experience with High availability environments
- Experience with Caching strategies with Memcached
- Familiarity with Sphinx / Lucene or similar
- Familiarity with application profiling tools such as Xdebug, Xhprof, or similar
Hours We Can ProvideContract & Compensation Details- $30,000 to $40,000 for junior developer
- $35,000 to $40,000 for full developer
WriterPurpose- To assist CouchSurfing's communications team by gathering information, writing, and editing website content.
Responsibilities- Liaising with and interviewing staff members and CS members to gather information for newslettes and website content
- Writing newsletters and website content in several styles including informative, technical, how-to, human interest, and persuasive
- Editing and proof-reading
Minimum Required Skills- Ability to write in multiple styles
- Expert fluency in English language and grammar
Minimum Required Experience & Education- 1+ years professional experience as writer
- Published written work in multiple styles
Supplemental Skills & Experience- Experience writing website or marketing copy
- Experience working as a freelance writer
Hours We Can ProvideContract & Compensation Details
Legal/Finance Assistant
|
