Adventure Travel in (not on) Rails

Beyond being the most exhilarating, adventure and experiential travel is the fastest growing segment of the overall travel industry – it grows by 20% per year!  Despite the current economy, 2008 is the strongest year on record for global tour suppliers for advanced bookings according to recent studies published in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.  These articles highlight that life changing experiences, such as adventure travel, is the last item cut from most people’s discretionary budget.  But still, circa 1995, the online world is littered with useless one-dimensional static informational sites, tour supplier directories, travel agency sites, online guide books, regional tourism sites, and would-be communities that do little to address this hot niche segment of travel – oh, and by niche, we of course mean this $250 billion dollar segment!

Our firm has created an unprecedented online platform where 20,000 tour suppliers from around the world feature their experiences to get more exposure to potential travelers.  Our exclusive partnership with the industry leading CRM provider enables our suppliers to manage bookings, inventory, invoicing, and more – all in a 100% scalable way with little to no [needed] interaction from our team.  Additionally, our world renowned “gurus”, or travel experts, bring their expertise to share with travelers.  Our platform also enables travelers to “share and connect” - before, during, or after their trips around the globe – we like a sense of community.

With our recent mention in Outside Magazine as the future of adventure travel – the buzz is well on its way.  We’re looking for someone who is up to change the way people think about adventure and experiential travel through a unique business model, innovative technologies, industry leading partners, and a team of rock star employees, advisors, and investors.

We are well funded by (quite literally) the bay area’s biggest angels and the world’s most famous and successful entrepreneurs – you will know the names!  We offer great compensation including stock and cool perks – from company iPhones, to required sabbatical time, to regular company sponsored adventure outings, to free adventure vacations anywhere in the world through our supplier’s complementary employee programs.  When you think of perks – think  Google – our employees mean a lot to us…a lot. Oh, and one more thing, our global headquarters is located in the coolest building in San Francisco!

Only those who meet the below criteria need apply – we are particular and it won’t be easy to get selected – but those who do will enjoy the work experience of a lifetime.

Overall

• Well versed in RoR and has a minimum of one year of experience;
• Self-motivated and takes initiative;
• Loves a place where he or she can make an impact;
• Extraordinary communication skills;
• Innovative;
• Looking to make a positive impact wherever he or she goes.
  

As a server-side Ruby on Rails developer, you will do the following:

• Work with product managers, UI designers, QA engineers, and other developers to design, implement, document, and test multi-tiered, web-based applications;
• Troubleshoot and resolve complicated and business-critical technical issues related to function, performance, and security;
• Integrate with third-party web services and data sources;
• Implement automated tests;
• Build tools to automate repetitive tasks.
  

Qualifications:

• BS/CS or equivalent experience;
• Proficiency in MVC architecture and object-oriented design principles;
• Experience engineering high-volume, transaction-oriented, consumer-facing web sites;
• Rails 2, MySQL 5, and Linux or OpenSolaris (preferred);
• Prototype and Scriptaculous;
• One or more of active_merchant, geokit , libxml, memcached, radiant, rmagick, soap4r;
• Bugzilla, Capistrano, and Subversion.