Whisker is the maker of Litter-Robot, Feeder-Robot, and Litterbox.com. At Whisker, we believe pet parenthood can always get better.

As leading innovators in pet tech and refined pet accessories, we work tirelessly to solve problems and deliver smarter insights for pet parents while enriching the lives of pets. Whether it’s a self-cleaning litter box that automates scooping, an automatic feeder that helps pets develop healthier eating habits, or a modern cat tree that delights both humans and felines, we strive to deliver better solutions for consumers while transforming pet care along the way. To us, having a pet is the best thing ever. At Whisker, life together just keeps getting better.

Whisker is based in Auburn Hills, Michigan and Juneau, Wisconsin with 600+ passionate team members.

What You’ll Do:

The PHP Development Manager will be a working leader who will help to build and maintain the software and systems that get our Litter-Robots, Feeder-Robots, and many other pet products into the hands of our customers worldwide! In addition to management responsibilities, this role will be in the weeds, shipping code regularly.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

This list of duties and responsibilities is not all-inclusive and may be expanded to include other duties and responsibilities as deemed necessary.

• Become a subject matter expert in Whisker’s operations management systems (OMS)
• Manage and mentor a small team of PHP developers responsible for the development of Whisker’s OMS.
• Partners with our manufacturing and shipping teams to understand the challenges they face and work together to develop solutions that allow them to work efficiently with no downtime
• Builds technical requirements, flowcharts, diagrams, and estimates around projects and functionality
• Creates and maintains technical documentation around systems and processes to ensure business continuity
• Develops and delivers projects initiated and scoped by leadership and internal teams with clean, maintainable, performant front-end and back-end software
• Sets expectations with the business and deliver on time
• Build and improve back-end fulfillment systems used by our operations facility.
• Participate in the code-review process, provide feedback to other developers, and keep an open mind to feedback given to you.
• Build automated unit and integration tests to support new and updated functionality.
• Create new data structures and underlying database tables for logical and efficient storage of information.
• Integrate with third-party systems to ensure that shipping and return information is available to other business-critical systems.
• Correct production issues that impact revenue or fulfillment teams with a high sense of urgency.
• Will perform additional duties as required.

What You’ll Bring:

• BS in Computer Science or Computer Engineering or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of experience as a Software Developer specializing in PHP, MVC, and platforms like Laravel and Symfony.
• 5+ years of experience building API endpoints and integrating with others using REST APIs.
• 5+ years of experience in developing and maintaining databases supporting applications.
• 5+ years of experience utilizing a project management tool to track the status of bugs and issues found.
• 5+ years of experience refactoring, rebuilding, or re-platforming legacy applications.
• 5+ years of experience using a unit testing framework such as PHPUnit.
• 5+ years of experience using an AMQP event streaming service/queue such RabbitMQ.
• 3+ years of experience leading development teams and mentoring junior developers.
• Servant leadership approach and ability to take feedback and criticism.
• Strong knowledge of caching best practices using services such as Redis or Memcache.
• Knowledge of deploying and hosting applications in a Microsoft Azure or other cloud environment.
• Proficient in front-end development and frameworks, including JavaScript, JQuery, LESS/SASS, and bundlers such as Grunt, Gulp, and Webpack.
• Strong knowledge of desktop and mobile browser capabilities and limitations.
• Strong knowledge of SOLID programming and clean-code principles.
• Experience using PostMan, Insomnia, SOAPUI, or other API testing tools.
• Experience with Agile methodologies.
• Ability to work in cross-functional teams.
• Extreme attention to detail and highly organized.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• The desire to learn constantly and dive into new areas with unfamiliar technologies.
• Maintains confidentiality of proprietary information.
• Ability to maintain a professional atmosphere in a fast-paced environment with numerous interactions and interruptions.
• A high degree of initiative, self-motivation, and ability to motivate others.
• Ability to establish and maintain cooperative working relationships with Team Members and colleagues.
• Comfortable with office pets (cats, dogs).

Not Required but Nice to Have!

• Microsoft Azure or other cloud platform certifications.
• Experience with containerizing legacy applications.
• Experience with component frameworks such as Angular, React, VueJS, and Svelte.
• Experience developing front-end applications that adhere to ADA compliance standards.
• Familiarity with hybrid networking principles (on-prem + cloud), including subnets, firewalls, tunneling, and NAT translation.

Benefits & Purrks:

Join a tenacious, inventive company that empowers team members to chart their own path, lead by grounding decisions in the “why”, and has a strong sense of empathy and openness to new perspectives. Be a part of exciting growth, work with incredible people, and create tomorrow’s pet products—plus a whole lot of extras. You will also be provided with:

• Premium Medical/Dental/Vision insurance
• Paid parental leave
• Whisker Parents Program
• 1 day "pawternity" leave for new pet adoption
• Pet Insurance Discount
• 401K match
• Flexible spending accounts
• Company-paid short-term disability and life insurance
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Generous paid time off
• 14 Paid Holidays
• Top of the line equipment
• Pet-friendly office
• Whisker products and swag
• Continuing education Support
• On-site gym with Peloton
• Referral program

Statement of Inclusivity:

We believe different perspectives make Whisker better and strive to create a place where everyone has equal opportunities to thrive.

Please ensure to regularly check your email spam folder for any communication from Whisker to avoid missing important updates regarding your application status.

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