A successful company is like a flatshare - it’s the people that make it work
About SpareRoom
Are you looking for a rewarding job? With over 2 million visits per month, we’re the UK’s leading flat and house share website. We’re in the top 10 UK property sites and the top 750 sites overall for UK traffic.
Over 10,000 people attended our London SpeedFlatmating events in 2011 and we took the events to New York in 2012. SpareRoom New York launched in the autumn of 2011.
The pioneering online business that has transformed the
way people look for somewhere to live
- Daily Express
Life at SpareRoom
SpareRoom’s staff are a diverse bunch of creative individuals who enjoy being part of a small team that packs a big punch.
We offer a relaxed and friendly working environment in a light and spacious office in the centre of Macclesfield, just a couple of minutes walk from the train station. Apart from it being an enjoyable place to work, SpareRoom offers:
- CPI linked salaries
- Training budgets
- One-year interest-free loans for rail season tickets
- One-year interest-free loans for bicycle purchases as part of Cyclescheme
- Contributions towards sports memberships: gyms, swimming, sports clubs, et cetera
- Loyalty holidays: one extra day per year from your third year, up to a total of five extra days
Could this be you?
We’re looking for talented and enthusiastic individuals to add to our growing team, and to help us help millions of people find somewhere new to live. If you are creative and hard working, you will see your ideas having a direct effect on SpareRoom and how it develops.
We have the following roles available:
Customer service advisor
Our award winning Customer Service Advisors provide outstanding support to SpareRoom’s 3 million plus registered users. They also handle compliance and maintenance duties as well as identifying and resolving issues on the site.
You’ll be part of a busy team who work hard but who have fun along the way and are renowned for excellent service.
Required skills:
- The successful candidate must have previous experience in a similar technical role or help desk environment, or be a graduate with relevant transferable knowledge and skills.
- Strong customer focus and able to deliver great service, both individually and as part of a team.
- Able to clearly communicate technical information to non-technical people, both orally and in writing.
- Computer literate with experience of e-mail and the Internet plus a reasonable standard of typing. Touch typing isn’t a necessity but would be an advantage.
- We’re an online service so regular internet use and knowledge will go a long way.
Systems administrator
The System Administrator is responsible for effective provisioning, installation, configuration, operation, and maintenance of systems hardware and software and related infrastructure. The successful candidate will be working as part of a small team, and will be in a position of great responsibility. As well as excellent technical skills, a careful nature and good attention to detail are essential.
Due to the nature of the role, you must be prepared, on occasion, to work non-standard hours, including weekends, early mornings or late nights. This is not a regular part of the job, but the need does arise from time to time.
Duties and responsibilities include:
- Security
- Backups
- Disaster recovery
- Monitoring
- Software installations and upgrades
- Troubleshooting
- Capacity planning
- Documentation
Required skills:
- Linux (preferably CentOS or Redhat and Ubuntu or Debian)
- Apache & nginx web server configuration
- MySQL administration
- NFS
- Knowledge of security systems and practices
- Monitoring and maintenance procedures
Desirable skills:
- Experience of clustered and high availability systems
- MySQL replication
- Munin
- Nagios
- Bash or Perl scripting
Perl developer
You’ll be responsible for developing and expanding our website’s backend Perl code, automating tests and infrastructure tasks, providing internal support and fixing bugs. We’re big on code quality and encourage well-tested, maintainable code over rushing to hit deadlines. You’ll be working on a small, self-organising team so this job will suit someone who thrives on the chance to work hard, innovate and make a huge difference.
Essential qualities:
- Ability to work as part of a small team
- An understanding of the importance of up-time for a busy web site
- Attention to detail
- Good communication skills
Requirements:
- Perl 5 programming, preferably procedural and OO
- Web application development
- Good teamwork and communication skills
- Keen eye for detail
- Willingness to learn
Desirable knowledge:
- Apache and mod_perl
- Front-end development (eg. HTML, CSS, JavaScript)
- Relational databases (e.g. MySQL)
- Version control (e.g. Subversion or Git)
- Test frameworks
- Linux command line usage
Bonus points:
- High-level programming experience in other languages (e.g. Ruby, Python)
Get in touch
Send us your CV and tell us why the SpareRoom team needs you: jobs at spareroom dot co dot uk
Where we are
SpareRoom’s main office is in Macclesfield, a historic market town surrounded by stunning Cheshire countryside and a short train ride from Manchester (it’s only an hour and 40 minutes from London). Our second office is in London, which is London - need we say more?
