Thunderbird Build & Release Engineer Freelance

Thunderbird Build & Release Engineer

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 Mozilla Foundation is now the fiscal home of Thunderbird. The Thunderbird Council, who lead the community effort, has begun hiring contractors through Mozilla in support of this venture and to guarantee that all vital services are provided in a reliable fashion.

You will join the team that is leading Thunderbird into a bright future. As a build engineer you will be serving the community, empowering them to make their contributions available to over 25 million people.

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 Contract
The Mozilla Thunderbird project is looking to hire a build and release engineer 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 build and release process.

This is a remote, hourly 6-month contract (with the possibility of continuing). Hours will be up to 40 a week. You will be expected to have excellent written communication skills and coordinate your work over email, IRC, and Bugzilla.

As a build & release engineer for Thunderbird you will

• Maintain and improve the Thunderbird build system to ensure that both nightly builds and releases are always possible.
• Finalise the migration if Thunderbird’s continuous integration/deployment (CI/CD) service from Buildbot to TaskCluster.
• Procure and maintain build infrastructure in tandem with Thunderbird’s infrastructure engineer (who is currently focused on web-based services).
• Work with both volunteers and employees across the world to fix build issues.
• Follow improvements made by Mozilla engineers for the Firefox build & release process and implement those for Thunderbird.
• Collaborate with QA, Security, Localization, and Engineering for coordinated code releases for “release” builds (known as ESR) and beta builds.

Your Previous Experience

• Have experience using build systems (preferably make).
• Have experience setting up a continuous integration service.
• Have solid scripting knowledge (shell, Python).
• Experience with Buildbot and TaskCluster is highly desirable.
• Have experience using distributed version control systems (preferably Mercurial, Git would be acceptable).
• Some development background with Python and C is highly preferred.
• Experience building and releasing cross-platform applications is a plus.
• B.S. in Computer Science would be lovely, but real-world experience is preferred.

Next Steps
If this position sounds like a good fit for you, please send us your resume with a cover letter to apply@mozillafoundation.org.

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.

Please note that while the Thunderbird project is a group of individuals separate from the Mozilla Foundation that works to further the Thunderbird email client, the Mozilla Foundation is the Project’s fiscal home. The Thunderbird Council, separate from Mozilla, manages the Project and will direct the software engineer’s work.

The successful applicant will be hired as freelancer (independent contractor) through the Mozilla Foundation’s third-party service Upwork. By applying to this job, you are agreeing to have your applications reviewed by Thunderbird contractors and volunteers who are a part of the hiring committee as well as by staff members of the Mozilla Foundation.

Mozilla values diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.