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Job Description:

KODANSHAtech LLC is a company that develops web media and digital businesses for the publisher Kodansha.

We are looking for an engineer to work on the development and enrichment of our web media infrastructure.

We are hiring mainly for experienced developers because we are a relatively new company and have not yet established a training system, and because we have a completely remote system to deal with new coronavirus infections.

The work includes

• Web media infrastructure development
• Subscription system development
• Media enrichment, including the addition of interactive features
• Research and implementation of online book and comic provision methods
• Proposing and implementing new businesses such as crowdfunding

We are engaged in a variety of development activities starting from web media, magazines, books, and comics, including the following.

For example, FRIDAY Digital was developed from scratch with React/Next.js and is registered on the Next.js showcase site.

We not only realize requests from the editorial departments of web media, magazines, books, and comics, but also provide an environment where we can make development proposals as "colleagues" from within a business company.

We are able to ask ourselves, "What should we do to create interesting web media?", "How can we use new technology to achieve this?"

We also take on challenges from an R&D perspective.

A good example of this would be adding interactive features to existing web media, which is difficult to do on the backend, using the Serverless Framework, or adding special content with Gatsby.js.

Target media brands would include Gendai Business, FRIDAY Digital, ViVi, VOCE, etc. This ticket is not intended for a specific media brand, but rather for a person who will commit to a cross section of these media as needed from time to time.

There are two main aspects to working in these media.

• Situations where we develop the media or functionality itself from the ground up.
• Situations in which development is carried out while acting as a bridge between the editorial department and existing or new external vendors.

In some ways, the work environment at a publishing company is unique.

While there is a creative manager called an editor-in-chief, not all editorial departments have a technical PM or director, so there are many situations where engineers are directly asked for advice and involved in decision-making.

This can be a challenge for engineers who want to focus purely on programming. If so, this may not be the place for you.

On the other hand, the environment where you can actually be involved in the decision-making process as a "colleague" near the media and content, and where you are allowed to incorporate new challenges from a technical perspective, is something that is hard to experience anywhere else.

In addition, in the most recent projects, WordPress is likely to be used as the CMS in many situations.

There will be situations where we will work on maintaining and enriching extremely basic WordPress sites for existing web media.

However, the direction of the company as a whole will be to use the WordPress API as a headless CMS and handle it in a SPA-like structure, rather than mainly developing WordPress themes.

Therefore, basic knowledge of PHP, Rails, or WordPress would be a plus, but the technology stack that comes up most often in internal conversations will be React, Next.js, Node.js, typescript, etc.

Who we are looking for :

• Engineers interested in media and content.
• Those who would like to work inside an operating company, while also coming up with ideas.
• You would like to take on new technical challenges in a place that is also close to users.
• Those who enjoy communicating with non-technical editors.
• Want to work on a single floor in a "look-and-feel" company with a receptionist at the front desk, a 26-story building, and a history of 110 years.

Working hours and days

[Days of the week]

As a general rule, 3 days off per week (Saturday and Sunday + at least one day).

The number of working days for the following month will be decided in consultation with the manager by the previous month. For example, "May: 4 days a week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday" and "June: 3 days a week on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday" are possible.

If you prefer to work 5 days a week, we can accommodate you.

Work Location :

[Nearest station]

Directly connected to Gokokuji Station on the Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line

As a rule, public transportation will be used to get to work.

Benefits:

[Vacations and vacation time]

3 days off per week in principle (Saturdays + Sundays)

In principle, 3 days off per week (Saturdays and Sundays + 1 day, 2 days off per week upon request), national holidays, annual paid vacations, year-end and New Year vacations, congratulation or condolence leave, etc.

[Working hours]

All employees work on a discretionary work system (10 hours per day is considered as working regardless of daily working hours).

[Concurrent employment]

In principle, possible (no competition rules.) Concurrent Work We hope that you will encounter interesting projects in various places and expand your knowledge. We are open to negotiate with other firms to reduce our work hours during the months when other firms' projects are in the midst of theirs. However, if you wish to belong to more than one company, there may be some restrictions regarding health insurance and employee pension.

Salary

As for salary, in order to realize a free work style, it varies greatly depending on the person and the way he/she works. The actual salary will be paid in the following manner.

• Monthly salary based on an offer equivalent to an annual salary (to be determined upon consultation based on skills, experience, ability, etc.)
• Salary revision: Normally once a year
• Miscellaneous allowances: Transportation expenses paid

We do not use an "annual salary system" in order to establish a free working style where the number of working days can be varied from month to month. This amount is divided by the number of business days in a year, and then multiplied by the number of working days in the month, which is determined in consultation with the manager.

[Example of Salary Model]

How a person with an annual salary equivalent to 9.6 million yen would be paid for a month in which he/she chooses to work 3 days a week

9.6 million yen ÷ 240 operating days per year x 3 days per week x 4 weeks + discretionary allowance of 120,000 yen = 600,000 yen

[Various insurances]

Employment insurance, workers' accident compensation insurance, health insurance, and employee pension insurance

[Welfare]

Periodic medical checkups

Health checkups

Other details will be provided at the time of interview.

Other :

Telework is acceptable. We have recently shifted to a full telework program, especially since the new coronavirus infection is spreading.

We would like you to come in and communicate with us, especially in the beginning, so that you can get a taste of working at a publishing company and deepen your understanding of the contents business, but for the time being, we will work on a situation-by-situation basis.

For the time being, however, you will be working on a case-by-case basis.