Careers

What It’s Like To Work Here…

The People

Our CEO is Kevin, a squirrelly fellow with a mad obsession for eCommerce. The doctors have actually called it a rare type of neurosis, but we feel the benefit outweighs the danger. When he’s not busting chops, he’s pretty funny. Actually, he’s pretty funny when he’s busting chops, too.

Our COO, Toby, will be your other boss. Think of him as your commander. He’s probably the nicest guy in the office. That said, I heard he once killed a guy in a duel. So, uh, don’t cross him.

Everyone is pretty cool. The office is built around positive and passionate conversation. The people love learning almost as much as they love squabbling about the latest eCommerce developments. I guess that makes us all eCommerce dorks.

The Place

The office is in Charleston, SC., one of the nicest cities on the East Coast. The weather’s awesome, there are a ton of amazing restaurants, everyone is really good-looking, and almost every building is a pastel-colored, historical treasure. The city has been ranked by Forbes as a “Best Place to Look for a Job” and as one of the “World’s Smartest Cities” in terms of strong economic infrastructure. Two years in a row, it was ranked #1 on the America’s Favorite Cities list and last year was ranked #1 for Most Attractive People in America by Travel and Leisure magazine (mostly thanks to the people who work at Blue Acorn). If you’re still not convinced that it’s a pretty cool city, you can find more accolades here.

The office itself is on the north side of town, right next to Hampton Park and a few miles from the beach. We’ve got a little patio, a kitchen, a lounge, and a kegerator where we keep quality beer on tap. The office just went through a big expansion so there’s plenty of room for new employees/throwing a football around.

The Opportunities

Even in dog years, Blue Acorn is still a pretty young company. We’ve been growing pretty fast these past few years, but now we’re looking for people to help improve our business. We need intelligent, personable, and passionate people to join us in our pursuit to not just build a company, but to build a team that takes pride in their work and delivers exceptional results to our clients.

Every employee receives a new computer with dual monitors, free parking, health, IRA, disability, competitive salaries, and access to training and mentoring on a variety of subject matter. All that stuff helps to keep us happy. The truth is, we all just like working at a place that appreciates us. If that interests you, then send us your resume and a cover letter declaring your love for eCommerce. Feel free to make it as dirty as you see fit because, as we said, we really love eCommerce.

Our Immediate Needs

• General Manager for Cross-Functional Agile Team
• TAM – Technical Account Manager
• PHP Web Developer
• Director of eCommerce Optimization
• Conversion Optimization Consultant
• Human Resources Manager

Our need:

At Blue Acorn, we are fortunate to have two cross-functional agile teams, both capable of delivering eCommerce sites from start to finish. Technical account managers, QA specialists, frontend and backend developers, and architects use their combined talent to deliver amazing results to our clients. However, “amazing” has lost its luster. We think we can do even better. That’s why we’re stepping forward and adding a dedicated leader to oversee each team.

Blue Acorn is looking for an extraordinary person to lead the team and be responsible for raising their level of performance. It will take a great natural leader to rally a team every day. The person we hire will also need to possess a highly advanced knowledge of the eCommerce industry, as well as an a strong understanding of the software development lifecycle. Experience developing and shipping high quality software on time and on budget will be a strong advantage to you in this position.

Additionally, experience in several different areas of the eCommerce industry will prepare you to deliver our comprehensive services. You won’t need to be an expert in every area, but you will need the ability to communicate on a strong technical level with your team. You’ll also need to have enough knowledge to know when there is an opportunity for a client and the business prowess to propose such opportunities.

What you’ll do:

If you are the one we’re looking for, you’ll be expected to improve your team in the following areas

• Maximize team resource utilization by making the team more effective
• Exceed business objectives and goals (measured by the team’s overall client satisfaction and profitability)
• Continuously boost team performance on KPIs such as quality, timelines, and budgets

You’ll step into a well-established, 40+ person organization with a widely recognized brand in the eCommerce space. We’re passionate about our clients, and we are committed to delivering them results. Your primary tasks will be as follows:

• Lead a cross-functional team
• Oversee project and client management
• Manage cross-team collaboration (specifically related to our DevOps and Optimization Teams)
• Make even the most challenging clients happy while meeting team goals
• Work with your team, functional managers, and other teams within company guidelines for the continuous improvement of the whole company
• Nip small problems in the bud and handle larger conflicts when they arise
• Understand the goals of the team and develop strategies for achieving those goals without close supervision of a manager
• Answer the questions of clients and team members
• Calmly handle all issues that arise throughout the course of any given day, and be able to differentiate between issues that can be solved locally, and those that need to be brought to a higher level of discussion

Things you know/have done:

• 1-3 years management experience with P&L responsibility
• Magento administration
• Project management
• Client management
• Agile processes & practices
• 2-4 years of eCommerce experience (ideally on both the client and agency side)

Things that will impress us:

• Financial Analysis and Budgeting
• eCommerce Optimization experience
• Experience managing a business unit in a matrix organization
• Google Adwords and Analytics certifications
• PMI certification

What you do now:

Our need:

Technical Account Managers (TAM) are the client facing members of a cross-functional team. They wake up everyday with a battle face on, ready to fight the good fight for our clients. They manage relationships with new and ongoing clients and define tasks and requirements for their agile team to deliver. The clients they interface with are sophisticated, mid-tier brands and retailers with complex requirements.

A great TAM could be described as having superb communication skills, can handle stressful situations like a seasoned pro, is constantly looking to expand their knowledge and skill set, all while keeping their agile team busy with properly defined and scoped tasks for the short and long term client future.

Most of the deliverables fall into technical custom functionality requests and onsite optimization services. If I knew what that meant, I would be doing it myself, not writing job descriptions. I can say, however, that knowing everything within each of those categories and what is required to make them happen would be a good start for anyone looking to have this job.

What you’ll do:

As a Technical Account Manager, you’ll work on an agile team of 7-9 cross-functional resources, alongside designers, developers, and marketers. That requires a rounded approach to communicating with different personalities. You will be focused on growing our relationships with a handful of specific clients (somewhere between 5 and 10) through a results-oriented approach. Your mission is to maintain happy and healthy clients by delivering on expectations, maintaining a high degree of communication, and meeting revenue goals.

Many of these deliverables to clients are technical (e.g. developing custom eCommerce functionality). As such, a well-rounded, technical background is important to ensure success. In addition to the job functions we’ve mentioned, you’ll be put in charge of the following tasks.

• Manage ongoing client relationships as a direct point of contact
• Coordinating with clients on prioritizing needs against goals and manage expectations to deliver timely results
• Working in an agile development, fast-paced, and team environment
• Negotiating with clients and internal team on budgets and estimates
• Having a “GSD” attitude. You’ll be managing lots of concurrent initiatives and the ability to strategize is important, but more important is the ability to execute
• Overseeing multiple project plans simultaneously with timelines, resources, roles, and responsibilities
• Overseeing the accuracy and quality of client deliverables before a product is delivered to the client
• Understanding and gathering functional requirements for feature requests by studying strategic business drivers
• Discovering and validating business and technical requirements and parameters
• Obtaining input from subject-matter experts
• Working closely with our internal Operations, Development, and Strategic teams in managing our service deliverables
• Assisting clients with software training, eCommerce application configuration and usage
• Maintaining high level of understanding of web standards and trends
• Being knowledgeable of industry standards and changes in technologies
• Understanding usability and information architecture at a high-level

Things you know/have done:

• Proficiency in Project Management
• Worked with a development team
• Impressive client-facing skills
• An understanding of HTML, CSS and JavaScript
• MUST be local to Charleston, SC area or be willing to relocate. We are NOT looking for outside companies or contractors – this is a full-time position.

Things that will impress us:

• Advising clients on recommended solutions, best practices, and aligning services with their needs
• Proactively identifying opportunities for clients in achieving goals through additional services, tools, or 3rd party solutions
• Experience with scrum methodology and an agile team structure
• Experience with Google Analytics
• Familiarity with eCommerce optimization practices
• Experience with AtTask and Beanstalk
• Knowledge of commonly used Magento 3rd party extensions to recommend solutions to clients
• Expertise in Magento Administration
• Superb organizational skills

What you do now:

Our need:

We are seeking multiple developers from entry to senior level, who are passionate about developing, and have a strong interest in eCommerce. As a web developer you will possess the ability to produce clean, well-documented, efficient and standard-compliant code along with an eye toward performance optimization.

What you’ll do:

• Improve and define our development methodologies, processes, and systems
• Manage our Git repositories and methodologies
• Web development in PHP/Java/MySQL/XHTML
• Customizing eCommerce platforms for custom functionality and integrations with 3rd party software
• Developing Custom Extensions to be released as third party add-ons
• Performance Optimization (server, client, and db)

Things you know/have done:

• Experience in team-based web development
• Strong determination, and a superb team-ethic
• Strong understanding of object oriented MVC web development
• Familiarity with version control (Git)
• Advanced MySQL/SQL querying and db administration
• Excellent written and oral communication skills with teammates and clients
• Ability to produce clean, well-documented, efficient, and standards-compliant code – with an eye towards performance optimization
• AJAX
• Development experience on PHP-based frameworks (eg. Code Igniter, Expression Engine, etc)
• Expertise with the ZendFramework and web services integration
• Adherence to web design accessibility standards and cross-browser compatibility
• MUST be local to Charleston, SC area or be willing to relocate. We are NOT looking for outside companies or contractors – this is a full time position.

Things that will impress us:

• Systems Administration background
• .NET development experience
• Mobile Application Development
• eCommerce development experience (in particular Magento)
• Written articles, tips, or tricks for the web development community
• A love for learning

What you do now:

Our need:

We’re looking for a strong leader to drive our eCommerce Optimization services. What is eCommerce Optimization? It is a results-oriented approach to eCommerce by leveraging data, testing, and online marketing to make intelligent decisions on how to improve the user experience and – ultimately – revenue. On our services breakdown, this would include the “attract” and “optimize” services.

What you’ll do:

Your success in this role revolves around accomplishing three mission-critical goals:

1. Manage, lead, mentor, and grow our eCommerce Optimization team
2. Ensure the successful delivery of our optimization services and results for our clients
3. Work across the entire organization to instill data, measurement, and testing in everything that we do

You’ll step into a well-established, 35-person organization with a widely recognized brand in the eCommerce space. We’re passionate about our clients, and we are committed to delivering them results. A very strong background in web analytics, online marketing, conversion optimization, and/or eCommerce is a must in this role. Your primary tasks will be as follows:

• We’re a growing company – we need strong leaders to provide management, guidance, and mentorship to our eCommerce Optimization team.
• We’re not looking to deliver the “same ol’” online marketing services, so we need you to drive innovation with our services both internally and externally in the marketplace.
• Our clients look to us to help drive revenue growth, so you’ll need to be adept at finding opportunities for growth and defining strategies with roadmaps to realize it.
• We need to be proactive in our relationships with clients, to provide consulting and advice on how revenue growth can be achieved. We’ll need to instill processes and approaches. Instead of sitting back and taking orders, our team should be proactively working with our clients on delivering their goals.
• Strong relationships are built on a foundation of communication and expectation management. You’ll need to set and manage those expectations, ensure we deliver on them, and make sure we’re highly communicative throughout the relationship.
• We want to measure everything that we do, which sometimes requires some “creativity” on how we go about doing this. It is your responsibility to instill a company-wide strategy for how we measure and use data.
• We’ve got some great successes to show for our work, but we want more! Our goal is to make every client a case study of success, and we need you to drive that challenge.
• Technology changes daily, and you’ll be tasked with making sure our resources are knowledgeable about delivering the best solutions to our clients through training, conferences, certifications, and evaluation of vendor solutions.
• For the love of eCommerce, we need to be evangelizing what we’re doing! Blog articles, webinars, and presentations are all tools you’ll be responsible for leveraging in order to grow our brand in the marketplace and spreading our passion for results.
• We’ve got a great thing going here in Charleston, SC, where all of our team members are located, and we want you to be a part of it, so you need to already be in the area or willing to relocate. We are NOT looking for outside companies or contractors. This is a full-time position that requires your active participation as part of our team.

Things you know/have done:

• We need someone who has “walked the walk” with online marketing. So you’ll need to come to the table with some great examples of how you’ve used data-driven online marketing and optimization to deliver results.
• Online marketing can apply to many different industries and verticals, but we’re all about eCommerce at Blue Acorn, so specific experience in the industry is as important as your ability to deliver results.
• You’ve driven your family and friends away to the point that they’ve stopped inviting you to gatherings because all you do is talk about analytics and optimization. We need passionate people that love the fact that we’re able to use these incredible tools to identify how we can make a difference and measure the success that we’re having.
• As a young company looking for leadership, you’ll need to have references that can attest to your ability to mentor, motivate, inspire, and lead the charge.
• You’ve scoured the earth for the best optimization tools and resources out there. You’ve used the products, you know the “players,” and you follow them obsessively.
• You’ve had dreams about spending a night out to dinner with Avinash Kaushik or Bryan Eisenberg, engrossing yourself in deep intimate conversations about analytics, data, and optimization.

Things that will impress us:

• If the bullet above wasn’t a dream, and you’ve actually had dinner with Avinash or Bryan ;)
• We operate in a pretty technical environment here, so any experience interfacing with development teams, scrum project management methodologies, or any technical background you personally have would be helpful.
• If you don’t have years of experience in a Director-level role prior and are looking to take the next step in your career by moving into such a role, that’s ok, so long as you meet the other criteria. We’re all looking to grow professionally and do bigger and better things, but tell us why you’re ready to step into this role now. What mentors have you had that might have shaped how you’ll succeed, and what are the lessons you’ve learned?
• A strong grasp of the critical factors that will lead to your success in this role. You will be subject to tests that ask for you to walk-through a site and provide your optimization thoughts as part of the interview process.
• Nothing is more impressive than past results. Show us what you’ve been able to deliver to clients. We’re not talking about a 1,000% improvement from a starting point of 1, we’re looking for examples of working with established companies and instilling improvements through these tactics.

What you do now:

Our need:

We’re seeking an online marketer with a red hot passion for onsite optimization. Think Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams in the rain type of romance. Well, not quite that passionate. We don’t need you getting romantically involved with your new laptop in the rain (they’re not waterproof).

Specifically, we need someone who knows how to use data, testing, and personalization to improve user experience and conversions for eCommerce sites. If hired, you’d collaborate with other members of our team – designers, developers, and analysts – to help our clients drive revenue gains.

So if you like the idea of playing a critical role in the decisions our clients make, and have a relentless drive for continuous improvement, then apply because you’ll probably be a great fit.

What you’ll do:

• Blue Acorn is a results oriented company. As such, we need an experienced individual who can answer the question “How do I grow revenue?” In other words- we need an OG to hustle for that scrilla.
• We’re all about conversions at Blue Acorn, the kind that turn window shoppers into customers. You’ll be tasked with creating and executing conversion testing strategies for brands, retailers, and catalogs (aka our clients).
• At Blue Acorn – data geeks are gods. So have no doubt that collecting, analyzing, and acting on a variety of data inputs – from web analytics, to user behavior, demographic data, and more – will be an essential part of this role.
• While you’ll be leading our conversion optimization efforts for our clients, we don’t ask any one person to handle the load on their own. You’ll be working alongside other members of the optimization team, as well as a talented group of designers and developers. In order for Blue Acorn to accomplish our goals, it requires everyone on the teams to work together and leverage our collective strengths.
• Our clients expect us to proactively identify opportunities for improvement, and it is up to our optimization team to always be on the lookout for these opportunities. We need someone to be proactive in presenting those ideas and making a case for them.
• We have a focus on measuring the impact of everything we do, and will rely on you to identify what should be measured, how it should be measured, and the goals that we’re shooting for. The feedback loop is an essential part of how we identify areas for improvement, so you’ll be responsible for defining and managing user testing campaigns are essential tools for us to collect this data.
• At Blue Acorn, we pride ourselves on a culture of “continuous improvement” – as such, we’ll need to identify how we can improve the results we deliver to our clients, share with us how you personally can improve, and how the team can improve the relationships we have with our clients.

Things you know/have done:

• You’ve successfully (and maybe unsuccessfully) helped companies improve their online presence by using the techniques, technologies, and methodologies around website optimization.
• You’ve successfully answered the question “What do we test?”
• There are numerous technologies out there that can be used to execute CRO testing – Optimizely, Google Content Experiments / Website Optimizer, Visual Website Optimizer, Adobe Test & Target, etc – we expect you to have used these tools to run tests of your own, and are familiar with the ins and outs of several of them.
• We’ve never been shy about our love for Avinash Kaushik and Bryan Eisenberg – and we expect nothing less from you. Website optimization is a relatively new field with a lot to learn, and you should be familiar with the teachings of these, and other, sources of “optimization inspiration”
• MUST be local to Charleston, SC area or be willing to relocate. We are NOT looking for outside companies or contractors – this is a full time position.

Things that will impress us:

• Google Analytics Certification
• Experience using full suite marketing optimization tools like Monetate
• Experience in online marketing, SEO, PPC, SEM
• eCommerce management experience
• Copywriting / Writing / Blogging
• a story about surviving a tornado or saving a schoolbus from a train
• A pilots licence (and access to a seaplane if possible)

What you do now:

Our need:

As we rapidly approach 50+ team members, we have become more aware than ever of the need to recruit top talent, but first, we need to find a talented HR Manager who’s willing to scour the earth for extraordinary people to fill the ranks at Blue Acorn. What does the role include exactly? Well…

The HR Manager would find talent and keep talent happy (like being Ari Gold, except the hours are better). He or she would enforce positive morale with an iron fist (or whatever alternative approach is deemed appropriate). Sometimes, they’ll recommend changes to benefits (free dental would be nice) or coach managers (in one such scenario, you could actually coach yourself). Part of finding talent would mean determining recruiting events to attend (although a career fair in Bali might be suspicious). Finally, when handling conflicts, they’ll balance compassion and empathy with stern leadership (or with stern hugs – or is that against HR policy?).

If you think you can handle the above, then you should check out the other details below. If it still sounds like a good fit, we would love for you to apply.

What you’ll do:

• Actively recruit to fill resource needs.
• Manage and coordinate special projects and other HR initiatives.
• Attend recruiting events, visit colleges, and help to promote Blue Acorn and our internship and training programs, as well as seek out career development opportunities.
• Manage development and implementation of HR policies and procedures.
• Facilitate resolutions to any employee concerns.
• Create documentation and policies, including the employee handbook, and manage updates.
• Coordinate and conduct training for managers on their communication and interaction responsibilities with the employees who report to them, plus additional training on how policies are handled.
• Identify and monitor the company culture so that it supports the attainment of the company’s goals and promotes employee satisfaction, which includes conducting employee surveys and assisting with performance appraisals.
• Head the BAM (Blue Acorn Morale) Committee and assisting with event planning and culture initiatives.

Skills you need to possess:

• Knowledge and experience in recruiting, employment law, compensation, benefits, organizational planning, organization development, employee relations, safety, employee engagement, and employee development.
• Demonstrated ability to serve as a Subject Matter Expert to the executive management team on HR compliance and best practices
• Excellent organization and time management skills.
• A minimum of five years experience in Human Resources positions. 3+ in a growing technology environment, through a 50+ organization.

Things that will impress us:

• Ability to train and coach managers to better their abilities.
• Professional PHR certification
• Minimum of a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Human Resources, Business, or Organization Development.

What you do now: