Who we are

Hornet is the world's queer social network with over 30 million diverse users. We are driven to create and expand a safe place for the LGBTQ+ community to enjoy the entire spectrum of queer life and friendships coming together around shared experiences and common interests. Every day, we strive to reimagine what a queer app can be and how it can better serve our community. Our diverse team spans the world, bringing together a wide range of perspectives and incredible talent. We work from our offices in LA and Cape Town, homes, coffee shops, or anywhere else we can get online! By joining the team at Hornet, you will have the opportunity to help shape the future of the queer community online.

Why Work For Us

We're a lean, tight-knit engineering team working on some large-scale, very interesting challenges. Some interesting stats - on average we handle around 2,000 geospatial searches p/sec, 22,000 conversations p/minute and rebuild some view graphs 650p/sec. Our apps have been installed on 40 million+ devices, and we currently have around 300 million photos on our origin. (Fun stat - Our CDN traffic is basically equivalent to the CINX traffic :p)

Our core engineering started in Cape Town, and it remains our primary engineering hub, although we have a hub in Prague as well. As a 'startup,' we were profitable in 2016, raising an $8.5 Series-A to pursue a more aggressive growth strategy to move from # 2 to # 1 globally.

Our Culture

We're a very open, diverse, and inclusive team and looking for like-minded people. While we work hard (and try to be smart about it), we also believe in life outside of work. Hence this job posting so we can distribute some work better.

Our Engineering Processes

We're loosely modeled on Spotify's Objective Squads model. It's been working really well for us. We tried ISO/IEC 90003:2014, but no one could pass the exams, so we gave up.

Our Hiring Process

We try and keep it quick and straightforward; most decisions can be made relatively quickly, so we don't waste your time and vice versa: A quick chat with the CTO, followed by a more comprehensive technical interview in-person/Zoom.

We are proud to foster a workplace free from discrimination. We strongly believe that diversity of experience, perspectives, and backgrounds will lead to a better environment for our team members and a better product for our users and community.