This document discusses strategies for recruiting data engineers at Netflix. It defines the ideal candidate as having 5+ years of experience building data pipelines at scale using Hadoop, Scala/Spark, and being an autonomous thought leader comfortable with ambiguity. The recruiter emphasizes building partnerships with candidates based on transparency, feedback from all sides, and constant experimentation. Specific recruiting strategies proposed include dividing sourcing strategies across tools, seeking referrals proactively, networking broadly, using metrics to guide but not dictate, and focusing on long-term branding. The goal is to recruit differently by forming new kinds of partnerships.

1. Netflix and Fill
LAURA PRUITT, ENGINEERING MANAGER
SYDNEY BUSCH, RECRUITER

3. Analytic memos
Exploratory analytics
Anatomy of a DEA Team
Big data processing
Pipeline optimization
Self-serve tool development
Reporting
Data
Engineer
Analyst
Analytics
Engineer
Datafunctions

4. Content Delivery
Analytics

5. ispspeedindex.com
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

6. DEA
teams
Data
science
teams
Netflix
App
business
partners
Financial
Planning
&
Analysis
Content
Delivery
Analytics
Content
Delivery
business
partners
Netflix
playback
experience

7. Netflix Culture: Freedom &
Responsibility

8. Define a successful hire.
● Min. 5 years experience
● Building data pipelines - at scale
● Hadoop
● Scala/Spark
● Autonomous thought leader
● Comfortable with ambiguity
● Ability to push back and influence business
partners

9. We needed to
recruit differently.
Our partnership had
to look different.

10. Service
Partnership

11. Throw away
traditional SLA’s
“Service” shouldn’t
be the focus
Give
feedback
And lots of it,
coming from all
directions
Aspects of our Partnership
Always be
transparent
With each other &
with candidates
Don’t stop
experimenting
A stale recruiting
process is your
enemy

12. Making it happen.

13. 1. Build strategies. Don’t stop at one.
Sourcing Strategy
● Tools: Linkedin, Crunchbase, Github, Stackoverflow, Twitter, Blog posts, Meetups, Internal
Events, etc.
● Divide and conquer - how do we optimize our strengths?
Referral Strategy
● Don’t wait for referrals to come to you, seek them out
● Socialize and expand your network (internally and externally)
Networking Strategy
● Build for the short- and the long-term
● Get specific

14. 2. Use the data to guide, not dictate.
Metrics Success
● Response rate
● Conversion through each stage - is there a reason candidates aren’t working
out?
● Pipeline Speed & Volume

15. 3. Branding will pay off in the long run.

16. Takeaways
● Partnership is key - focus on small changes
● Get creative on your strategies, don’t limit it to one
● Let momentum be your friend (short and long term
strategies)

17. Thank you.