Working at Blurb

Everyone who works at Blurb is part of a team. Learn more about how we break ourselves out to get the work done and the innovations coming. See how we all work together.

The Engineering team at Blurb uses cutting-edge technology to deliver the best experiences for Blurb authors. We care passionately about delivering software well, and follow best practices to plan, test, write, and deploy our applications. As we say: Beautiful code makes beautiful books.

We believe strongly in test automation, and commit to software quality from day one with full automation suites for every feature we build.

We are engineers of all stripes, from DevOps to C++ to Java, Ruby, Javascript, and beyond. We use technologies like DropWizard, Qt, Ember, and Rails.

Our team is full of creatives and makers; you'll find us snapping cameras, futzing with 3D printers, writing creative fiction, or hacking with the latest languages in our free time. If this is in your DNA too, then Blurb is the place for you.

The Operations team is responsible for everything involved with actually producing and shipping physical books. This includes everything from owning the relationships with our print partners and carriers to managing routing and costs to working with the Product team to launch new products. And it's also all the daily stuff, like making sure an order delivers on time. The impact to the business is significant and direct. From on-time deliveries to beautifully and professionally printed books, we focus on delivering a quality book and quality service to each customer. Our interest in supporting the customer and supporting each other has created a fun and results-driven working environment. We have the pleasure of working with each team member on a daily basis, as well as frequent interaction and collaboration with each department in Blurb. In short, we're a fun team to work for!

The Marketing department at Blurb has the enviable job of telling the world about not only the amazing indie publishing platform we've created, but the incredible books that our global community of customers have made with us. From the weekly editorial newsletter that we publish to the in-house video productions that highlight Blurb authors, our creative plates are always full.

The department handles almost all activities in-house with a few strategic partners in media and public relations. We've got CRM and email marketing experts, performance marketing gurus, web developers extraordinaire, and a cadre of Blurb evangelists that know everything about our books and the people that make them. And we have creative teams in both our San Francisco and London offices with a daily Google hangout to keep us all connected.

As a company, we believe that everyone has a story to tell. And that makes Marketing at Blurb a lesson in creative reinvention on a daily basis.

The relationship between the customers and the product is really what is at the core of any great company. For the Blurb Product team, there is nothing more important than that relationship. To that end, the robust team is made of innovators and builders, tapped in attentively to our customers, constantly dreaming up the next big thing that will solve user problems, either through launching something completely new or making the tiniest iterative addition to an existing product.

Every part of our team contributes to innovating that next thing that will matter the most. We're product managers who work closely with user experience designers to truly understand customer behavior (and then with engineers to build on that knowledge) and visual designers who give the products that unique Blurb look. Everything from conception to delivering the product to our Marketing team is the Product team's exciting responsibility to carry.

We are optimistic enough to hope everyone will be thrilled with his or her Blurb experience, but pragmatic enough to know that won't always be the case. We take great pride in figuring out solutions to the most complicated problems as well as answering the simplest inquiries about Blurb (or anything else you want to ask us about). We're smart, articulate, caring people who understand the value of building relationships. Customer Support works cross-departmentally to pass feedback to stakeholders and continually improve our users' experience. We're obsessed with metrics and making data-driven decisions, but never forget that each contact is an opportunity to be the personal connection between our users and Blurb.

The Finance team is composed of two groups: Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) and Accounting. Together we keep Blurb's proverbial financial house in order by paying the bills on time, providing financial reporting and analyses, managing cash, and making sure that we are allocating our financial resources in the best way possible. There is not a department or person within the company with whom we do not come into contact. Whether it's in dealing with payroll issues, expense reports, or ROI analyses on a project, someone from Finance is involved. And while we do love to tell our story with numbers, we're not your typical number-crunching geeks. We actually like to interact and banter with our colleagues in the other departments. So whether you're an accountant or analyst, if you're good with numbers and want to engage others with the same passion, come join us on our journey.

At Blurb, we're serious about meeting our product launch commitments and we depend on the skill and passion of the Program Management Group to make it happen. Program Management at Blurb partners closely with Product Managers and Engineering as well as all other functional areas in the company to successfully deliver products to market. A Program Manager at Blurb is also a champion in Agile adoption—coaching self-directed teams by coordinating Agile ceremonies, engaging stakeholders, removing obstacles, and fostering communication.

The Inside Sales Team is responsible for selling Blurb's innovative indie publishing solution and increasing our customer portfolio by developing new business by selling our print and ebook solutions to customers looking for volume orders. We're a small, growing team that is fun and passionate about the industry—and of course driven by closing a deal. (Otherwise we're in the wrong job!) We're also the ones who maintain the most day-to-day dialogue with the global self-publishing community, so our feedback is really important for the business and contributes to how we shape our ongoing strategy.

The role of HR at Blurb, first and foremost, is to partner with leadership to recruit and retain the best talent to drive the business forward. In addition to that it is critical that HR ensure the company is in compliance with state and federal laws. Our goal is to ensure that the department passionately pursues this agenda so that Blurb continues to be a premier employer.

In an effort to recruit and retain the best talent, we are constantly looking at how we can connect employees closer to the business and improve the employee experience. My team partners closely with leadership to focus on attracting and developing talent through a number of initiatives such as rolling out a goals process to promote alignment, democratizing learning and development via Blurb University, promoting employees from within to drive key lines of business, and providing world-class benefits.

We on the HR team thrive on making deep connections, whether that be via the people or the business. We come to work every day with a positive, can-do attitude and we love our work. We hope this shines through in everything we do.