[decode]

Hitmeister - http://www.hitmeister.de/ - Cologne, Germany (Full Time, Local, VISA)

Web developer: full-stack, frontend, or backend. Most of us work at all levels of the web stack, but if your strength lies in just frontend or backend work, that's okay too.

We're a small team (10 people) using PHP, Zend Framework, MySQL, MongoDB, ElasticSearch, RabbitMQ, and memcached. We have a customer-facing site, a JSON API, logistics software, and an internal admin site, all of which we build and maintain internally.

Hitmeister.de is one of the largest online shopping portals in Germany, with over 2 million customers to date. We have a warehouse from which we sell items directly, but we also have a marketplace with over 2,000 sellers running their own shops. We're seeing solid growth and we're looking for more programming talent to grow and improve the site.

Speaking German is helpful, but by no means required. I'm from the US and we have 2 other non-German developers. If you aren't an EU citizen, we are glad to help with visa issues. In particular, if you have a CS degree or at least 5 years of experience you probably qualify for an EU Blue Card, and we have lots of experience with those. We don't do remote work, but we'll help you relocate.

Here's the job description in German:

http://company.hitmeister.de/jobs/webentwickler-frontend-bac...

If you have any questions, feel free to get in contact with me (info in my profile), or you can apply directly at [e-mail].

[mrgangster]

I am a currently employed American software engineer who is interested in relocating to Germany soon, but I'm worried that I won't be able to find a comparable salary there. Currently I earn in the $80-100k range, is it realistic to have a similar compensation in Germany?

[decode]

My experience and knowledge are fairly limited here, as I've only been working in Germany for a year and only in Cologne. However, my impression is that software developer salaries are generally somewhat lower in Germany than in the US. This is particularly true if you're using Silicon Valley or NYC salaries for comparison.

Of course, like anywhere, your salary depends on your experience level, your education level, the responsibilities of your role, and the industry you're working in. As a rough estimate, I would guess that the majority of German software developers fall in the €40k-€65k salary range. My impression is that developers making €75k+ are outliers.

You also have to remember that it's hard to directly compare a German salary to an American salary. Not only is the cost of living potentially different, but the exchange rate has been moving a lot lately. Last March, €65k was $90k. Today it is only $75k.