In Puget Sound --- the high-tech center of the Northwest --- the question for Information Technology professionals is not "Where can I get a job?" The question is "Who has the job that offers the compensation, challenge and stability that I want?"

If you are an IT professional with at least two years of experience, the answer for you may be Costco Wholesale. At the center of this rapidly growing and successful company, the Costco IS Division is already the answer for over 400 IT professionals. CEO Magazine has named Costco as one of the top three Puget Sound area companies to work for. Information Technology has named our IS Division as one of America's best places to work.

The Costco IS Division supports 346 warehouses and over 80,000 employees. To meet the current and future technology needs of the company, the IS Division is rapidly expanding, and offers excellent opportunities for both current and future IS employees.

The IS Division is divided into four main groups:

AS/400 Application Development designs and maintains programs for the different business applications within the company. For example, there are teams to maintain and enhance accounting, inventory, payroll, membership, and payroll applications.

Most of our applications are developed in house, using a mixture of RPG III and RPG IV. Costco also utilizes third-party applications, such as Lawson for payroll, Order Power for fulfillment, and Infinium's (Software 200) Fixed Asset system. For candidates with experience in these areas, Costco offers challenging and rewarding opportunities to use and expand their skills.

Current IS Openings

Customer Service and System Support is divided into several groups that provide focused, daily support of all IS functions for users of all levels throughout the company. Individual groups supply and maintain workstations and software installations, and provide around-the-clock on-call support for users of all AS/400 and microsystem applications. Other groups develop and maintain multimedia training and printed user manuals, and provide person-to-person training on AS/400 applications. Another group ensures the efficient operation of the AS/400s and other systems in our 24-hour computer room.

For candidates with AS/400 operations, hardware, training, multimedia, technical writing, or other support experience, Costco offers many fast-paced and rewarding opportunities to use and expand their skills.

Client/Server and Internet Technologies is divided into three groups (Network Security, E-Commerce Administration, and BackOffice Administration), each with a separate function.

Network Security designs and supports all Firewall, Internet, extra-net, and VPN access. This group is also responsible for supporting the UNIX environment and Network Management system.

E-Commerce Administration is responsible for over 30 servers and 20 applications on our e-commerce site (Costco.Com), as well as the resources necessary to support our company-wide intranet.

BackOffice Administration is responsible for an infrastructure of 90 servers that supports various applications available to our company's 4000 users.

Costco utilizes NT and UNIX, SQL and Oracle databases. We administer and support other third-party applications, such as Exchange as our email platform, and anti-virus applications to protect our network. Via distributed servers, Costco exchanges information with our regional and international data centers.

Current efforts include preparation for Windows 2000, implementing a software management solution, improving our backups (via SAN or fiber backup solution), automating the collection of performance data, and standardizing the data center design.

For candidates with experience in NT system administration, IIS, SQL Database, messaging technology, network security, or network management, Costco offers challenging and rewarding opportunities to use and expand their skills.

Current IS Openings

This group utilizes Microsoft technology for hardware, software, coding standards, and project management. In some cases, third-party applications are utilized for specific functions, such as tax, shipping, and address verification, and out-of-the-box technology is modified to meet the specific needs of the online warehouse.

In development, Costco uses a mixture of ASP, COM, SQL, and VB, all of which are handled through the Visual Interdev/Visual Source Safe environment. Development teams work on individual NT server stations ("sandboxes"), and work closely with server administration, hardware support, and testing groups as projects pass through a common development system for testing and movement through the build process.

For candidates with programming and ISS software experience in any of these applications, Costco offers challenging and rewarding opportunities to use and expand their skills.