Careers
Terra Universal is the leading US manufacturer of critical environment equipment with a diversified product line including cleanrooms, desiccators, hoods, glove boxes, cleanroom furnishings and similar equipment. Terra has exhibited steady growth for over 40 years with strong balance sheet; it is internally financed, has no debt, and is wholly owned by an individual who is actively involved in the business.
Terra's diversified customer base includes over 5,000 bio-tech, semiconductor, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, and aerospace manufacturers, as well as universities, private research institutes and government organizations. Terra manufactures its significant products and distributes a growing range of laboratory and analytical instruments from top-tier suppliers. Some 30% of sales are outside the US, notably Canada, Mexico and Europe. No single customer provides more than 4% of sales and no product line more than 13% of sales.
Nearly all Terra employees work in a multi-building campus in Fullerton, California. Others are remote located in the US.
Terra Positions
Terra Universal, Inc
Terra Universal seeks experienced 4D developer consultants working remotely to continue expanding its 4D-based enterprise management system.
Company Facts:
In business since 1976, Terra Universal is a world-class manufacturer and distributor of critical environment equipment to technically-oriented clients. Terra’s continuing clients include SpaceEx, Google, universities and research laboratories (e.g.: CERN, Fermilab), semiconductor, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers and government agencies (DoE, DoD, et al.), and, recently, marijuana producers. Terra builds actual physical stuff that people use to build their organisations … and, yes, we manufacture in California … and sell to the world. Terra products include modular cleanrooms, glove box/isolators, research hoods, nitrogen-purged desiccators, cleanroom furniture and equipment.
Terra Universal seeks long-term 4D consulting relationships, provides a continuing stream of projects, has a one-level approval process and pays promptly. Generally, Terra develops a project work scope, discusses it with a selected consultant and modifies scope as needed. The consultant then sets cost and timeline and Terra issues a PO authorizing the work. Project durations range from a few days to months and months.
Terra now runs 4D v19R7 in project mode in a production / remote fallback hardware configuration for separate production and development networks. Remote consultants work on RDS virtual machines running a local 4D server, all under Win. TUI assigns a project manager to each project who assists developers understand Terra's business processes, update development tools and explain programming standards. The current 4D structure is about 400 kb and the data file 70+ gb.
The Work:
Projects are a mix of enhancing/fixing existing process and clean-sheet developing new features/processes in an existing data structure to support Terra's customized enterprise management system. Terra expects new work to conform to simple written UI standards for keyboard shortcuts, navigation, dialogue function and appearance. The overall-look of screens is (slowly) migrating from 1990s to 2010s style in a long-term process on an as-created or as-modified basis. All code must include in-code documentation. The current system will be happily demonstrated (Zoom or TeamViewer) to interested developers.
Developers are expected to take high-level work scopes, develop programming approaches and data structure (where needed) to implement the work. Developers coordinate with a single project manager, not with dozens of users.
Consultant’s Background:
Consultants’ will find that experience will with tools such as Write Pro, ORDA, GitLab, Jason, JavaScript and iOS communications (on rarer occasions) helpful. It’s not number of years, it’s breath, depth and eagerness to explore new approaches and tools that count. Although developers are welcomed from all over the world, all work is conducted and documented in English.
Consultants work remotely and are expected to provide and set up their own hardware software and Internet access. Terra supplies a virtual remote machine running Win 10 and 4D and a local version of Terra's enterprise system and data, plus access to Terra's main repository. Consultants download repositories as needed to develop on the VM. Consultants generally use Tower that they install on their VMs to manage GitLab processes.
Please send cover letter and CV:
Ken Harms
[email protected] or click Apply Now