Global Hiring Guidelines

One of the things we love most about Automattic is that we hire so many amazing people from around the world. As a company based in the United States, however, we are required to comply with suggested hiring practices for sanctioned countries. This involves a vetting process or background checks on people that we hire from certain countries.

We cannot hire from several countries due to US countrywide embargoes banning any business with anyone in those countries. This list currently includes: North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Syria, Sudan, and the Crimean region of Ukraine. Although not subject to the same type of US embargo, there are other practical and legal considerations barring us from hiring or contracting with a resident of Mainland China.

In another group of countries, sanctions programs are not countrywide, but instead prohibit us from hiring certain listed individuals. Individuals end up on these sanctions lists for human rights violations, terrorism, international narcotics trafficking, and genocide.

We’ve implemented screening practices when hiring from countries with sanctions lists specific to individuals. These screenings minimize risk while still supporting our efforts to promote a global culture and inclusive environment at Automattic. We group countries by risk level and match our level of screening to the level of risk.

Under this process, we vet candidates against sanctions lists before the trial process. The extent of the vetting is dependent on the applicant’s country of residence and/or citizenship. For some countries, vetting is conducted by our Talent Operations team by screening sanctions lists on websites maintained by governments. For other countries, we engage a specialized vendor to perform a comprehensive vetting process.

We inform applicants that a screening will be performed before we offer a trial.