Help wanted: Browser warriors

Looking for work? If your browser engineering resume is up to date, you won't be for long.

Microsoft is hiring 16 people for its IE team. Depending on your susceptibility to Seasonal Affective Disorder, you could take a job in Norway at Opera Software, which is looking for 18 people to join its browser operations (Opera is also hiring in Sweden, Korea and Japan). Apple, which just expanded its open source browser project to the liking of KDE volunteers, is hiring an unspecified number of browser engineers for Safari. And as a Mozilla minion wrote in comments to the MSDN blog announcing a recent IE team opening, Mozilla, too, is hiring.

Microsoft's job postings--for software engineers, testers, program managers, builders, programming writers, an assistant and an evangelist--make clear that the company is intent on answering the most devastating charge Mozilla's Firefox partisans have leveled against IE 6, that it has facilitated a worldwide meltdown in Web browsing security.

"If you are passionate about the idea of working on a product that reaches millions of customers and helps them feel safer while browsing the Web--have we got the position for you!" reads one job posting. "The Internet Explorer Trustworthy Browsing team is focused on making the next generation of the browser more reliable and secure, and we are looking for an experienced Software Design Engineer in Test to help make it happen."

It remains to be seen how long it will take Microsoft to fill those positions. The company has faced significant pressure in the recruiting department from search and portal rival Google, which has also become a .

As if Google weren't enough of a problem, tensions have at Microsoft's recruiting department over difficulties in attracting talent to the company.

On second thought, why would you work for Microsoft, Opera, Apple, Mozilla or Google when you could work for CNET?