How can you tell if a company is growing? CNBC recently began asking its guests whether or not they were hiring at the present time. There may be turmoil in the markets and the economic outlook may remain uncertain, but at Sirius XM Radio (SIRI) growth seems to be accelerating.

A look at the job listings tells the tale. There are 111 positions posted at Sirius XM Radio that go back as far as 2009. 70 of these positions have been added since June of this year, with 28 new job postings being added in August 2010 alone. I discovered this after being forwarded a link to a specific job listing with Sirius XM that offered a potential glimpse into SatRad 2.0.The job postings cover a multitude of services that are required at Sirius XM. For starters, one exciting new opportunity suggests that the company is seeking to merge both its Sirius and XM platforms into a single database. The one complaint I hear repeatedly is that there remains a gap between Sirius and XM which creates confusion on the part of consumers. {membership}

• The Teradata Database Developer – ETL Developer will be responsible for the design, development, and management of large complex databases that are located on multiple servers in a diverse hardware environment across geographically separate data centers.
• The Teradata Database Developer -ETL Developer also is responsible for the maintenance of databases, which includes but is not limited to: export/import of tables, backup and recovery, security, and database tuning.
• He/She will perform programming necessary to transfer and/or share data and assumes responsibility for the design, coding, documentation, and implementation of database related scripts and queries.

A closer look at the listings reveals a clear and new direction that the company is aggressively seeking to go in. There seems to be a big push in the direction of streaming media applications, both in the aftermarket and OEM channels. Many of the streaming media positions seem to indicate a desire to offer on demand programming and content choices. We had recently reported this potential based on patent applications that we reviewed, and these job postings would appear to confirm our hypothesis.

Position Summary:The successful candidate will apply their experience in software development for real-time embedded systems to expand Sirius XM’s software framework used to build automotive and aftermarket products. This individual will be a key member of the team responsible for design, documentation, implementation, and validation of software components used by multiple internal and external customers to launch exciting new satellite radio audio and data services.

While another posting includes:

Primary areas of responsibility include customer self-service applications and web-based interfaces into our subscriber management system for use by customer care agents and subscribers.

All of this would seem to confirm “the buzz” regarding the future of Satellite Radio 2.0. While some might look to Internet Radio offerings such as Pandora as a threat to Sirius XM’s viability, it seems Sirius XM is finally looking at such web based platforms as an opportunity instead.

Article courtesy of  Brandon Matthews of SatwavesPro.com