With high growth rates, big tech breakthroughs and highly sought after professionals, is Austin on its way to becoming the next Silicon Valley?
Austin was ranked in first place as the best tech city for IT jobs in the United States by CompTIA’s Tech Town Index 2020, a position the city retained from 2019 after jumping up from third place in 2018. With Elon Musk currently building Tesla’s next U.S. factory in Austin and Oracle announcing in December 2020 that its headquarters would be relocating to the city, the city’s tech growth seems to be on an upward trajectory that can’t be stopped. But which fast moving companies are already in on the action?
This month, Built In is highlighting six industry leaders across Austin who prioritize people, growth and groundbreaking tech. And if that isn’t exciting enough, they’re all hiring!
What they do: Bright Health’s intelligent technology platform connects healthcare consumers, payers and providers with the common goal of lowering the costs of healthcare. The platform integrates financing, care delivery and technology to create a smoother, easier and more personalized healthcare experience for consumers.
A focus on culture: With daily syncs, remote work options, diversity employee resource groups and fully stocked fridges with snacks and drinks, Bright Health prioritizes a positive workplace culture. The company offers employees two different health insurance plan options, generous wellness stipends, mental health benefits and fitness subsidies.
Now hiring: Bright Health is currently looking to hire for over 50 positions both in office and remote. If you’re looking for a new career opportunity, the company is hiring professionals in sales, engineering, operations, product and more!
What they do: Working to make legal assistance more accessible, LegalZoom launched an online platform in 2010, allowing users to speak with independent attorneys. The company now operates in both the U.S. and the U.K. as a way for people to get personalized legal and compliance advice.
Care for the community: LegalZoom offers employees paid volunteer time and matches charitable contributions. The company also partners with nonprofit organizations and even has a dedicated LegalZoom Service Committee, proving their dedication to giving back to the wider community.
Happy birthday: LegalZoom knows how to celebrate a birthday! Employees are able to take one paid day off during their birthday month to relax with family and friends or celebrate how they choose.
What they do: Aceable is a mobile education platform creating affordable and convenient educational content to help people pursue accessible continued education.
People-first: Listed as one of Built In’s Best Places to Work in Austin, Aceable offers employees generous time off programs, a flexible work schedule, free roadside assistance subscriptions and even cold brew coffee on tap.
Learning and development: Aceable offers all full-time employees a $500 per year education stipend, LinkedIn Learning and regular lunch and learn groups. The company also encourages cross-functional training and offers customized development tracks to help employees reach their personal and professional goals.
What they do: Saatva is a direct-to-consumer luxury mattress and home furnishings company with particular focus on premium materials, back support and high-quality customer service.
Collaborative leadership: “We always strive to include as many voices as we can in the decisions that impact the rest of the team,” Senior Engineer Meredith Parr told Built In in 2021. With daily sync, group brainstorming sessions and a highly diverse management team, the company makes collaborative and inclusive leadership a top priority.
Employee perks: Saatva covers 100 percent of employee fitness services and activities, plus generous paid vacation and sick time. The company also offers commuter benefits, parking options, casual dress code and a flexible work schedule.
What they do: Tend is a member-driven digital banking platform with the goal of helping users achieve financial freedom. The membership model combines financial technology with social interaction to make accessing, moving and growing money easy, fast and collaborative.
New on the scene: The company officially launched in August 2021, and the mobile banking app is available to iOS and Android mobile devices in the U.S. and Mexico. Members are able to try the Tend app for free during a trial period, after which subscriptions cost $9.95 per month.
Now hiring: Tend is currently looking to hire Austin-based professionals, including a head of service operations, a customer satisfaction manager and a social media and content manager. The company plans to hire 100 employees by the end of 2022.
What they do: Karros Technologies works to ensure students get to school safely and on time. The company’s platform uses route optimization, GPS tracking and predictive machine learning to deliver reliable and real-time transportation information directly to the hands of students and parents.
Family-focused: Karros offers employees generous parental leave, flexible work schedules and personalized return-to-work programs post parental leave. Karros also sponsors company-wide family events so all employees can get to know each other and their loved ones.
Engineers wanted: The company is currently looking to hire three Austin-based engineers to work on exciting projects across the platform. “A project we’re currently working on is live and immediate distribution of routing information,” CTO Hong-Linh Nguyen previously told Built In. “The challenge is both domain specific and technical. It gives us the opportunity to use new and exciting streaming technologies and frameworks.”
