If Silicon Valley could be considered the King’s Landing of the tech world, then Seattle might be described as the Winterfell of Westeros.
For those who didn’t embrace the cultural phenomenon that was Game of Thrones, this is to say that Silicon Valley may often be viewed as the industry’s mainstream headquarters — but it doesn’t mean that Seattle isn’t leading the charge to innovation as the “King in the North,” and deserving of crown-worthy recognition of its own.
Just look at customer engagement platform Logixboard, for example. After securing a Series B funding round this year, the company plans to use an impressive $32 million to improve supply chain demands and scale at a rapid pace.
At insurance and financial service company Assurance, employees are buzzing about the projects they’re tackling within the industry and actively disrupting the status quo every day.
Built In Seattle dug deeper into five featured companies this month to showcase all the reasons job seekers should be paying attention, and why this Pacific Northwest industry hub is just as worthy to sit on tech’s Iron Throne.
Happen to like what you see? While winter might not be coming yet, rapid summer growth certainly is. Many of these companies’ teams just so happen to be hiring new recruits to face the future head-on.
What they do: By utilizing machine learning and human expertise on their online ecosystem, Assurance creates personalized plans to match individual insurance and financial service needs.
Reasons to stick around: After three years at Assurance, Shirley Yiong still continuously finds new ways to grow. “I’ve always been excited about tackling ‘the hard stuff’ and as a product person, Assurance provides me ample opportunities to innovate, invent, improve and deliver for our customers,” she previously told Built In. “Assurance is in a unique position to challenge and disrupt the status quo. We are just getting started.”
Open roles aplenty: Assurance is currently looking to fill more than 40 open roles, including a UX writer, data engineer, senior data scientist, frontend software engineer, a technical program manager and more.
What they do: Logixboard offers a cloud-based customer engagement platform that seeks to simplify the freight process for both shippers and forwarders to help the global economy move more efficiently.
Major funding: After an impressive Series B funding round in January, Logixboard now has a hefty $32 million to put toward solving supply chain woes. The company plans to use the influx of funds to build out new product capabilities and integrations, as well as triple its workforce.
A work culture for everyone: “We’ve built an awesome team of people who are smart, curious and eager to help wherever they can,” VP of Product Agasthya Upadhya previously told Built In. “Most of the team didn’t come from backgrounds in global freight but have jumped in and learned, and trained new employees as they joined the company. The company also believes firmly in opportunity creation — if you want to give something a shot, all you need to do is ask.”
What they do: Founded by the creators of Apache TVM, OctoML provides a democratic solution for companies looking to utilize machine learning — even if they don’t have the resources or know-how to build AI themselves.
Impressive employee perks: After joining the team, employees can enjoy eye-catching benefits like performance bonuses, a home office stipend, mentorship programs, mental health benefits to alleviate burnout, unlimited PTO and remote work opportunities.
Now hiring: Looking for a new career path in 2022? OctoML currently has available positions for machine learning systems engineers, director of product marketing, principal product managers and more.
What they do: Possible Financial is on a mission to help underserved populations improve their financial health. By providing alternatives to predatory payday loan companies, Possible offers funds that are more accessible, are easier to pay off and actually help users build credit.
Remote culture buzz: As a fully distributed company, Possible still cherishes connection. “We use awesome tools like Slack — where we have many different channels based on departments, roles and even projects — to constantly stay connected with our ever-growing team,” Operations Manager Leeza Paredes previously told Built In. “Having a designated channel to talk about a specific topic makes for an amazing agile environment. Though we rely heavily on instant messaging, I know my coworkers are always a quick Google Hangouts video away, which takes our meetings to the next level with breakout room activities.”
Accepting new applications: Teams at Possible are currently looking to fill multiple roles like a QA manual engineer, frontend software engineer, director of growth marketing and more.
What they do: Project Archer is an augmented reality studio dedicated to apps in the retail space. The business creates productive and immersive real-world shopping experiences.
What’s got leadership buzzing: “In designing the future, we constantly find ourselves pulling from related experiences in the past,” CEO Jordan Weisman previously told Built In. “One of Project Archer’s strengths is that we have a wide variety of pasts that are all very different in their origins and lengths. Older team members might introduce references from The Jetsons, while younger ones introduce something amazing from a K-pop band on TikTok. The learning is universal across the age spectrum and the combination of cultural and temporal experiences is generating some amazing work.”
Paving future paths: For those looking to build a clear career path, Project Archer offers plenty of opportunities for professional development like job training sessions, lunch and learns, online course subscriptions, allotted learning times and promotions from within.
