Want to build a rocket to Mars, win an Emmy or work with The Weeknd?
Or maybe growing a career in the booming industries of logistics, finance or advertisement is more your speed.
Either way, you can. After all, they don’t call Los Angeles the “city of dreams” for nothing: the rich local tech scene has again proven it has something for everyone. We found nine local companies building ground-breaking new solutions for a modern world — and they’re all hiring.
Go find your dream job.
What they do: Wave is on a mission to create a new kind of concert experience, based entirely in virtual reality. By creating concerts that fans attend in their own living room, they’re building a new way for music lovers to connect with their favorite artists, like John Legend and Imogen Heap, while maintaining the social aspect found during an in-person event.
Describe your company culture in one word. What made you pick that word?
Jammin’. Is that a real word? Not really, but it does capture the spirit of what it’s like to work at Wave.
We build products to empower musicians and many of us are musicians ourselves. When we are working together to create a new feature or solving a tough technical problem, our collaboration feels more like jamming with a group of musicians.
We are not merely following procedures and turning the cogs of a money machine; we are bouncing creative ideas off of each other and improvising new technology almost for the sheer joy of it. I have seen so many awesome, impactful things built by this team that started as a simple idea that others began riffing off of. I’d much rather be “jammin’ on a new feature” than “implementing according to specifications,” and that’s exactly what we do here at Wave.
I’d much rather be ‘jammin’ on a new feature’ than ‘implementing according to specifications.’”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?
The coolest project I’ve worked on recently was building The Weeknd’s virtual concert with TikTok, Republic Records and XO.
It was a high-stakes, high-profile show that demanded precision and professionalism from all of us, and I really enjoyed rising to the challenge. Working with an artist with such a refined identity and vision as The Weeknd provided us the perfect stage to showcase what an amazing bunch of talented people we have gathered at Wave.
The show saw many different iterations. With each new iteration of the tech stack and the art, we got a glimpse of a new level of badass that a virtual concert can be. Thinking back on the experience makes me grateful for such an awesome opportunity but even more importantly, makes me excited to see what incredible things we build next.
What they do: Why limit a story to one medium? That’s the thinking at Wonderstorm, the entertainment studio behind the Emmy Award-winning series “The Dragon Prince.” While that’s a laurel anyone could happily rest on, the team thinks there’s more to explore: They’re now busy building an accompanying video game to enable fans to further immerse themselves in the story.
Describe your company culture in one word. What made you pick that word?
Discovery. One way that our team has been trying to stay close during a time when we are more distant is to host a Zoom or Google Meet where we get together to share skills and techniques. We have UI designers learning to program, programmers learning to paint, writers learning to draw, designers learning creative writing and just about every other permutation possible.
Participation is not born out of some top-down requirement or to fill a production need; it is spurred purely out of curiosity and a desire to learn. The result is a team that is more empathetic to each other’s skillsets, workflows and professional needs because they understand each other’s roles at a deeper level.
Having worked at various points in my career as an artist, producer and now as an engineer, I feel at home at Wonderstorm knowing that it is a company that cares about fostering diversity of skills in its employees.
My skills as an engineer have grown to include a totally new language and engine.”
How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
I have been at Wonderstorm for a little more than two and a half years, and my biggest personal growth came from a team decision about a year into development when we chose to switch game engines. I faced a huge technical challenge of porting a year’s worth of code to an engine I knew nothing about. It was also challenging because part of how I evaluated myself came from the fact that I was hired for my experience with the engine that Wonderstorm had previously used. I felt a lot of responsibility in knowing I could help others on the team with their engine-related woes.
A year and a half after the big switch, the game is leaps and bounds beyond what we had done previously. Additionally, having to write the systems a second time has given us a chance to redesign them — and the code is better off for it. Over the course of the past one and a half years, my skills as an engineer have grown to include a totally new language and engine. That stemmed from the encouragement and support of the other members of the team, through sharing workflow tips in Slack and dropping knowledge in peer code reviews.
What they do: Relativity Space wants to 3D print a rocket and send it to Mars. Impressed yet? Using a mix of intelligent robotics, cutting-edge software and 3D printed metal, the company aims to put interplanetary travel and settlement on the map. With partners like the U.S. Air Force and NASA, Relativity Space’s dreams are out of this world — yet still in reach.
Describe your company culture in one word. What made you pick that word?
Purposeful. Purpose drives us to invent manufacturing technology that revolutionizes how we build rockets. We purposefully empower our teams to guide our mission, operations and culture so that we can advance far faster than anyone can individually.
There is no better place to look for our efforts in action than our vehicle architecture, which is significantly less complex both in part count and in operations than traditional vehicle architecture. While this is a great first step, our purpose extends much further than one vehicle or even one planet.
Our purpose extends much further than one vehicle or even one planet.”
How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
I am fairly new to Relativity, but even in my short time here I have had the opportunity to leverage my launch vehicle experience to shape our march toward the first flight of the Terran 1 rocket. That can be a little scary because it requires a deep trust in yourself. Thankfully, the team around me is both encouraging and brilliant, so I have full confidence that the vehicle engineering team and Relativity Space will succeed.
What they do: Think of Newegg as a one-stop-shop for every electronic you could ask for. Think equipment for gaming, entertainment, smart home, offices and more. Its global reach has enabled over millions of users to score deals on popular and niche tech alike.
Describe your company culture in one word. What made you pick that word?
Advancing. Newegg is in a growth phase. It’s a great time for others to join and leave their mark on the e-commerce space of tomorrow. Many employees are redefining our services beyond the traditional online consumer electronic business while advancing their careers. For example, Vincent Aguilar started as a customer service agent and now is now head of Newegg Bridge, a new division that provides customer service solutions to small businesses.
It’s a great time for others to join and leave their mark on the e-commerce space of tomorrow.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?
We launched and hired over 100 remote work-from-anywhere customer service agents across multiple states. It was an inter-company group collaboration that involved our IT, HR and customer service teams. These were traditional in-office positions, but we are fundamentally changing the structure of customer service at Newegg. Today, in an intensely competitive environment, it is imperative to reinforce our commitment and leverage the customer experience to create a sustainable advantage.
What they do: It’s hard to grow professionally if employees don’t have the tools they need to sharpen their skills. That’s why InStride is working to make educational programs available to companies through a white-label platform that connects them with a network of academic institutions. Employees can enroll in online programs that relate to the work they’re doing or to a new field of study, allowing them to advance their career. InStride’s network includes respected educational institutions, like the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Harvard Business School Online and more, ensure that team members are getting top-notch degrees, credentials and skills.
Describe your company culture in one word. What made you pick that word?
Inspiring. Through our work at InStride, I feel inspired not only by the direct impact we’re making on people’s lives, but also by the opportunity to scale this impact by empowering corporations to make a difference for their workforce.
Inspiration comes in other ways, too.
I’m inspired by our corporate partners who want to offer and support workforce education for their employees because they understand the value and impact it can have on their business and their people.
I’m also inspired on a daily basis by my colleagues who are intelligent and some of the best representatives of their disciplines. They are passionate and truly believe in making education accessible to everyone. Their dedication shows through their enthusiastic approach to day-to-day tasks and brainstorms, as well as recognizing the small and big wins and consistently celebrating the mission we’re working toward.
I’m inspired on a daily basis by my colleagues who are some of the best representatives of their disciplines.”
Lastly, I’m inspired by all the learners in our network who are working and studying at the same time. We’re lucky to be able to see the direct impact of our work on their lives and to celebrate their accomplishments. These employee-learners are going to school, sometimes for the first time, or going back to finish their schooling after decades. This isn’t an easy thing to do, yet they believe in the power of education and are willing to take this plunge and strive for success. It’s something that’s commendable and inspires me on a daily basis.
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?
I’ve had the opportunity to expand my role to take a more holistic approach to content strategy that is closely aligned with our product strategy. It’s been an amazing experience to work so closely with our product, design and marketing teams to create a strategy that goes beyond typical marketing efforts. Through discovery sessions with our partners, user testing, design sprints, and internal and external feedback, we’re able to push the limits of our content strategy and deliver stronger results.
As our CEO likes to point out, InStride is filled with people who have the mentality of “A-grade volunteers” and that really shows in our work and collaboration. I’ve learned so much this past year at InStride, especially from working closely with these teams.
What they do: NEXT Trucking is on a mission to simplify the world of trucking and shipping logistics by offering what the company calls “painless freight.” Some of NEXT’s tools include a marketplace for truckers to find their next job, shipment tracking, cost-saving freight solutions and more. To date, the company’s moved over $50 billion in cargo and doesn’t show signs of slowing down: Helping them along the road to success is a cool $97 million in funding.
Describe your company culture in one word. What made you pick that word?
Driven. What excited me most about joining NEXT was the innate focus on drivers, from decision-making at the executive level to choices that are made in product.
Recently, during National Truck Driver Appreciation week, NEXT team members were out in full force providing free truck washes, meals and distributing personal protection equipment to drivers in Southern California. This event was just one way team members across the organization are working together for a greater cause. We are driven and dedicated to making a difference in the lives of drivers, even beyond the products we are building.
We are dedicated to making a difference in the lives of drivers, even beyond the products we are building.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?
At NEXT, it is critical that we explore ways to simplify the driver experience and streamline the various behind-the-scenes operations that support them. As we constantly work to improve our product for drivers, I am currently focused on automation. For example, one project I am working on is to have our AI populate the “perfect” job that matches a driver’s profile. This tool will ensure driver’s have the first pick of preferred lanes rather than spending valuable time searching through all available jobs.
While I have an extensive background in building marketplaces, the shipping and logistics industry is still new to me. This opportunity at NEXT has allowed me to learn about the unique marketplace dynamics, the current pain points this industry is facing and how I and the team at NEXT can aim to solve them.
What they do: PaymentCloud aims to provide a more affordable, transparent payment processing service to small businesses, e-commerce companies and large firms alike. Through trainings, workshops and guidance, techies at PaymentCloud quickly get up to speed in navigating the world of finance and payments so they can better design products that meet the needs of thousands of merchants across the country.
Describe your company culture in one word. What made you pick that word?
Innovative. PaymentCloud remains constant in its attempt to grow and thrive within the financial tech industry. These efforts are attained through diverse collaboration via partnerships and acquisitions, as well as the implementation of in-house strategies to deliver quality service to merchants while managing workflow and positive rapport in the workplace. PaymentCloud continues to move the needle and provide beneficial outcomes for both its merchants and employees.
PaymentCloud remains constant in its attempt to grow and thrive within the financial tech industry.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?
Collaborating with one of our partners to offer chargeback prevention services. We’ve expanded to provide comprehensive chargeback management and prevention solutions that recover a large amount of revenue lost, while reducing the merchant’s exposure to chargebacks and fraud.
I’m enjoying working closely with merchants and our partners while providing solutions to fraud-related issues and ensuring merchants get the most out of their processing services. Additionally, this opportunity has fostered my own professional growth within PaymentCloud and has increased the skills necessary to support my career goals.
What they do: Core Digital Media has been a player in online marketing and online consumer acquisition since 1999. With cutting-edge tools in data modeling, audience segmentation and lead generation, Core Digital Media has been named a top 10 advertiser online, according to the company.
Describe your company culture in one word. What made you pick that word?
Evolving. Since joining in early 2019, CDM was experiencing radical change in technologies, primarily in their approach to rejuvenating aging processes. One such initiative my team handles is modernizing our biggest monolithic web application using Javascript-based solutions. We’re also developing build pipelines for continuous integration and deployment, which makes shipping software that much more intuitive. Watching this company evolve this past year has been a special kind of experience.
I believe the opportunities are ripe for the taking.”
How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth have you seen in that time?
I have been at CDM since March 2019. Where I have grown the most are through opportunities to lead and the ability to experiment with new technology. Even though we’ve been around the block, we still very much operate with that scrappy, startup demeanor. Every voice can be heard, every idea acknowledged. We’re driven to win. Any victory or milestone we achieve, no matter the magnitude, is celebrated. I believe the opportunities are ripe for the taking.
What they do: ADP may have been around since the 1940s, but their tech is thoroughly modern. By using artificial intelligence, big data, cloud infrastructure and thoughtfully designed UX, ADP is transforming how companies can stay compliant and how people work and get paid. Need proof? The company urges you to check your pay stub — there’s a one in six chance ADP helped it reach you.
Describe your company culture in one word. What made you pick that word?
Diverse. On my team, we have a diverse mix of people, cultures and ages. We bring this diversity to everything we do and embrace our differences. We don’t always see eye to eye, but we do take the time to see things from another perspective. When differences come up, we take the time to talk about them. Sometimes, what someone else shares may make more sense to a situation than my approach. It is important to always keep your mind open to something different and not get stuck in the same old ways.
When differences come up, we take the time to talk about them.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and how did it help you grow professionally?
The coolest project I have worked on was a periodic payroll experience for our clients. Before our experience, a client would need to go to multiple places to verify the amount of their tax liability to be impounded, get a company summary of the payroll transmission, find the invoice or invoices associated with the payroll or add a missing jurisdiction. With our experience, they can do all of that in one place, shortening the time it takes to complete this nearly daily reconciliation.
Additionally, if a payroll comes in with a jurisdiction that is not set up, or another profile-related exception, an integration with the Tax Profile experience allows clients to correct these conditions promptly to ensure the taxes are deposited timely. If a client needs to, we have provided the ability to export all this key tax and payroll information for their record keeping. Lastly, with COVID-19 credit and deferrals changes, we now provide visibility of how much has been applied to each periodic transmission.
By understanding the client’s point of view, we have found that they are able to use the products with little to no training. When I sit in on client calls with the UX group, clients use words and phrases like “intuitive,” “awesome,” and “just what I needed.” This makes it all worthwhile.
