How long has it been since you were last really excited about where you work and what you do? It’s OK if the answer is, “a long time.”
Not everyone gets to go to work and tour factories building rocket parts like Skyler Adams, a product engineer at First Resonance. Building machine learning models is all in a day’s work for data scientists, but at Tala the company makes it a point to emphasize that their models make decisions that impact real people with real hopes and dreams.
If working with rockets, human-centered machine learning models and having a calendar filled with meetings that actually help you grow professionally instead of just taking up time sounds appealing, then we have good news. All three of these companies are hiring. Even better? There are a handful of other Los Angeles tech companies featured here that offer similar opportunities to do engaging work and build your career.
The only question that remains is, “What are you waiting for?”
Epirus is a technology company developing solid-state, software-defined directed energy systems that enable counter-electronics effects and power management solutions to optimize power efficiency in defense and commercial applications.
What’s one thing that makes Epirus’ company culture unique or special?
The fun we all have while working on such important technology. Epirus is full of some of the funniest, most creative and brilliant people I have ever met. From Slack channels dedicated to pet pictures, health and fitness — and, yes, even memes — our senses of humor and individuality are on full display day in and day out.
We’re able to enjoy ourselves while continuously exceeding expectations companywide. We’re rethinking how fast change can be accomplished and we’re having fun doing it!
Epirus recognizes what many companies still fail to; if the best is expected from you, you need to be your best self.”
What’s one company resource, program or benefit that has really enhanced your experience as an employee?
Unlimited paid-time off has gotten a bad reputation for being a strategy startups employ to pressure employees into taking less time off than if they were allotted a specific amount of days. I came to Epirus expecting this now common experience with our unlimited PTO policy, but my assumption was, fortunately, very much wrong. With Covid-19 leading many to the edge of burnout, the importance our executive leadership places on taking and enjoying PTO is something I’m especially grateful for.
At Epirus, leadership has its pulse on the stressors, workloads and deadlines of every team member. The entire company is encouraged to take time off to truly unplug, rest and recharge to increase productivity and ensure we stay agile in everything we do as a company. Epirus recognizes what many companies still fail to; if the best is expected from you, you need to be your best self. At Epirus, our thriving culture allows our team to bring their authentic selves to work every day. Benefits such as unlimited PTO also enable us to bring our best and most motivated selves to work every day.
Inspire is an energy technology company that offers people the ability to power their homes using clean energy for a flat monthly fee.
What’s one thing that makes Inspire’s company culture unique or special?
Collaboration, hands down. Our team is incredibly close and always available to join forces or help on any matter. I recently led a project where I needed to align, collaborate and share with multiple teams to create the foundations of the main product. Throughout the project lifecycle, people went above and beyond to develop top-notch experiences for our customers.
We identified an opportunity to gather member insights from our customer support team. Since they’re the closest team to our customers and extremely busy taking care of them, we didn’t want to waste their time, so we planned to be specific, organized and purposeful.
Healthy collaboration happens with no ego, only love and good intentions. It’s incredible to see how the culture at Inspire enables us to work better together and fosters the diverse approaches that shape the products we create.
The life I have chosen to live could not happen without the understanding, support and benefits Inspire offers.”
What’s one company resource, program or benefit that has really enhanced your experience as an employee?
Without a doubt, Inspire’s efforts to support a flexible work-life balance. Our people team is always looking for ways to put employees first. Some examples of this in action include unlimited flexible time-off, wellness days and support for new ways to work.
I am a full-time working mom of two beautiful young kids, as well as a co-founder of a nonprofit that helps people find jobs in climate or create solutions that have a positive impact on our environment. Additionally, my family and I travel for long periods to Spain, where we visit our family to ensure our Hispanic traditions carry on to the next generation.
I am grateful to work at an understanding company that fosters a healthy culture and work-life balance. It’s a mutual dance between the impact I have on the company and the investment they make in me every day. The life I have chosen to live could not happen without the understanding, support and benefits Inspire offers.
System1 creates desktop and mobile apps, search engines and websites that are designed to help companies find and acquire new customers.
What’s one thing that makes System1’s company culture unique or special?
System1 invests in training and professional development. Every employee gets a dedicated education stipend for each calendar year with no need to ask for it or make a budget request! I’ve used these education funds to go through Seth Godin’s altMBA and for product-specific coursework from Reforge. Plus, the company invests in live leadership development training, not just online courses that check the “leadership development” box. It’s just one example, but it shows how System1 is a people-first company.
My role has expanded to include multiple business lines, engineering teams and account management teams.”
What’s one company resource, program or benefit that has really enhanced your experience as an employee?
I had no adtech experience when I joined System1 in 2019. Sure, I could leverage my previous product background in my role, but the tangible advertising and search background was something I didn’t have in my professional arsenal. My new coworkers onboarded me to the data-focused and challenging space of search, our engineering stack and the business relationships we have at System1.
System1 is a place to grow professionally. Over the years, my work has continued to grow in scope and breadth. My role in product management has expanded to include multiple business lines, engineering teams and account management teams. I definitely have a crazy calendar, but it’s been so much fun and I’ve learned so much along the way!
First Resonance is a software company building technology for an industry that has mostly been overlooked by tech: manufacturing. The company’s platform, ION, is designed to improve collaboration between engineers and factory operators and make it easier to track parts and processes throughout production.
What’s one thing that makes First Resonance’s company culture unique or special?
We designed our company around a couple of communication apps, like Notion and Slack, which makes it really easy to get to any information or tool. From Slack, I can chat with anyone, see how our production servers are doing, submit a support ticket, listen to customer feedback, get notified about meetings or jump to a system document I’m writing.
It saves a bunch of time and reduces the amount of times I get stuck because I have to ask one of my coworkers for a simple piece of information. When I release a new software feature, I can easily write the manual on how to use it, see how many people are using it and check for errors and customer feedback all in the same place.
I recently helped make a standard procedure system so that a rocket company could use the same instructions every time they inspected their rocket parts.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
Our customers use ION, our manufacturing platform, to track big engineering projects in robotics, autonomous vehicles, electric airplanes, 3D printers and rockets. I recently helped make a standard procedure system so that a rocket company could use the same instructions every time they inspected their rocket parts. It was really cool to tour their factory and see ION open on all the computers on the rocket manufacturing line.
SmartFinancial is an insurance marketplace where consumers can purchase insurance policies for their home, car, business, and more.
What’s one thing that makes SmartFinancial’s company culture unique or special?
SmartFinancial finds unique and fun ways to drive a collaborative and immersive culture. We have employees all over the country and it is important that they feel connected every day. Management always keeps this in mind and explores different ways to keep employees engaged and feeling valued. Our most recent virtual holiday party made me feel more connected to my colleagues and showcased how great our people are.
SmartFinancial finds unique and fun ways to drive a collaborative and immersive culture.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
In insurance sales, we recently adopted a choice model that allows us to better connect our customers with the right product that meets all their insurance needs. We understand that each customer is unique and as their insurance expert, they trust us with providing a quality experience that affords them the peace of mind of feeling protected against the unexpected. Helping the agency move to the choice model has been a huge undertaking but one that I’ve enjoyed because it has allowed us to better service our customers.
Tala is a fintech company that offers loans to people around the world who cannot access traditional lines of credit. Loans applications are processed entirely through its app with approvals sent instantaneously. Tala currently operates in India, Kenya, Mexico and the Philippines.
What’s one thing that makes Tala’s company culture unique or special?
The fact that, not just our customers, but their stories, are front and center. Data is our secret sauce, but there is a constant recognition of the human beings and all their hopes and struggles that lie behind the data. That manifests itself in how we build our technology. For example, with our core machine learning models, we have to think about the impact on an individual person. If we cannot get our decisioning right, we may be denying them the opportunity of financial agency. The high stakes of each decision our technology aids keeps customers at the forefront of how we ideate and innovate.
Data is our secret sauce, but there is a constant recognition of the human beings and all their hopes and struggles that lie behind the data.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
I am really excited about our 2022 vision, which is “Tala for All.” We are increasing the breadth of choice we offer beyond our traditional lending product. With that, we are leveling up our personalization engine so that we can leverage data in more of our offerings. For example, which due date should we recommend to increase the chance that someone can pay back a loan? What are alternative lending products we can recommend? How do we use data and ML to build a person’s financial health? All of these are tied to our company mission of enabling financial access to the underserved.
InStride is an edtech company that specializes in workforce education. InStride partners with academic institutions like Arizona State University, The City University of New York and the University of Virginia to offer both traditional degrees, professional certificates and a wide-variety of upskilling courses.
What’s one thing that makes InStride’s company culture unique or special?
I get to work with incredibly talented people. Everyone has a love for lifelong learning and this quality really colors how we work together. People want to share what they know, collaborate and grow as a team. Our company mission is to enable employers to bring life-changing educational opportunities to their employees and create a culture of learning, so it’s important that we have that same culture of learning within InStride.
Everyone has a love for lifelong learning and this quality really colors how we work together.”
What’s the coolest project you’ve worked on recently, and what did you enjoy most about it?
I worked with the security team at InStride on a major compliance project that involved a wide array of teams and departments. It’s exciting because the project is going to make a big impact on security compliance at InStride and it was fun being able to work with so many teams where everyone was excited to contribute to the project’s success.
Golden Hippo develops and operates direct-to-consumer health, wellness and pet care brands. Its brands are created in partnership with medical professionals and industry experts.
What’s one thing that makes Golden Hippo’s company culture unique or special?
We all have a passion for understanding the business and changing lives. As a brand manager, I have been able to interact with every department, learn how the entire business operates, and work with every team to drive growth and push new initiatives.
I came in with very little management experience and Golden Hippo helped me become the best manager I can be.”
What’s one company resource, program or benefit that has really enhanced your experience as an employee?
One of my favorite company resources has been the management training program. I came in with very little management experience and Golden Hippo helped me become the best manager I can be by teaching me how to handle conflicts, grow an amazing team and become a stronger leader.
