Looking to join a small team with a seed round under their belts and big dreams? Or maybe you’d prefer to work at a company that was recently acquired for over a billion dollars or one that just hit unicorn status. The Chicago tech ecosystem is incredibly diverse, with established and high-valued companies existing right alongside scrappy startups looking to make their own mark on the city. What’s even better is that many of these companies are hiring, including the 14 profiled here.
Our list includes pillars of the Chicago tech community, like Yello and Echo Global Logistics, along with newer arrivals to the Windy City, like Gearset. Continuing below to learn more about these and 11 other companies, including what some of their best benefits are, the roles they’re hiring for and the biggest news they’ve made in the past few months.
What they do: Echo Global Logistics offers freight brokerage and managed transportation solutions that use AI, machine learning and load-matching algorithms to streamline supply chain management and increase transparency.
Exit Plan: After going public in 2008, Echo will once again be a private company after a September acquisition by private equity firm The Jordan Company in a deal valued at a cool $1.3 billion. Brian Higgins, The Jordan Company’s head of logistics and supply chain, pledged his firm’s support for Echo in a company statement.
“We strongly support the team’s vision for continued growth and look forward to partnering with them as we bring expanded financial resources and expertise to accelerate Echo’s technology leadership that has set the company apart from its competitors,” Higgins said.
Opportunities Aplenty: At the time of this writing, Echo has 53 openings at its Chicago office. The roles range from entry-level (AP rep) to senior positions (principal cloud engineer), with the engineering and sales teams contributing nearly half of the open positions.
What they do: Lever is a combination CRM and applicant tracking system used by companies like Netflix, Deloitte and Mercedes-Benz to recruiting top talent.
All Carrot, No Stick: During the pandemic, Lever began offering employees family planning as a benefit through the company Carrot. Sarah Britton, senior manager of employee operations, said this came as the result of a listening tour of “Leveroos.”
“Offering a tool to help employees achieve their goals of starting or growing a family, no matter where they are in their family-planning journey, is something important to support our employees,” Britton said.
Directors In-demand: Lever currently has openings for two director positions: a director of engineering (product) and a director of demand generation and operations. Notably, both job descriptions include a roadmap detailing responsibilities and expectations in the first month, first three months, first six months and first 12 months.
What they do: Gearset’s release management tool is designed to bring DevOps to Salesforce development and help speed up deployments.
Striking the Right Balance: Gearset offers all employees a whopping 25 days of paid-time off from day one. Other health and wellness benefits include free subscriptions to Headspace and Calm along with free stress and wellness therapy.
Proud Parents: Gearset is a startup spun-off from Redgate Software, a software developer based in Cambridge, England. Redgate was founded in 1999 and has offices in Cambridge, Berlin and the United States.
What they do: DigitalMint offers consumers a physical way to purchase bitcoin with its bitcoin ATMs and walk-up teller windows.
No Monkeying Around: Daniel Smith joined DigitalMint in 2017 and in a 2020 interview with Built In he detailed why he decided to stick around and grow his career there.
“Instead of just being a code monkey locked in a basement writing unit tests, I’ve gotten the opportunity to touch all parts of the business,” Smith said. “I have progressed from being an inexperienced developer suffering from imposter syndrome to a confident manager.”
Home Buying With Bitcoin: This past summer, DigitalMint announced a partnership with the Hudye Group, a real estate and business investment firm based in Scottsdale, Arizona. The partnership sees DigitalMint facilitating the purchase of properties listed by the Hudye Group, with buyers given the option to pay in Bitcoin or Ethereum.
What they do: CMMS Data Group is a developer of computerized maintenance management system software, which is used by companies in manufacturing and heavy industries to manage their maintenance technicians, parts and equipment.
Three in a Row: CMMS Data Group was named to the Inc. 5000 for the third straight year in 2021. “It serves as a testament to the ongoing impact that our products and services have had on our clientele and industry over the years,” CEO Ruth Hughes said in a statement.
Career Building, Not Job Hopping: Kimberly Krenger, customer onboarding manager, is proof that not everyone in tech is a job hopper. Krenger described how her eight-year (and counting) career at CMMS unfolded in a 2020 Built In interview.
“I started as an office manager wearing multiple hats, transitioned to sales and then became a customer onboarding specialist for a few years before I became the manager,” Krenger said. “My professional growth is tied to keeping up with ever-changing technology, our internal products, systems and processes, and the whole maintenance and reliability world.”
What they do: Productive Edge is a digital consulting and strategy firm whose specialities include IoT, the blockchain and artificial intelligence.
PE Cares: This internal program gives employees the opportunity to give back to the Chicago community. In addition to volunteering at animal shelters, the Greater Chicago Food Depository and the Lincoln Park Conservancy, employees are also encouraged to donate their time and tech skills to organizations like the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Black Tech Scholars program and TechGirlz.
Veteran Tech Talent Wanted: Productive Edge is hiring for a senior site reliability engineer, senior front-end developer and a senior Java developer. The SRE role is for ThinkTime, a Productive Edge-backed startup, and requires over five years of experience as a developer and SRE. For the senior front-end role, in addition to experienced developers, recent comp sci grads with internships are encouraged to apply. For the Java role, applicants should have sound technical skills — including experience working with databases and microservice architecture — and be comfortable leading skill-sharing events like lunch and learns.
What they do: Bringg is a logistics company whose cloud-based platform is used by companies like Coca-Cola, Walmart and KFC to manage last-mile delivery and fulfillment.
Unicorn Sighted: Bringg reached unicorn status this summer after closing a $100 million Series E round that valued the company at $1 billion. In addition to hiring, the company will also use part of the funding to expand via mergers and acquisitions and strategic partnerships.
Don’t Skip Leg Day: Bringg is big on health and wellness. How big? In addition to stocking its office kitchen with organic food, the company offers all employees a membership to LA Fitness.
What they do: BrokerX is a software platform designed to enable energy brokers to sell more power by pairing a CRM with an automated pricing engine and a contract/proposal generation tool.
Stealthy Start: BrokerX operated in stealth mode for half a year before officially launching in early 2019. In a 2019 interview with Built In, co-founder Brett Jurishi detailed how the decision gave the company time to find the perfect product-market fit.
“We were able to have customers prior to us even building the product, which allowed us to take their pain points and illustrate them within the platform,” Jurishi told Built In. “We started with market fit.”
Work-life Balance: Instead of asking employees to track their vacation days, BrokerX offers unlimited PTO. The company also offers commuter benefits and the option for a more flexible working schedule. Other tasty benefits include company equity and a 401(k).
What they do: Online retailers use ShoppingGives donations technology to seamlessly integrate charitable giving opportunities into their checkout processes.
Grab the Horns, Get the Bull: Each Monday, the ShoppingGives team awards the “game bull” to an employee who scored a big win the previous week, or to put it another way, to the person who grabbed the bull by the horns. Giving out the “game bull” is meant to be a fun way for the whole team to share and celebrate individual accomplishments.
Major Backer: ShoppingGives is backed by Serena Ventures, an early stage VC fund founded by tennis superstar Serena Williams, winner of 23 major tournaments. Williams explained why she was drawn to ShoppingGives in a company statement announcing her firm’s investment.
“ShoppingGives aligned with my values of investing in businesses and entrepreneurs who are making a difference,” Williams said. “ShoppingGives is charting the course for all businesses to stand forth as agents of change in our society.”
What they do: Topstep provides traders a simulated environment where they can grow their skills in futures, foreign exchange and stock trading, with the cream of the crop receiving funded accounts that can earn real profits.
Four-Day Work Week: During the beginning of the pandemic, Topstep offered employees the opportunity to work four days a week for 10 hours each day, with those who worked Fridays were prohibited from scheduling meetings. What initially began as a pilot program has since become enshrined as a permanent offering for employees.
A Recognized Workplace: Topstep was recognized by both Built In and Crain’s Chicago as a top workplace in 2021. The company was No. 26 on Built In Chicago’s “50 Best Small Companies to Work For” list and was one of the 100 finalists that made the cut for the Crain’s list.
What they do: Yello’s talent acquisition platform is designed to offer companies a single solution for end-to-end recruiting, from sourcing talent to post-interview candidate evaluations.
Learning Day: Yello offers numerous professional development opportunities to employees, including mentorship and support for attending role-related conferences and seminars. In addition, Yello holds a “Learning Day” every other Friday where employees can take a half day to pursue any kind of learning.
Built-in Diversity: Yello as a company is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and has also built DEI features into its product, including DEI metrics that analyze how diverse a company’s recruiting efforts are. This past summer, Yello merged with WayUp, a job seeker database focused on diverse candidates who are new and recent college graduates, and WayUp’s database of over 6 million people is currently being used to power Yello’s campus recruitment solution.
What they do: Dais provides a suite of no-code software solutions designed to make it easier for insurance companies to quickly launch new digital insurance products.
A Technical Sales Team: According to Chief Revenue Officer Aaron Larson, the company’s sales team doesn’t just know how to talk about its product: They know how to use it, too.
“They can actually build insurance products themselves for demo purposes or fun,” Larson told Built In in an interview. “We’ve had some pretty entertaining products built as a result, and one of our sales team won our ‘storefront carving competition’ last Halloween!”
Calling all Engineers: Dais currently has three openings for engineers: a senior full-stack engineer, DevOps engineer II and a senior software engineer. Interested engineers should have a firm handle on object-oriented programming languages like Java and Python are have experience working with cloud infrastructure.
What they do: Brands partner with e-commerce consulting firm Tall Ridge to grow their sales on Amazon and Walmart along with up-and-coming marketplaces.
A European Approach to PTO: Tall Ridge offers its employees a generous amount of paid-time off. New employees receive 15 days while those who reach the maximum years of service tier get 25 days off.
Culture That Makes a Difference: Morgan Rosemann was an account manager at Tall Ridge in 2019 — the company was known as Direct Commerce Group then — and is now senior director of client strategy. In 2019, she spoke to Built In about how the company’s culture enables it to stay ahead of the curve and competition.
“E-commerce is constantly changing, and working for a company that is always willing to adapt and encourages brainstorming helps us all be successful,” Rosemann said. “Our culture helps us stay on top of current trends and provide the best services to our clients.”
What they do: Paradox is the creator of Olivia, a conversational AI assistant created to automate routine recruiting tasks like screening resumes, scheduling interviews and answering questions about benefits.
Welcome to the Team: Paradox acquired Traitifty, a Baltimore-based company and the creators of a visual-based personality assessment tool, in a deal this past summer. CEO Aaron Matos commented on the deal in a company statement.
“They share our passion for recruiting and our philosophy that software should make things simpler, faster, and easier — not add more work,” Matos said.
Forbes Approves: Paradox was named to Forbes’ second annual “America’s Best Startup Employers” list. The list was created in partnership with market research company Statista and evaluated over 2,500 companies based on employer reputation, employee satisfaction and growth.
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