5 Chicago Companies Tackling Big Projects in 2023 — And Hiring Now

CES wrapped up in Las Vegas over the weekend following four days of announcements, reveals and glimpses into the future of tech. 

Wireless cocktail-making machines, color-changing cars and refrigerators, and robot dogs that teach kids how to code — these were just a few of the many unveiled products and prototypes. Behind the scenes of each of these enterprises are creative tech teams dedicated to transforming big ideas into reality. 

Back in Chicago, tech teams at five companies are beginning to tackle their own major projects in 2023. These undertakings — ranging from building out 5G wireless networks to optimizing hardware-based, low-latency trading systems — might have as much in common as robot dog and cocktail machine do with one another, but each demands innovative professionals

Lofty ambitions come with a host of growth and learning opportunities for both existing team members and new hires. Alex Itkin, Optiver’s chief technology officer, noted that a supportive company culture and flat hierarchical structure help his team overcome challenges. 

“The unique thing about Optiver is that your growth is measured by your impact on the firm, not your years of experience,” Itkin explained. “We lean on everyone’s expertise to solve problems and capture opportunities, regardless of seniority.”

Built In Chicago spoke with Itkin and tech leaders at Echo Global Logistics, Boingo Wireless, AllCampus and Affinitiv to get a sneak peek at the endeavors the new year holds — and what qualities and skills they’re searching for in candidates as their tech teams grow. 

The best part? Each of these companies is hiring now.

 

 

Founded in 1986, proprietary trading firm and market maker Optiver has a track record of providing liquidity to global markets.

 

What are the biggest projects and priorities your tech team has in 2023?

Optiver’s trading systems include thousands of interconnected processes that must add stability to the market and operate at peak efficiency during extreme conditions. To achieve this, our tech teams are continually engineering and improving systems that respond to market events in nanoseconds, analyze enormous volumes of data, value complex sets of instruments and optimize scarce bandwidth. All of this is done with extremely low tolerances for error or inefficiency.

Some key areas we’ll focus on in 2023 include: Further investing in world-class infrastructure across data center engineering, networking and systems engineering; growing our capacity for quantitative research with a focus on data, compute and research tooling; optimizing next-generation hardware-based low-latency trading systems; and designing scalable, distributed systems to support growing business across asset classes.

One of the exciting things about working in trading is trying to balance short- and medium-term initiatives to take advantage of emerging opportunities while also engineering for the long haul and positioning technology to enable business growth.

Optiver is a flat organization; our people are grouped around challenges and work together to succeed.”

 

What career growth opportunities accompany these projects for new hires?

The unique thing about Optiver is that your growth is measured by your impact on the firm, not your years of experience. As you build a career here, you’ll grow by taking on increasingly more challenging and impactful projects. You’ll also clearly see your impact on the business and be rewarded for the outcome, which doesn’t happen at every firm.

We also don’t have a massive organizational hierarchy that people must climb to grow and be successful. Optiver is a flat organization; our people are grouped around challenges and work together to succeed. We lean on everyone’s expertise to solve problems and capture opportunities, regardless of seniority.

Our organization prides itself on fostering a team-based environment where you have a chance to improve yourself and others in real time. There is a wealth of opportunities to lead projects, lead teams and mentor junior engineers. Our engineers also get to work with top professionals from across trading, quantitative research and business operations.

 

What qualities and skill sets do you look for in a new tech hire?

We value technologists that are collaborative, entrepreneurially driven and continuous learners. We want people who love working on problems end-to-end, thrive working across disciplines and want to be as close to the business problem as possible. Our best engineers are not only top-notch technologists but are also extremely motivated to make an impact on the firm. We look for both generalists and specialists across software engineer, hardware engineering, infrastructure and operations.

 

 

 

Echo Global Logistics is a technology-enabled provider of transportation and supply chain solutions, offering clients a platform that compiles and analyzes data, provides real-time visibility and simplifies tasks. 

 

What are the biggest projects and priorities your tech team has in 2023?

My team is unique in that we sit at the intersection of technology and business stakeholders. Change adoption bridges the gap between these two teams and provides the best approach for tactical rollout initiatives that ensure not only a high level of initial adoption but also continuous engagement. Our 2023 pipeline already has many large-scale initiatives on deck. As a newly created team, our biggest challenge is ensuring we receive all pertinent project information upfront and in a timely manner. Many times, this can be overcome through the encouragement of a team mentality — not only within the working team itself but also across various departments throughout the organization.

We plan to look for individuals both internally as well as externally, with the hopes of bringing in talent with fresh perspectives on the Change Adoption space.”

 

What career growth opportunities accompany these projects for new hires?

Many change initiatives are scoped for 2023, including the build-out of a new transportation management system, as well as multiple enhancements to current tools and systems already in place. Thus, there will be plenty of opportunities to grow and expand my team with headcounts of all experience levels! 

We plan to look for individuals, both internally and externally, with the hopes of bringing in talent with fresh perspectives on the change adoption space. Having a creative mindset, a willingness to learn and comfortability in interacting and presenting to senior leadership are must-haves for these roles. We pride ourselves on working collaboratively as a team.

 

What qualities and skill sets do you look for in a new tech hire?

New hires coming into the change adoption team are not required to have a full technological understanding of all things “tech.” Rather, we expect individuals to showcase a proactive willingness and excitement to learn — like asking questions and researching what is unknown. Part of my training and onboarding process is to provide a detailed background on how to understand the tech world while providing more real-time training. Other candidate qualities I look for include a passion for the company and excitement in driving positive change throughout the organization. Echo has a great culture with a fast-paced environment — being able to keep up is a requirement.

 

 

 

Boingo Wireless provides businesses and entities across industries with simple solutions to complex wireless challenges tailored to their specific needs.

 

What are the biggest projects and priorities your tech team has in 2023?

We have several exciting projects coming up in 2023. For the operations team, this means building Boingo’s converged 5G wireless networks at major transportation hubs, airports, sports arenas and entertainment venues nationally. Our priorities are to continue developing the best team in the industry, build world-class networks, stay ahead of the tech curve, and help our sales teams grow the business.

Across the board, we invest in training the team so everyone is ready for the next generation of technology.”

 

What career growth opportunities accompany these projects for new hires?

Individuals that join the Boingo Wireless operations team have several career path choices. The individual contributor track allows individuals to round out their experience, work on a diverse set of venues and deploy different types of wireless infrastructure. An individual can also take the leadership track, where they focus on managing large programs and individual project managers and grow into senior leadership roles. Across the board, we invest in training the team so everyone is ready for the next generation of technology.

 

What qualities and skill sets do you look for in a new tech hire?

I am fortunate to have an incredibly talented, diverse, and passionate operations team. When I interview new hires, flexibility is key! Given our constantly changing industry, the ability to learn and adapt is a must. I’m looking for people with integrity, solid work ethic and a thirst to thrive in our fast-paced environment. Industry knowledge, construction knowledge, and organizational and communication skills are also essential.

 

 

 

AllCampus is an online program management services provider that helps universities create values for students through partnerships, innovative technology and services. 

 

What are the biggest projects and priorities your tech team has in 2023?

As a technology team, we have a big list of priorities:

 

 

What career growth opportunities accompany these projects for new hires?

We place a heavy emphasis on sustaining a culture of learning, which means that new hires will have opportunities to learn any part of our stack across a few different products.

We invest in people by supporting their growth with pairing and mentoring from more experienced team members and management who are involved in the day-to-day delivery of software.

We are continuously evolving our toolset to solve business problems in the ways that our team sees as the best fit. We have technical oversight that prevents ad hoc solutions and tools, but we have regular architecture and system design discussions to make sure that we’re using the best tools, languages, and frameworks that help our team troubleshoot and ship.

 

What qualities and skill sets do you look for in a new tech hire?

Growth mindset, adaptability, resilience and perseverance. Enthusiasm for gaining experience learning new things on the job is also important —- we love people who embrace curiosity! Also crucial is the ability — and desire — to communicate effectively. Last, it’s always a plus when new engineers have experience working in a product development environment with a cross-functional team.

 

 

 

AdTech company Affinitiv provides end-to-end, data-driven marketing and software solutions focused on automotive customers.

 

What are the biggest projects and priorities your tech team has in 2023?

In 2023, we are preparing for significant growth across our product portfolio at Affinitiv. We are refactoring our platform from a monolithic to a loosely coupled microservices architecture and maturing how we integrate and exchange data with our partners. This will be delivered parallel to a pipeline of new product introductions and ground-up rebuilds.

We’re looking for problem-solving individuals with diverse backgrounds who thrive in a dynamic environment and are focused on innovation and performance optimization.”

 

What career growth opportunities accompany these projects for new hires?

There are currently numerous opportunities from analyst and engineer to quality assurance and information technology, spanning web and mobile development to analytics and data science. At Affinitiv, teams interact directly across the organization, and executive leadership and technology experts collaborate on implementing transformational changes in product, technology and strategy. Our culture creates opportunities for and rewards contribution. Training and movement across teams are highly encouraged, and there’s ample opportunity to extend your comfort zone, develop new skills and pursue meaningful career advancement.

 

What qualities and skill sets do you look for in a new tech hire?

We’re looking for problem-solving individuals with diverse backgrounds who thrive in a dynamic environment and are focused on innovation and performance optimization.