Between efforts to invigorate Chicago as a birthplace for unicorns and a wave of company migration that recently brought 32 companies to the windy city, the local tech scene clearly hasn’t slowed its impressive growth. Companies of all sizes continue to thrive, and those looking for new job opportunities have the benefit of broad prospects.
These 11 companies are contributing to the vibrance of Chicago’s tech scene with innovations and growth — and they’re hiring.
Opportunities to volunteer, paid professional development and hybrid remote work count among their perks and benefits. Read on to learn more about each company, what they do, recent events and newsworthy accomplishments and the experiences of current employees.
What they do: A favorite of busy millennials, pre-portioned Home Chef meal kits help keep customers well fed without the hassle of grocery shopping. Home Chef delivers all the makings of a home-cooked meal and uncomplicated recipes with a retail footprint of more than 2,500 Kroger stores across the U.S.
Bringing home the bacon: Recently surpassing a spicy $1 billion in annual sales according to Blue Book Services, Home Chef is setting the table with searing success.
Core values: Built In interviewed Home Chef’s CEO, Pat Vihtelic, on the company’s DEI initiatives. In 2021 the team welcomed a director of diversity, equity and inclusion to reinforce a welcoming, supportive and understanding company culture.
What they do: DFIN provides its clients with global risk and compliance solutions, including domain expertise, software and data analytics for all stages of business and investment lifecycles.
Rallying together: Venue Account Executive Stephanie Kovacevich recently shared her experience at DFIN: “I have a team behind me that is rooting for me as much as I am rooting for myself.”
Positioned for growth: With 31 job openings, DFIN is looking for talent across sales, engineering, finance and more.
What they do: Mastery provides a cloud-based transportation management solution, MasterMind, to help shippers, carriers and logistics service providers manage complex transportation needs.
Where they’re located: Mastery’s Chicago offices are located in West Side and Lake Forest, both accessible to transit with dining, shopping and coffee shops nearby. They also offer remote, onsite and hybrid options.
Looking ahead: Sales Director Danielle Prigge said of the company’s future: “It comes with a lot of responsibility, but those responsibilities foster a great sense of ownership and pride in what we are building, where we are heading and the impact we will have.”
What they do: Label Insight helps both consumers and companies enhance their understanding of the labels on their products. By gathering product information about packaged foods, Label Insight develops insights for companies to improve their labeling strategy, and communicates those insights to consumers for holistic label literacy.
New partnerships: In September, Label Insight announced its partnership with FARE, the largest private funder dedicated to food allergy research and education. The goal? Integrating the Label Insight database of more than 540,000 consumer packaged goods items into FARE’s upcoming app, which will help consumers make more informed decisions to meet their dietary needs.
Health from within: Company benefits include generous paid maternity and paternity leave, commuter benefits, educational assistance and management training programs and flexible time off.
What they do: In the era of cryptocurrency, DigitalMint enables consumers to buy Bitcoin instantly through Bitcoin ATM and teller locations. Using digital currencies as a tool for financial access and inclusion, DigitalMint aims to empower underserved and underbanked populations.
Currently hiring: Open positions include a backend engineer, cyber settlement associate, enterprise API sales manager and more.
National treasure: With ATM locations across the U.S. and a matching program for competitor markup rates, DigitalMint offers crypto customers an attractive and convenient avenue for building their digital currency assets.
What they do: Making Black Friday and consumerism feel a little less wasteful, e-commerce platform ShoppingGives offers customers the option to donate to their favorite causes when making a purchase.
Mission-driven: Account Manager Savannah White previously shared what drew her to work for ShoppingGives: “When I go to work every day, I’m fully confident that we’re helping to better the direct-to-consumer e-commerce world and our communities.”
Charitable matchmaker: Rounding out a holistic approach to giving back, ShoppingGives offers grant programs for nonprofits. Brands can also support nonprofits through the ShoppingGives platform through creative campaigns, special product collections or creative evergreen giving programs that align with corporate values.
What they do: Cribl provides customers with innovative and customizable controls to route security and observability data where it has the most value, helping them avoid wasteful practices and improve data strategy.
Remote first: Although Cribl is headquartered in San Francisco, it maintains a remote-first and distributed workforce to widen its scope of top talent.
Positivity prevails: In a recent interview, Principal Software Engineer John Chelikowsky previously shared, “As an early software engineer at Cribl, I know that no smoke and mirrors are involved. We have a great team, a fun and irreverent style of getting things done, an exciting technical roadmap, and a growing set of passionate customers.”
What they do: Productive Edge supports brands in their design and research methodologies, aligning people and processes within organizations to help them deliver transformative solutions and scale efficiently.
Cross-industry collaborations: Productive Edge’s strategic partners include Microsoft, Google Cloud, UiPath and DataRobot, allowing it to leverage best-in-class technology services and products to complement its own strengths.
Giving back: Through its PE Cares program, Productive Edge is helping the community by teaching local students about career fields in tech, participating in environmental cleanup programs, volunteering at food pantries and more.
What they do: Pricefx is a cloud-based software company that helps brands strategize their pricing for improved sales and market advantages.
Knowing the customer: Account Executive Vicki Roberts previously told Built In how she strategizes B2B sales: “We are selling to companies that price chemicals, tires, building materials, high-tech chips and more. You have to clearly understand the customer’s business, their opportunities for improvement and what is driving the opportunity for change.”
Promoting employee health: With perks like an onsite gym, 12 weeks of 100 percent paid maternity leave and the option to work fully remote, Pricefx is committed to employee wellness.
What they do: CMMS Data Group provides clients with its comprehensive engineering software, MVP Plant, enabling maintenance and facilities teams to increase reliability, capacity, productivity and profitability.
Competitive edge: Named one of Plant Engineering’s 2021 Product of the Year Finalists, CMMS’ MVP Plant software is in the running as a premier asset management system. The company has also been named to the Inc. 5000 for three consecutive years, from 2019 to 2021.
Elevating team members: To support its employees in their professional development, CMMS offers tuition reimbursement and paid industry certifications.
What they do: NielsenIQ is a trusted source for retail and consumer intelligence. Using comprehensive data sets and powerful insights, NielsenIQ enables businesses to make critical decisions confidently.
On the pulse: Located in the heart of the loop, NielsenIQ’s office is easily accessible to public transit and bustling businesses.
Leading by example: VP of Technology Subramanyam Kumarapuram previously told Built In how he finds success leading a hybrid remote team: “Deal with empathy, communicate openly, promote the spirit of one team, facilitate healthy conversation and ensure every team member is taken care of.”
