Don’t we all want to work at companies that gets us excited to roll out of bed each morning?
Well, we found eight Boston companies with open roles for professionals looking for opportunities to grow their careers. Employees at these companies — ranging from a surgical robot provider to an enterprise PostgreSQL solution — describe their career growth and the welcoming, collaborative cultures that make them proud to be on these teams. Learn more about these growing organizations and the experiences you might have if you join them.
What they do: Using AI and machine learning capabilities, Kensho Technologies collects, analyzes and visualizes insights from S&P Global’s data sets to help clients make informed financial decisions.
Company culture in one word: “Genuine,” Hannah Arnold, HR generalist, said. “Employees are genuinely committed to helping one another and want to see others succeed. For example, when I was recruiting for interns for the first time, I was overwhelmed with resumes and unable to distinguish between back end and front end or Python and Kubernetes. Our engineers gave me the support and information I needed to successfully recruit. One dev sat down with me every morning to teach me about the different teams and what they wanted in candidates. Another sent me encouraging Slacks that helped me get through the day. During this stressful time, I was never made to feel incompetent or incapable of success. Devs took time out of their day to teach me and ensure I was successful in a new role.”
Arnold’s growth at Kensho: “I have been with Kensho for two years,” Arnold said. “I started as an office coordinator and was fortunate to work with all of our departments. I expressed interest in people ops and was soon afforded opportunities to take on projects that led to a people ops coordinator promotion.”
There is an emphasis on professional development and continual learning here that drove me to take several courses to better understand HR. I was also curious about the engineers and their projects so I asked the COO if I could attend the bi-weekly project review meeting. These meetings were critical to my success, as they were a window into what the engineers valued. With my newfound knowledge, I spearheaded projects and supported the business with confidence. My efforts were recognized in a recent promotion to HR generalist. In two short years, I have been given many opportunities to advance my skills and increase my exposure to meet my career goals.”
What they do: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is a part of the central bank of the United States and works to foster financial wellness for local and national citizens through initiatives like providing financial services and payments, participating in monetary policy-making and more.
Company culture in one word: “Empowering,” Kristina Mise, FedNow cyber risk manager, said. “Empowerment for me happens on a number of levels. I feel empowered to be part of a workplace that impacts local communities through regional and community outreach. I feel empowered by the many opportunities the Bank provides for staff to advance their careers and move into different positions internally. My work for FedNow is my third role here.”
I’m empowered by the support I get through our policies and benefits to take care of my family and myself. I can also voice issues, concerns or creative ideas and know that I will be listened to. Support ranges from a variety of employee resource groups, mentorship programs and an anonymous hotline, as well as an avenue to submit and work on innovation project ideas. And I feel empowered by the diverse pool of people I work with daily whose drive is to do the right thing.”
Coolest project Mise worked on at Federal Reserve Bank of Boston: “The Fed has been a partner of United Way for over sixty years and this year, I was the chairperson for a fundraising campaign,” Mise said. “I was responsible for assembling a team, coming up with an overall plan and running the campaign. For obvious reasons, this year the campaign was unlike any other the Bank has done before.”
“There was a lot of uncertainty late into the preparation and we made many risk decisions, but we innovated and created opportunities to make an impact in new ways. This was a great opportunity for me to develop leadership skills: I guided the team to come up with a campaign vision, oversaw others’ work, provided and received feedback, learned to deal with a great deal of uncertainty and prioritized technical and people issues. In other words, it was a great way to experience a microcosm of what happens in larger-scale projects.”
What they do: With an emphasis on simplicity and customer service, Simply Business provides a number of insurance types to small businesses across a wide variety industries like carpentry, cosmetology, tree removal, life coaching and many more.
Company culture in one word: “Innovative,” Jill Kempton, insurance product analyst, said. “Innovation is at the core of Simply Business and it’s ultimately what brought me here. The company works hard to cultivate innovation and ideas are accepted from all departments, and at every level. Having previously worked at much more hierarchical organizations, it was initially hard to believe my managers when they told me that as an agent, I could and should present ideas and suggestions. Having my suggestions be considered gives me a feeling that I’m contributing to the success of the company.”
Kempton’s growth at Simply Business: “I have been with Simply Business for a little over two years and I have had opportunities here I don’t believe I would have had at other companies,” Kempton said. “I began as a licensed insurance agent in the Customer Solutions Center and immediately grew passionate about the business and its goals in the U.S. market. Then I applied for and was selected to help build and run our quality assurance program. After a year in that role, I wanted to join the insurance product team and play a more integral part in building and optimizing products on our online platform, which then led my current role as a product analyst. It is motivating to work for a company that recognizes hard work and promotes from within.”
What they do: EnterpriseDB provides enterprise companies with databases and a variety of tools optimized for the open source-based data management platform PostgreSQL.
Company culture in one word: “Kind,” Jaclyn Jussif, director of talent acquisition said. “From my first interview through to my offer acceptance, I was struck at how kind everyone was. This impression has only deepened now that I’m ramped up in my new role.”
Our CEO often says, ‘At EDB, trust and respect are given and not earned.’ I’ve seen this idea in many of my interactions with the team. Our staff demonstrates kindness by showing concern for each other, allowing for flexible schedules and helping others to ramp-up quickly while remote. Our staff is positive and sees the value in helping others to be successful.”
Jussif’s growth at EnterpriseDB: “I have been with EDB for three months,” Jussif said. “The ramp-up has been surprisingly fun and easy because we were remote-friendly prior to the pandemic and our teams are very collaborative. In the short time that I’ve been here, I’ve had the opportunity to enhance and enable the talent acquisition department to be a more efficient worldwide team.”
The team adopted faster processes, reevaluated our interview structure and updated our recruiting process to be more inclusive and equitable. Personally, I’ve learned a great deal about enabling Postgres, remote interviewing practices and scaling recruiting worldwide. EDB recently completed an acquisition and continues to grow. So my goal is to enable recruiting to scale along with our teams.”
What they do: Vicarious Surgical is working to help improve best practices and outcomes for surgeons performing minimally invasive surgery by offering them proprietary, human-like surgical robotics combined with virtual reality.
Company culture in one word: “Helpful,” Elizabeth Mittmann, systems integration engineer, said. “Regardless of what you’re working on or what sort of help you need, there is always someone willing to lend a hand. We have a strong sense that everyone is working together toward one shared goal. So the more we can help each other along the way, the faster we can get there. Solving technical problems in computer-aided design (CAD), resolving questions about a specific surgical procedure and lending another set of hands to run an experiment are just a few of the many times my coworkers surprised me both with their willingness to help and with how helpful they were.”
Mittmann’s growth at Vicarious Surgical: “I’ve been at Vicarious Surgical for a little over a year and have gotten to try out lots of different projects in that time,” Mittmann said. “I’ve enjoyed getting to know the specifics of multiple projects like learning how to model complex surfaces in CAD, simulating robot geometries and discussing how they would affect our product viability, and learning how to drive the robot to test other components I designed. My managers have been supportive of my desire to try out many areas of our company. They’re currently helping me transition from the MechE team to the integration team.”
What they do: Veeva is a cloud-based software provider for entities in the life sciences industry. It offers tech solutions geared toward clinical trials, regulations, quality management and other suites.
Company culture in one word: “Thoughtful,” Jacob Marcus, VP of engineering, said. “We are thoughtful about how we approach engineering. In software engineering projects, it is easy to over-engineer and add unnecessary complexity. We try to keep things simple and focus on what matters the most to our customers. Doing the right thing is one of our core values and it’s applied to every part of the engineering process.”
Coolest project Marcus worked on at Veeva: “I’m working on the build-out of a new product that would enable virtual clinical trials,” Marcus said. “While we have a healthy backlog of features to be built, we are going after the ones that will give our customers maximum value as quickly as possible. We take great pride in the software we build and there is a strong focus on teamwork because we believe in winning as a team.”
What they do: Corvus Insurance uses AI and machine learning to help commercial insurance companies and brokers quickly and accurately assess and manage risk for their clients.
Company culture in one word: “Smart,” Aditya Thaduri, VP of product management, said. “From a product management perspective, we’re accountable for making our products smarter by applying findings from new data sources. We make our clients smarter by delivering insights about the complex risks they face. The results can be seen in our dynamic loss prevention reports and our CrowBar platform. Crows set the bar in smarts among birds, and on the Corvus product management team we pursue the same standard.”
Thaduri’s growth at Corvus: “I’ve been at Corvus since August,” Thaduri said. “While that might not seem like a long while at most companies, here, I’ve seen significant growth on the product management team and in the overall product development process since I started. I’m particularly proud of our empowered product teams and our “Shape Up” inspired product development process, which enables us to place smart bets toward meeting our objectives. I’m excited about the work that’s in front of us and am looking forward to adding more Corvids — an affectionate term for our employees — to our flock in the near future.”
What they do: Pluralsight is a tech-driven online education platform for both individuals and teams. Its library of skills development materials covers topics like JavaScript development, 3D animation, malware analysis and much more.
Company culture in one word: “Empowered,” Lovee Garg, director of skills platform, said, “Whether it’s the tech stack teams use or how they engage in discovery to build the right product, teams are empowered to explore and create in all aspects to achieve the best possible outcome.”
Garg’s growth at Pluralsight: “I started working at Pluralsight as a director of engineering in the Boston office,” Garg said. “In the two years I’ve been here, I gained experience in leading all functional areas to build new products; not just engineering but directed discovery and human-centered design. I’ve never heard a leader tell me that an idea is not feasible. Instead, they’ve helped me see how we could take an idea and put it into action.”
