What to Look For and Who To Work For
So, you’re looking to leave the office life behind and become a digital nomad. We’re here to help make sure you find the right company for you. Here are a few things to look for in a tech company as a digital nomad:
Remote-friendly workplace
Generous compensation
Career growth options
Positive company culture
And to make it easier for you, we’ve made a list of some of our top choices:
Doist
Doist is a software company that builds productivity tools such as Todoist and Twist to help companies, teams, and individuals communicate with others and achieve their goals. With 100 remote workers in more than 30 countries, the team boasts 15 years of experience as a fully remote company. Their core values indicate a focus on working independently without borders, which can be seen in their emphasis on the asynchronous work of their virtual team of designers, engineers, and communicators. Doist provides industry benchmarked salary compensation and comprehensive health and well-being benefits, in addition to up to one month per year to work on a passion project.
Toptal
Toptal is a web-based app that connects businesses with freelancers. With over 1,000 remote workers across more than 90 countries, Toptal curates a network of skilled freelancers in various fields and helps companies scale teams on demand. A remote-first company since its founding, Toptal is one of the widest reaching companies in the world, offering positions in publication, business operations, and products, with flexible time off in all departments.
American Express
American Express is a financial services company with over 50,000 employees around the world. Although they are not a remote first company, AMEX offers remote or travel-friendly positions in many of its departments with one caveat – you need to have a quiet, dedicated office space with company-provided high speed internet. American Express has been named one of the top 20 companies for remote workers for multiple years in a row and has positions not only in credit and banking services, but also insurance, travel, and other financial device services.
Automattic
Automattic, a tech developer with the goal of democratizing online publishing and commerce, is the parent company behind WordPress.com, WooCommerce, Jetpack, and Simplenote. With 1,971 remote workers across 96 countries speaking over 120 languages, Automattic is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in their remote workforce. Most roles available are in engineering, business development and marketing with additional roles in sales, finance, and design.
Appen
Appen, an IT company that uses crowdsourcing to collect and improve data for artificial intelligence and machine learning products, has been ranked one of the top remote employers by Forbes. With 350 permanent employees and over 1 million contractors, Appen has a wide reach in over 130 countries – and 180 languages – around the world. FlexJobs has ranked Appen one of the top companies with remote positions multiple times in the past 5 years and the company offers a commitment to fair pay, inclusion, communication, and well-being. Multiple remote positions are available, including roles in software engineering and project management.
Swifty
Swifty, a transit data software platform, manages public transportation and urban mobility. With 85 employees across the U.S., Spain, and the U.K., Swifty strives to offer a flexible work environment as a fully remote company. Their platform is used in over 300 cities to analyze real-time passenger and vehicle information as well as historical transit data. The company offers flexible work environments, unlimited PTO, education reimbursements, and paid family leave, among others. With open positions in customer success, sales, and engineering, they’re a great place to start your journey as a digital nomad.
Atlassian
Atlassian, a software company that creates project management and software development tools like Jira, Confluence, and Trello, has over 5,000 employees with offices spanning across seven countries. With flexible schedules and remote work options, Atlassian strives to give their employees more control over where they live and work. Atlassian offers a competitive salary, robust benefit offerings, and professional development opportunities and strives to recruit and retain top talent in various departments such as Technology, Product, and Business Operations, so they’re a great place for enterprising digital nomads to work.
Octane AI
Octane AI, a Facebook Messenger & SMS platform for Shopify brands, helps merchants create quizzes, recommend products, and sync marketing data. Octane AI employs around 30 remote workers in 12 countries with a focus on fully remote work, unlimited time off, and professional development opportunities. If you’re looking for a smaller startup, this is the place for you.
Articulate
Articulate, a e-learning app used for workplace training, provides an all-in-one training system for small businesses. With than 400 employees located in more than 90 cities, Articulate gives employees the flexibility to decide where they work. Join Articulate’s goal to make it easier for the world to learn by creating products with easily customizable courses and training.
Buffer
Buffer, a business toolkit that helps small businesses build their social media audience to grow their businesses, employs 82 remote workers across 21 countries while supporting over 140,000 customers around the world. Buffer tries to offer transparency in everything they do by making their salary data, code, and product roadmap publicly available. Their commitment to quality products and trusted relationships can be seen through their company benefit offerings, including 4 day workweeks, professional development fund, and paid family leave.
Are you looking to learn some new skills before you make the pivot into remote work?
Check out our bootcamp offerings:
Learn Web Development, Data Analytics & UX/UI Design | Ironhack
Or read our new digital nomad eBook:
