We’re not far into 2023, but this year has already had its fair share of highs and lows for the tech industry.
Mass layoffs of tech workers and a broader message that companies need to learn to do “more with less” have set many on edge as they look at the uncertain state of the economy.
Despite such circumstances, professionals still have reason to be optimistic about the future. In November 2022, Statista technology market insights predicted revenue growth in multiple sectors, including public cloud, IT, cybersecurity and software. And continued growth means continued opportunities for career and professional development.
In Colorado, three companies have begun to take on their own big projects and goals — from enhancing data platforms and achieving ten times growth to optimizing freight and logistics analytics. Each of these projects demands talented tech teams who are up to the challenge.
Built In Colorado spoke with tech leaders at Evolve, DAT Freight & Analytics and SambaSafety to learn more about their goals for 2023, the career opportunities they create, and what they’re looking for in candidates as their teams grow.
Evolve is a vacation rental management company that offers travelers professionally-managed private homes complete with 24/7 customer support.
What are the biggest projects or priorities your tech team has in 2023?
Last year, we put a lot of time into doing an assessment of our tech stack and product teams, which revealed opportunities that we have worked into our 2023 planning.
Our main goal for the year is supporting 10x growth through operational efficiencies and using our resources optimally. This is going to be an exciting year for our team as we work together to get Evolve to the next phase of growth.
Their Top Priorities
- Foundational assets to support product teams
- Developing a playbook for moving forward with product development
- Continuing to improve release management and deployment timelines
- Building automations to make releasing code easier, modernizing systems and building frameworks that are where they need to be today
What career growth opportunities are associated with these projects for new hires?
There is an opportunity for our teammates to have a level of involvement that you don’t always find at every job. With our initiatives for the year, our team will participate in establishing processes and frameworks and will be an integral part of building the foundation of our systems.
Our leadership looks to our teammates to figure out what works and what doesn’t while providing the support, guidance and mentorship they need to grow their skill set. Given the phase we’re in with building our team, throughout this year, there are plenty of opportunities for teammates to grow and develop their career paths.
What qualities and skill sets do you look for in a new tech hire?
Of course, technical skills are important, but so are some of the “soft skills” that help you be successful at Evolve. What we’re looking for can vary depending on the specific job. That said, we want to hire people who are communicative and collaborative so you can bring teammates along with you on a project; people who have strong problem-solving abilities and are able to think critically; and people with a willingness to learn and stay up-to-date with new technologies and industry trends.
Additionally, we want people who bring their authentic selves to work and are passionate and excited about learning and working in the industry.
DAT Freight & Analytics is a software company that operates the largest truckload freight marketplace in North America, connecting brokers, shippers and carriers and providing data-driven insights into logistics.
What are the biggest projects or priorities your tech team has in 2023?
Our primary focus for 2023 is to help our customers solve more complex problems using data and analytics. We have been on a multi-year journey toward advancing our products from more basic reporting capabilities to a comprehensive decision support platform for our customers. The freight and logistics industry has faced significant disruption throughout the pandemic and customers are looking for more insight to drive better decision-making.
We have been the leader in freight analytics for over a decade, and 2023 will be a year in which we position ourselves for the next 10 years. Our two primary products will be re-platformed into our iQ ecosystem. This will give each of our customer segments (shippers, carriers and brokers) unprecedented access to analytics across their entire business process.
These efforts will require us to be creative and curious. We will rapidly iterate on customer feedback to ensure they’re still receiving what they’ve come to depend on from our flagship products and also utilizing the new features to generate more value in their businesses.
With an entrepreneurial bend, new ideas are able to get funding and development relatively quickly.”
What career growth opportunities are associated with these projects for new hires?
Our iQ business is our fastest-growing product line. To accomplish our bold plans for the 2023 product roadmap, and because of the rapid adoption of recent enhancements to our existing portfolio, critical hires must happen on our iQ team.
These will be hybrid roles based out of our Denver tech center campus with a primary need for software engineers, data scientists, and machine learning experts — Java, Node, Angular, Terraform, AWS, Python and NoSQL. DAT’s intentionally lean structure will enable these new teammates to be immersed in all aspects of projects while having genuine custodial control and the opportunity to make a rapid, indelible impact.
With an entrepreneurial bend, new ideas are able to get funding and development relatively quickly which affords tremendous growth opportunities for product and engineering team members. Join us as we embark on intelligently solving an ever-growing list of dynamic customer needs with high-impact, novel product development.
What qualities and skill sets do you look for in a new tech hire?
The primary qualities we look for in a new hire are curiosity and customer obsession. The iQ team is solving problems that are currently not being addressed in the industry. In a lot of cases, the problem itself is not clearly defined. Fleshing out customer issues requires a strong sense of intellectual curiosity. We are certainly looking for stellar software engineers, but often what separates top performers is that driving sense of interest around how to best solve what is keeping our customers up at night.
Customer obsession is the other quality at the top of the list. This may seem out of place for a non-customer-facing role, but we believe it to be absolutely critical. We build products for customers, not ourselves. Our tools are being used by truck drivers, freight brokers and Fortune 500 enterprises. The ability to work closely with product to refine the features and requirements into cogent customer solutions will ensure iQ remains a market leader in 2023 and beyond.
SambaSafety is a risk solution platform that more than 2 million commercial and non-commercial drivers use to monitor performance and reduce risk.
What are the biggest projects or priorities your tech team has in 2023?
For 2023, our team is focused on enhancing our overall approach to data; the way it moves through the organization, the way we observe it and what it means to be timely, accurate and complete. What we know about our data is critical to our overall growth strategy. It’s also integral to empowering the organization to be informed about what already exists and what is possible through our information.
What career growth opportunities are associated with these projects for new hires?
Given our focus and investment in our data platform and program, we will be hiring for several positions focused on this, including data architects and data engineering as well as data analysts, business analysts and report builders. In addition to these critical roles, every department at SambaSafety is looking to add exceptional talent to their teams.
The most successful team members are the ones who are constantly learning and adapting.”
What qualities and skill sets do you look for in a new tech hire?
The number one quality we look for in all of our team members is collaboration. It is so critical to be extremely good at collaboration in today’s hybrid and remote workplace, especially when working with a team across the world designing and implementing software. Since the architecture and workforce are both highly distributed, special care needs to be taken to ensure that everything works well together. Communication and collaboration are critical skills for this to happen.
In addition, we place a lot of value on a person’s ability to learn and adapt. In the technology space, everything is changing so quickly that none of us can know it all, so the most successful team members are the ones who are constantly learning and adapting to ensure best practices and best technologies are being used. Of course, this needs to be balanced with the ability to deliver according to schedule and be performant in production. Still, generally, we like to encourage some level of experimentation across every team.
