Working with wanderlust: 3 Austin tech companies with openings abroad

With so many people moving to Austin, you don’t hear much about ways to move away. But for those of us who want to move far and often, there’s never been a better time to be young and unencumbered in the tech industry. Even with virtual collaboration breaking down geographic barriers, plenty of Austin startups feel the need to put boots on the ground abroad. Here are just a few with international offices:

 

It’s no surprise the company behind the world’s leading language learning software has offices abroad. It’s based in Arlington, Virginia, but has offices in France, Brazil, Mexico City, and of course Austin, Texas. Michelle Alvarez, Head of Global Communications, said opening an Austin office in 2013 was a no brainer.

 

“Austin appears on almost every list of up and coming cities for jobs and best cities to live,” she said. “We have an employee who can list every SnowCone Food truck in Austin and surrounding areas, we love to hit the festivals, and you can even watch bats leave Congress Bridge from our office!”

 

There are 20 employees in the Austin office, which is mostly focused on product development, and they’re looking for more. But the company’s jobs page also lists roles in 25 American cities—including Austin—and three abroad.

 

Alvarez said the company is always looking for talent in engineering, UX/UI design, product management and language learning.

 

If you’ve ever met an Australian, you know they love to travel. Sydney-based Atlassian is no exception, with offices all over the globe supporting its wildly popular issue tracking and collaboration tools, JIRA and Confluence.

 

Marketing manager Annelise Reynolds says their open offices are designed to align with their bluntly, beautifully stated values, especially “Open Company, No Bullshit.”

 

A central staircase, which was inspired by their San Francisco office's central amphitheater, opens up the space and connects the three floors.

 

“And you won't find any cubicles,” Reynolds said. “All of our work spaces are open, and the standup desks are on rollers so they can be reconfigured as needed.”

 

And while Atlassian spent a year literally building their new Austin office from the ground up to make it an ideal home away from home for employees, they have plenty of locations abroad, too, from Munich to Manila, Amsterdam, Ho Chi Minh City, Gdansk, Kuala Lumpur, Porto Alegre and of course their Sydney headquarters.

 

They’re hiring 30 positions in their Austin office alone, several of which you can find on their company page. To broaden your search, check out Atlassian’s corporate careers page.

 

 

When brands want to engage with customers across social media channels around the world, they turn to Sprinklr and their proprietary social monitoring platform. And with 900 employees serving more than 1,000 brands in 10 countries, it’s safe to say the sun never sets on the Sprinklr empire. Public relations manager Julia Bass says it’s still growing.

 

“Sprinklr is excited to be developing into a truly global company,” she said. “[We’re expanding] to help our global clients with a local presence in abroad, and also serve new clients who are based in those markets.”

 

The company expanded into Japan and Brazil this year through a joint venture in Tokyo and the acquisition of Scup, a 60-person operation in São Paolo.

 

After Sprinklr’s New York headquarters, Austin is home to the company’s second biggest office, which the company opened in March 2014 after acquiring the social analytics firm Dachis Group. The roughly 100 Austin employees are currently looking for four new office mates, and Sprinklr has many more openings on their job site.

 

Bass said cultural highlights include bowling at Speakeasy after work, Thirsty Thursday happy hours and weeks bookended with lunch on the house. Then there are company outings in a class of their own, like the zombie apocalypse night pictured above, and marquee benefits like unlimited paid vacation.

 

When it comes to transfers to international offices for Austin workers, Sprinklr's policy reflects those of other companies: If it works for the business, the business can make it work for you.