With big tech companies announcing layoffs on what seems like a weekly basis at the moment, it can feel like the ground is shifting – and it’s not an enjoyable ride.
Companies such as Meta, Alphabet, Amazon and Salesforce have axed tens of thousands of jobs globally and in the UK. Big tech has pointed the finger at the wider economic climate, and over-hiring practices during the pandemic.
In the three months to November 2022, there were 97,000 redundancies made in the UK, according to Statista. Seventy thousand Glassdoor posts by UK tech workers were also analysed with results showing that 8 per cent of 2019’s reviews included commentary about perks like on-site gyms or free food. However, by December 2022 that was down to just 4 per cent, as belt-tightening measures and layoffs kicked in.
For those employed in the tech sector, those big, formerly secure firms are looking less and less like a safe bet into the future.
Smart workers are now looking at home-grown scale-ups, or in other words, companies that were previously at the start-up stage, and have grown by 20 per cent or more in employees or turnover in the last three years.
See also: How to scale a tech start-up in a recession
Bolstered by the government, Britain’s scale-companies have been given greater support thanks to the new scale-up visa, which was announced last August. Offering flexibility and the ability to hire globally, it is designed to fuel home-grown success and allow companies to sponsor talent, including scientists, engineers, and programmers.
It’s just one reason the UK scale-up sector is a good place to start a job search. According to London & Partners, the business growth agency, things are looking bright. It has identified 50 companies as part of an annual “Scale Up Club”, which include PureLiFi, a high speed bi-directional and fully networked light communications company; RideTandem, which uses local transport providers to create smart shuttles, and Oxford Heartbeat, a digital health platform.
There are more reasons to be positive about the state of the scale-up sector too, with 46 per cent of this year’s companies led or founded by women. Additionally, 32 per cent of the founders come from diverse backgrounds, with 42 per cent of this year’s companies coming from outside of London.
The Scale Up Club contains companies across the tech gamut, including: fintech (20 per cent), climatetech (6 per cent), cybersecurity (4 per cent) and edtech (6 per cent).
If you’re hoping to make a move this year, the Growth Business job board has hundreds of opportunities in exciting scale up firms, like the three tech scale-up jobs below.
Senior Back End (Java) Software Engineer, Zilch
Zilch was born in 2018 as a “pay in four” platform. Customers sign up and receive a virtual payment card, with a personalised credit balance. They can use this balance to make purchases at retailers that accept MasterCard and spread the cost across six weeks.
Now available in the UK and the U.S, it has grown rapidly and amassed a customer base which amounts to nearly 6 per cent of the UK adult population in under two years, or twice as fast as any other fintech.
If you’d like to work here, there are a variety of jobs on offer, including a senior back end (Java) software engineer role, which is a fantastic opportunity for engineers who would like to get involved in building something from the ground up, who value innovation and are natural problem solvers. Get the full job description.
Mobile developer – SaaS scale-up, Propel Together
A specialist recruitment agency in London, Propel Together has a role for an Android developer at a B2B SaaS scale-up company in the city. Born out of a digital accelerator platform, the company’s mobile data platform is pioneering the digital transformation of the utilities industry using GPS and data science to improve field operations and safety.
The company is now looking to scale mobile development with an Android developer using a tech stack including Android/Kotlin and React Native for cross-platform development. You will need three or more years’ mobile development experience as well as one year plus of Kotlin, and experience working in start-ups or scale-ups is desired. Apply here.
Senior DevOps Engineer – Metaverse, Improbable
Improbable, the metaverse technology company, was founded in London in 2012 and makes metaverse infrastructure and applications, as well as simulation software for video games and corporate use.
With revenues rising year-on-year, it has around 1,000 staff and is currently hiring for a range of roles including a senior DevOps engineer to be responsible for learning, building, teaching and researching the foundations of the company’s internal studios’ development toolkits. You will deliver build systems, in-engine tooling, infrastructure components, automated testing solutions, development processes and alerting and reporting. Interested? Get all the details here.
For more start-up and tech scale-up jobs, check out the Growth Business job board.
