About the Alpine Culture

Alpine is a company with a small headquarters in Bend, Oregon.  We live here because we love it.   But, most of our customers are not here, so you don’t have to be here either.

Let’s use a metaphor.  Most people are familiar with the “siege” approach to mountain climbing.  Long trains of sherpas carrying supplies, multiple base camps are used to lift a small team to the top of the mountain.  We don’t believe in that type of project and there is no room for non-experts on our team.   Our company is named for the “Alpine” style of mountain climbing.  Fast, agile, and results oriented, Alpine climbing is a faster and self-sufficient method, deploying only exactly the required skills and effort required to reach the goal.

If you are the best at what you do, we are happy to work with you regardless of your physical location.

At Alpine, we place a premium on connections and communication.  That can be seen in our documentation, events, open source projects, and community participation.  Alpine has terrific clientele, a flexible working environment, and we know you have a ton of potential.  Each person at this little company means a lot.

Company Growth

We’ve been bigger in the past.  But, the traditional challenges of larger teams tended to significantly degrade customer experience, so we chose to shrink through the great recession and reengineer the business.  Maybe someday we’ll be a big company again.  But, only by responsibly delivering top notch products and services and with everyone pulling the oars together to make happy customers.

What Kind of Team Members Do We Want?

  • Great Communication Skills.  We’re a distributed team, so frequent and clear written communication is critical.  Alpine clients are accustomed to a high level of attention.  Deservedly.
  • Self-driven, great work ethic.  You must be a self-starter who loves taking initiative and seeing your work through to completion.
  • Curiosity and the desire to learn.  Our industry moves fast.  You will need to move faster, easily.
  • Adaptability and an Enthusiasm.  Rapid troubleshooting is a highly valued skill.  You should find yourself solving “impossible” problems daily.
  • Customer Empathy.  Just because we plan and execute processes, lists, and algorithms does not mean that we objectify our customers.  They are real people and deserve our compassion and empathy.
  • Great Communication Skills.  Did we cover that already?  Well, read it again.

Joining the Team

Based on your interest, and if we think we can work well with you, we’ll conduct at most three interviews.

When you make it through the interview stage, we’ll set up our systems for you, and assign a project to you on contract. This will be a trial. You’ll need to show us how well we work together.

These trial projects would typically last between 2-6 weeks.  During the trial, you will have full access to our systems, our staff, and the customer.   We do not believe in layers between customers and production.  You will be responsible for customer happiness with your work, but our staff will be here to support you any way needed.

We fund 20% projects.  If you have a crazy idea that will make you a better engineer, our customers happier, our team more productive, or makes the industry light up, we’ll dedicate some time to the cause.  If  you are the best team member to deliver it, you’ll get to spend your 20% time on that project.

Regardless of what you end up doing with most of your time here at Alpine, when you join full-time, you’ll always do some customer support.  We believe this is a critical, continuing opportunity in the development of any employee — meet customers, empathize and doing your absolute best to help.

Holistic Solutions

Alpine customers often need far more than a single website.  Usually, customer discussions drive questions about employee productivity, complementary cloud-based services, and service integration.  Our customers consider Alpine their cloud IT department and value our advice.  This is a serious responsibility and not one that should be shrugged off as “not my job”.   Listening carefully and thoughtfully can result in tremendous opportunity for our customer’s business.

Events and Travel

Occasionally, we will have events we’ll create, or attend and we might meet up at those times.  These will be planned well ahead of time and will be a work commitment.  Of course, all travel is at the company’s expense.

Open Source

Today, the Alpine “stack” is built almost entirely on the efforts of the excellent engineers, technicians, artists, and writers that have contributed to Open Source, enabling careers for all of us.

We stand on the shoulders of giants, but occasionally, those giants’ work needs some shoring up.  We encourage open source contributions, documentation, and community support of open source tools.  We feel it is important to think of generations beyond our own and contribute.

Bringing Your Own Book

Do you have your own book of business which is in line with our current client base?  Or, better yet do you have a set of clients that need our services?  And, you have a set of clients that need our services?  Let’s talk.

Globalization Opportunities

In addition to open source, Alpine depends on the globalization of personnel, technology and services.  Our offerings are the best of the best.  Alpine staff is always challenged to represent our customers by knowing their needs and offering the best available technology solutions.

In general, Alpine never works with offshore agencies.  There are too many obstacles along that road.  But, Alpine hires directly from anywhere in the world and these staffers are considered an essential part of the team.

In addition, Alpine is a customer of many rock solid services and products that originated offshore.  We are continually evaluating value-driven, and innovation-driven service and component offerings.

This means that you will always be evaluating possible alternatives to our known best practices.  If a new, better practice is discovered, you will sponsor or spearhead the change required to drive it through the organization.

Benefits

  • Open Mind and Open Vacation Policy (no set number of days per year).   We encourage our employees to take the time they need to vacation, develop interests, and spend time with friends and family.
  • Education.  Want some?  We’ll pay for work-related classes, workshops, certifications, whatever you think will drive improvement.
  • Healthcare Allowance.  With today’s open markets, you’ll want to pick the best plan available for you.
  • Travel.  All company travel is covered.
  • 20/60/20 Schedule.  20% support, 60% client projects, and 20% projects.   R&D projects are highly encouraged, approved, and funded just like customer projects.
  • Hardware and Software.  Personal yearly budget to pull from.
  • Work Location Support. Home Office stipend or co-working office (your choice).

Check out the jobs we have posted.  If you are perfect for one of our opportunities, please let us know.

Give Us A Shout

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About our Hometown

The Washington Post says this, “The City You’ll Love to Hate”.

Entrepreneur Magazine also recently wrote about  “Why Bend, Ore., Is the Next Big City for Entrepreneurship.

And the New York Times says in, “52 Places to Go in 2015” that Bend is Number 30.   Just below Papua New Guinea.  But, above a lot of other places you’ve heard more about.

Just fyi.