There are more and more remote jobs available these days. This is great news for those of you who wish to enjoy a flexible or home-based lifestyle. But how many of the jobs are with fully remote companies?
You may have seen our huge feature on 75 companies that hire home workers. Only a few of those companies are “remote first” or fully distributed.
All the fully remote companies on THIS list have one thing in common: remote working is not a “perk.” Instead, the companies are built around it, putting it at the core of their culture.
43 Remote First Companies
350.org
350.org is a remote first grassroots climate pressure group, coordinating campaign and lobbying activities across 188 countries.
Staff at this company have a passion for campaigning on the issues of climate change and social justice. If that sounds appealing, you will find like-minded colleagues distributed all over the world, in a fully remote organisation.
Jobs range from web development to marketing to fundraising and campaign roles. A great fit for people with campaign or climate change experience.
10up
10up offers “finely crafted websites and tools for content creators.” Though the company has physical offices in Seattle, the team is made up of people from all over the world.
As well as roles for project managers and developers, 10up is also looking for account strategists at the time of writing.
Being a US company, 10up offers a 401k with company matching, as well as health, dental and life insurance.
Aha!
Not a Swedish pop band from the 80s, but a product management software company based in Menlo Park, California. The team is completely distributed across six countries. Everyone with the right qualifications (who can work remotely from anywhere in the U.S. and select international locations) is eligible to apply.
Aha! is currently hiring for positions in customer success, marketing, and engineering.
You can expect employee benefits such as a 401k plan, health insurance, and competitive paid time off. There are also some attractive lifestyle-related features.
Arkency
Arkency is a consulting agency that’s mostly looking for coders. The firm’s three principles are “Anarchy, Async, and Remote.”
This means you can work remotely from anywhere in the world. Arkency’s specific approach to making asynchronous working effective is having no insistence on instant communication.
Arkency sidesteps meetings and long discussions as a matter of company policy, so you don’t miss out if you’re not online at a specific time.
Articulate
Articulate allows people to create online courses. This fully remote company has more than 104 million learners in 151 countries. It has also won more than 60 awards for its e-learning apps.
Articulate contributes pre-tax dollars to your choice of Vanguard 401k plans, matched at 50% on up to 6% of your salary. You’re also allowed $100 a month toward the wellness program of your choice.
Current jobs on the Articulate site include those in software development, tech support, HR, editing and sales.
Automattic
Automattic is the company behind WordPress.com, Tumblr, and several other online content brands. The company is fully remote first, with 1,286 “Automatticians” in 77 countries, speaking 95 different languages.
The company’s on-boarding process is interesting. Once you make it past the interview, you do a two to six week project, depending on how much time you can spend, to see how you work with the company.
You then spend your first two full time weeks in customer support for WordPress.com. Everyone, regardless of position, spends a week in support annually.
As you might expect, there’s a huge number of jobs across all areas. These include people, finance, business development and marketing, as well as “happiness engineers.”
Bandcamp
Bandcamp is a music platform where bands put up their latest tunes so that people can discover new music. It’s also a fully remote business with a variety of roles available.
According to the website “you can work for Bandcamp from wherever you want to be, so long as the Wi-Fi is strong.” The company also requires employees schedules to “overlap GMT-7 for at least four hours each day.”
Bandcamp does have some physical locations in Oakland, Victoria, Brooklyn, and Raleigh, but these are more collaborative workspaces than offices.
There are different roles available, including working on apps with artists, labels and music fans. Bandcamp offers all the benefits you’d expect from a large company, as well as a “sensible leave” policy.
Basecamp
Basecamp is a project management tool that may well be familiar to many people who work remotely. It’s more just than a way to schedule tasks. As you would expect from a company that enables virtual collaboration, there’s a huge focus on remote working.
Although officially headquartered in Chicago, Basecamp is a remote first company. Everyone at Basecamp is free to live and work wherever they want.
In their own words: “We’re designers, programmers, tinkerers, writers, speakers, bikers, engineers, runners, developers, chefs, analysts, campers, musicians, filmmakers, knitters, hikers, authors, photographers, pilots, race car drivers, readers, travellers, gardeners, volunteers, parents, and hard workers.”
There is something for everyone but openings are limited so it is worth signing up for their job openings email.
BestSelf
BestSelf creates tools to “connect and inspire humanity to think bigger and achieve more, while enjoying today.”
This is one of the smaller fully remote companies but it allows employees to work from anywhere with a wi-fi connection. In fact, creating a diverse, global team is one of the company’s goals.
BuddyBoss
The platform created by BuddyBoss is used by over 50,000 businesses to sell memberships and courses and to build online communities. The company’s fully distributed team works from 10 different countries, across 10 time zones.
At the time of writing, the company has openings in development, engineering, HR, sales, project management, and copywriting.
Buffer
Buffer started in 2010 as a solution for scheduling tweets. (We actually use it at HomeWorkingClub). The solution now helps people manage their content across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn – all from one dashboard.
Buffer has a fully distributed team of 85 people, living and working in 15 countries around the world. The firm offers three months parental leave for all parents as standard, a free Kindle with books when you join, and a host of other benefits.
Being a global company, people working in different timezones help Buffer with customer service. This is a true remote first company.
CivicActions
CivicActions helps government organisations deliver user-friendly digital services to the public through modern technologies, agile ways of working, and thoughtful design.
The company values openness and continuous learning, and is committed to work that improves peoples’ lives.
The CivicActions team is completely distributed, with no central office. Team members connect regularly through virtual “all-hands” calls, online collaboration tools, and an annual in-person company retreat.
The job openings range from web development and engineering to product and project management, user experience design, and more.
CivicActions offers good benefits and time off, as well as a focus on collaboration and work-life balance.
Clerky
Clerky is an online legal service that helps startups get legal paperwork done safely. Although some staff are “co-located”, the company has a fully remote ethos that’s “about results…not face time.”
Job roles include customer-facing and legal opportunities and are not limited by timezone or physical location.
Clevertech
Clevertech is a bespoke software design and engineering company. Its core values are freedom, mastery, and purpose. This is reflected in the fact that it is one of the oldest fully remote companies, having made the decision to be exclusively remote in 2006.
Clevertech offers its employees training, a personal development fund, and tenure-based rewards. It also creates ways to give back to the employees and their communities three times per year.
The company has a variety of business and tech roles available.
Close
Close is a fully remote sales and CRM company, with 40 people working from 17 countries.
Like many remote first companies, Close has bi-annual team retreats. The company also offers seven weeks paid time off and a 30 day paid sabbatical after five years. US residents get 99% paid medical and dental premiums, 401k matching at 4%, and dependent care FSA.
Many of the roles are in software development and tech support, but there were also roles for sales and marketing professionals at the time of writing.
Doist
Doist produce Todoist (included in our Best Apps for Freelancers feature), and Twist – both productivity apps for organising work. It has a remote first team based across 18 timezones and over 20 different countries.
Given the company’s apps enable collaborative working in a virtual environment, Doist is pretty big on remote working.
At the time of writing, Doist is mainly on the lookout for developers. If you are interested in other roles you can sign up to be notified when there are new job openings.
Dollar Flight Club
Dollar Flight Club is dedicated to “travel hacking.” It was created after its founder was stuck at the Everest basecamp during an earthquake, and decided to spend more time travelling the world.
DFC has a 100% remote team, based all over the world, finding and sharing cheap flights with members.
Jobs include finding flights, marketing, and technical roles supporting the platform.
There are no current openings due to COVID-19 affecting the travel industry. Still, this is a fully remote company to keep tabs on if you are passionate about travel. As you might expect, they offer some really good travel benefits.
DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo offers privacy protection to users surfing the web. Its staff is distributed across 15 countries.
The company carries its philosophy of “building trust through transparency” through to project management, empowering employees regardless of their seniority.
Roles available at the time of writing include engineering, development, and legal.
Edgar
Edgar is a social media management company. It’s fully remote, and “was built to be distributed.”
At Edgar they don’t believe in “make your own hours” policies. They believe these end up translating to “you’re on call pretty much all the time.” You clock in and clock out, and you’re not expected to work outside of those core hours.
There are currently roles for people in development and in their LEAD apprenticeship program. Although it is a remote first company, you will need proof of eligibility to work in the U.S. in order to be hired.
Fire Engine RED
Fire Engine RED is a marketing, data, technology, and consulting services company in the education market. The company is 100% virtual, and all jobs are fully remote.
One distinctive way of working caught our eye: Walking Wednesdays. Everyone in the company, wherever they’re located, is encouraged to get out for a walk and call in to a conference number. This typically attracts 60 to 75 percent of the team.
There are a variety of roles at the company. All would suit people who have prior education experience, but this is not always necessary.
At the time of writing, there are no jobs currently available but Fire Engine RED recommends that you check their site regularly for new openings.
FlexJobs
It’s fairly likely that you’ve heard of FlexJobs. If not, you can read our own review here. Rather than trying to find a job on their website, you can actually work for them.
Flexjobs is a fully remote company and, as you would expect, offers great flexibility and freedom. However, many of the roles do require you to be a US national or present in one of several states.
When we looked, FlexJobs had roles available in PR, engineering, and product. They will sometimes list jobs for their sister site remote.co.
Genuitec
Genuitec is a collaborative coding company. It offers a “full-time telecommuting environment,” with team members from around the globe.
The company is hiring developers, customer service, marketing and PR people. It encourages those interested in a fully remote position with them to send in their resumes.
Ghost
Ghost builds websites, with its free core application funded by a premium platform. Their “virtual headquarters” is in Singapore, but the company’s team is fully remote and spread all over the world.
At the time of writing, Ghost has openings for designers, engineers, and freelance content writers. But there are plenty of other roles within the company that could become available.
As well as some excellent benefits, Ghost pays for all the hardware and software you need. They also close the office on the last Friday of every single month!
GitLab
GitLab is remote first, completely distributed, and dedicated to working asynchronously.
Apparently you don’t need to ask permission before spending company money like it’s your own – whether it’s for a standing desk, a co-working space, or continuing education. (Presumably this is within reason!)
As the world’s largest fully remote company, GitLab has a huge amount of jobs on offer. These include roles for UX people, developers and engineers. We also saw jobs in legal, finance, sales and marketing.
HelpScout
HelpScout has been a remote first company for almost a decade. The company is made up of 60 people across four continents.
They have a rigorous 12 step hiring process which includes multiple video chats and a paid take-home project.
If you get in, you will be paid the same no matter where you live and you can take a sabbatical after you have been with the company for four years.
There are currently remote job openings in design, engineering, and marketing and you can also sign up to be notified of future openings.
Hotjar
Malta-based Hotjar makes behaviour analytics software that helps website owners understand how people view and use their sites.
This remote first company serves more than 180 countries. Its team of over 100 Hotjarians are fully distributed throughout Europe, the Americas, and Africa.
Many current openings are limited to the EMEA region. Roles listed whilst compiling this article included those in product and engineering, marketing, and customer experience.
Hubstaff
This fully remote company provides staff monitoring and time tracking software. Hubstaff says that employees can work whenever and wherever they feel most comfortable.
At the time of writing, there were jobs available in engineering and customer support roles.
Like a number of remote first companies, Hubstaff encourages talented people interested in working for them to make contact even if there are no corresponding job vacancies posted.
Human Made
Human Made is a remote first web development agency. As their name suggests, they pride themselves on putting the humans that make up their team first.
You can work wherever you want and will benefit from flexible hours, sickness and carers leave, as well as parental leave. The company also gives employees a new computer and mobile phone every two years to ensure they have the right tools for the job.
Openings currently available include account managers and enterprise account executives.
InVision
InVision is a digital product design platform used by more than seven million people. The company’s clients include brands like Adidas, Ford, Ikea, Netflix, Slack, Sony, and Starbucks.
This is a fully distributed company, with employees in more than 20 countries around the world, all working remotely. There are positions in design, engineering, sales, administration, and product management.
Knack
Knack has been 100% remote from the beginning. The company states that it has set out to build a lasting culture in a fully remote environment.
The company offers unlimited paid vacation and paid corporate retreats (including flight, lodging, and meals). Knack also offers learning credits, and health, vision and dental coverage.
At the time of writing, the only open positions are for engineering but there are plenty of other roles that could become available.
MailerLite
MailerLite is one of the fastest-growing email marketing services, helping over a million businesses around the world.
Although the company has an office in Lithuania, it has a truly remote first culture and its workers are spread throughout the world.
The company places a lot of emphasis on team bonding. You will get to meet all of the employees and learn together on the companies twice-annual paid “workations”.
Although the currently available openings are limited to project management and developer roles, the company actively encourages interested parties to contact them.
Modern Tribe
Modern Tribe is a fully remote lifestyle company. It is somewhat unique in that it is a hybrid made up of traditional employees and independent contractors.
Due to COVID-19, the company is currently only hiring freelancers. Still, this could be an opportunity to get your foot in the door and see if it is the right company for you.
OnTheGoSystems
OnTheGoSystems, like the majority of fully remote companies, is a tech firm. It develops, sells and supports software for commercial websites.
It is also typical in that it emphasizes teamwork and taking personal responsibility. Results are what really matter and so the company allows you to work anywhere that enables you to be productive.
The company is currently looking for WordPress Technical Supporters but they are always open to hear from outstanding PHP and React developers.
Scrapinghub
Scrapinghub is an open source web scraping system. In plain English this means it is a sophisticated research tool, amongst other things!
Although it is a fully remote company, Scrapinghub places a high value on team relationships. Every two weeks employees get the chance to meet with a random person in the company and talk about anything.
The company has a variety of jobs available. It also offers a charitable donation for your time taken to interview. This is in recognition of the fact that people spend their own time preparing for interviews or completing technical trials. A nice touch.
Sketch
The team behind the design platform Sketch is distributed in a number of locations across the world. Their clients include Google, Porsche, Facebook, and Stripe.
This company is highly focused on finding the right people for the fully remote jobs they offer. The majority of openings are for technology and operations.
Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow’s public platform is one of the 50 most popular websites in the world. Its products and tools help developers and technologists collaborate and build their careers.
This fully remote first company is centred around the concept of community. It offers full health coverage for employees and family, office equipment for your home office, paid maternity and paternity leave, and also personal development stipends.
The firm has openings in customer success, community, design, engineering, IT, marketing, operations, product management, and sales.
TaxJar
TaxJar might not seem like the ideal company to many given that they work with sales taxes. Still, it is a company that lets you work remotely from anywhere and that seems to truly value its team of employees.
Aside from the more usual perks, you get a welcome gift, company swag, mandatory birthday holidays, Amazon Prime and Spotify Premium, and five weeks vacation.
At the time of writing, they had openings in client services, engineering, IT, marketing, product, sales, and security.
Toggl
Toggl is a time tracking app produced by Toggl OÜ, headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia. It offers online time tracking and reporting services via web, mobile and desktop applications.
This remote first company places a big emphasis on ensuring that their employees have everything they need to be successful. Their generous home office and employee development stipends are really appreciated by those who work for them.
Currently there are openings for positions in software development, operations and growth. This is another remote company worth checking out frequently due to the variety of roles that come up.
Toptal
Toptal claims to be the largest fully remote company globally but the numbers are on GitLab’s side. Still, it employs over 500 core team members in 60 countries and has operations in many more.
Toptal is a recruitment company looking to build connections between renowned companies and talented freelancers from across the globe.
Core team members benefit from flexible time off and a paid sabbatical leave after five years.
We saw jobs in finance, engineering, marketing and communications, business operations, growth, talent operations, sales and delivery, and legal.
Tyk
Tyk is an API and service management platform with a global client base. The company has offices in London, Singapore and Atlanta, with a remote-first policy that sees staff working from a wide range of additional locations.
If you’re seriously smart and keen to be part of a team that values integrity, trust and powerful, performant engineering, Tyk could be the perfect working environment.
With flexible working hours, unlimited holiday and a supportive, dynamic culture, there are plenty of positives to working at Tyk. You can gain some real insight into the company in this interview with their COO, James Hirst.
X-Team
X-Team calls itself “the most energizing community for developers”. It considers itself as more than just a tech company and it certainly provides an opportunity to work with some top name brands.
The developers that work for X-Team are encouraged to explore and to grow professionally. One of their top benefits is $2,500 to help you unleash your potential. This money can be used for anything from courses to fresh food, to babysitters, and even games.
If you are interested in working as a developer for X-Team, they have a form for you to apply to join on their website.
YNAB (YouNeedABudget)
YNAB offers budgeting software, both for personal and business use. It’s a fully remote company that employs staff all over the world.
If you are in the US, you’ll be set up as a W2 employee. If not you’ll be set up as a contractor. YNAB say there’s no difference in how you will be treated.
As with everything, you have to live with the good and the bad. Since this is a relatively small remote first company there were no openings at the time of writing.
Zapier
Zapier, the creator of popular workflow and automation software, lets you work from anywhere. The company says that reliable internet access is their only requirement.
Zapier operates across 17 time zones in 28 countries. The business mostly uses Slack to “communicate asynchronously, work autonomously, and take ownership of (our) work.”
There are currently job openings in decision science and analytics, design, engineering, marketing, partnerships, operations, product, R&D, and support.
Some Key Questions
What ARE Fully Remote Companies?
Fully remote companies (sometimes known as “remote first” companies), allow all of their staff to work from home or remotely. They usually have no physical headquarters, or offices where staff work.
We’ve featured companies here that are completely distributed. But this doesn’t always mean that these companies aren’t somehow tied to one timezone, or even a specific region.
These firms have all clearly given a lot of thought to how they maintain a remote workforce. They don’t try to compensate for the lack of an office. Instead they find innovative ways to ensure remote working is beneficial in its own right.
Many offer regular retreats for people to get together in person; Some offer travel grants to help teams meet up. Regular “all hands calls” feature a lot, with some interesting approaches, such as walking calls.
If you would like to gain a deeper understanding, this blog post on fully remote work will help.
Why does being Remote First Matter?
A lot of companies advertise remote roles, but still have the majority of staff working from an office. This can introduce pressure for remote workers to be a little less remote than they would like to be.
Pretty soon, the offer to “pop in” to the office once in a while can feel like a condition. Or, you may feel you’re less informed than your office-based colleagues.
This sort of arrangement is perfectly acceptable, but working for a company that is truly remote first is an absolute game changer.
For a discussion on remote working and how it compares to freelancing, check out this episode of our podcast.
How do I get my First Remote job?
You get a remote job in the same way as you would get any other job: find it, apply, and be successful at interview.
While you can look for remote work on mainstream job boards there are several other options (as we discuss in this podcast). One of the best options if you do not have a particular company or position in mind is to use specialized job boards. Here is a list of the 15 best remote job boards to help get you started.
Where remote first companies do differ is that the interview itself is usually conducted remotely.
If you’re expecting to apply for a remote job, make sure you’re able to use products like Skype and Zoom competently. Be aware of when and how the company might contact you, so you’re available and ready to create a positive impression.
If you want to take your preparation one step further we have put together 20 remote work interview questions with answers.
It should go without saying that you must be qualified for the job. Simply having a decent internet connection doesn’t mean you can apply for every remote job you see.
What Sort of Jobs do Fully Remote Companies Offer?
Tech firms are – unsurprisingly – hugely over-represented among remote first companies. Even though there are lots of jobs for developers, engineers and designers, there ARE also plenty of legal, finance, sales, marketing and customer service roles.
Many fully remote companies are relatively young and technologically savvy. But this doesn’t mean they are all start ups or tiny agencies.
Though many different sectors are represented, all remote first companies view working remotely as a way they run the company, not a perk to replace a desk. You should be able to get all the benefits you would expect from any employer, but with a flexibility of approach that could make all the difference.
Hopefully you will find a job that suits you, in a company you’ll enjoy working for, in a way that suits your working style.
Conclusion
All fully remote companies pride themselves on their way of working, seeing it as more effective, open and efficient than the alternative. In many cases, these businesses have built a remote culture from scratch. Their methods are tried and tested.
If you are looking for a fully remote job, regardless of function, there is no reason you should expect any fewer benefits from remote first companies. Being remote first is no reason to reduce your employment rights, or your pension and insurance benefits.
In fact, there’s one thing in common across all of these remote first companies: They all take extra time to ensure you have a strong work/life balance, and that you are given everything you need to work well and be well in yourself.
Still Need More Ideas?
- Take a look at our other list of companies that hire home workers – these aren’t remote first companies, but they all regularly recruit remote staff.
- Take a listen to our podcast introducing remote working.
Alex is an experienced public speaker and podcaster, and has been working in the marketing and media industry for most of this century. He held a senior marketing role with Royal Mail, before becoming a marketing consultant. He founded the crowdfunding events business “Crowdfinders” and has recently been Head of Membership for The Marketing Society. In 2013 Alex created “Your Best Man”, a consultancy helping people with all manner of speeches from weddings to business.
