OpenCorporates is hiring… and it’s urgent!

Update: the roles mentioned here are no longer available, but we are looking for a communications manager.

At OpenCorporates, we believe our work is of global importance. We are a small company that has achieved a huge amount – we have data on over 55 million companies worldwide, and counting, and are working with organisations such as the World Bank to open up company data around the world. We are fortunate to work on problems that are interesting, difficult, and really worth solving.  We work for possibly the most innovative and exciting open data business in the world. We love it!

We care passionately about our work, and think it’s vitally important, but we can only achieve our goals by growing further and faster. We are looking for talented people who want the join the team: people who understand why the world needs completely open, exhaustive, global corporate data, and needs it as soon as possible. This is a tremendous opportunity to not just join a fast-growing company, but help shape the world, and there’s never been a better time, given the rise of the transparency and open data movements across the world.

Initially, we’re looking for a software engineer; an open data ninja (by which we mean someone who can wrangle, write about, and visualise data); and a sysadmin. If you want to join our hugely ambitious journey, please apply for one of these roles by July 28th.

Please apply soon, and if you’re not interested, do tell your friends – this is a pivotal moment in corporate transparency and in open data too.

About OpenCorporates

OpenCorporates is the largest open database of companies in the world, and has a simple (but hugely ambitious) goal: create an entry for every company in the world. Currently we have over 55 million of them.

Corporations are no longer a single legal entity, but a complex and opaque network of legal entities spread across several jurisdictions – with this opacity inhibiting effective oversight, whether from shareholders, regulators, or society at large. From aggressive tax avoidance to lobbying and political donations to actions by executives that puts the company at risk, this is now mainstream news, and examples of why this matters. These structures are now also routinely used in criminal activity, from fraud and corruption to money laundering and organised crime.

We believe corporations can be a force for great good. However, to operate properly, they need effective oversight from society. We are at a critical historical moment. Transparency is urgently needed, and we believe the window of opportunity to introduce it is narrow. We are looking for people who understand why this is so important, why it needs doing now, and why it needs to be Open Data.

Over the last year, we have increased our global corporate database to over 55 million companies, and have started to map out the relationships between them. The main focus of in the coming year will be massively increasing the amount of data we’re ingesting, indexing and presenting.

This is a chance to work in an entrepreneurial startup environment (based at the UK Open Data Institute) with flexible working conditions, on interesting Big Data problems. It is also a chance to make a genuine impact on how the modern world is evolving. The importance of our work is recognised at the highest levels: we are working with governments and intergovernmental bodies such as the World Bank and Financial Stability Board to improve access to and understanding of corporate data. We are on Private Sector advisory group for the LEI system, and Chris Taggart (our CEO) is also on the UK Tax Transparency Board.