Want a tech job in Bend? Navis is aiming to hire more than two dozen tech positions — including 9 developers — by the end of May. The company makes reservation and marketing automation software for the hospitality industry, and they’re growing.

Navis currently employs 280 people, with about 200 of those positions right here in sunny Central Oregon. The software company also has offices in Tempe, Ariz. and Orlando, Fla.

Doug Spencer, Navis’ new CTO, says Navis is expanding into new, international markets as well as developing new products. “That’s why we’re staffing up,” says Spencer, who recently moved to Bend from Los Angeles, where he was previously the CTO of the International Logistics Division of G4S.

Navis’ clients are mostly independent hotels and resorts and vacation rentals. While independents comprise about one-third of the U.S. market, they account for the majority of the international hospitality markets.

“That’s a big market that we’re still not touching,” Spencer says. He also envisions mobile apps of Navis products, something that will take the company’s dev team in a new direction.

Gregg Daub, Navis’ recruiter, says that in the past the company has relied mostly on Visual Basic development on a .NET technology stack. But developing new products and internationalizing their current ones means Navis is bringing sexy stacks back (I literally could not help it).

To my knowledge, JT doesn’t work at NAVIS. But maybe you could …

This requires developers with a wider range of skills including familiarity with Open Source coding, Linux and other front-end applications like Angular and Node.js, as well as MongoDB and Hadoop on the back-end. In addition to developers, the company is on the hunt for QA and network engineers.

Which now brings us to the big question tech companies here often face: Where do you find technical talent? Daub acknowledges it’s not easy. But Navis salaries are competitive, and he’s touting Bend’s lifestyle to techies up and down the West Coast.

“We definitely have a great place to sell in Bend, and the company has been listed by The Oregonian as a Top Workplace in Oregon three years running ,” he says. So if you know anyone looking … here’s the Navis careers page or email Daub at [email protected]

Kelly Kearsley

Kelly Kearsley

Kelly Kearsley, the co-founder of StartupBend.com, is passionate about startups, entrepreneurship and Bend. In addition to writing this blog, she creates content and manages content projects for global financial companies, tech firms and startups. She began her career as a newspaper journalist and later worked as a freelance writer. Her work has appeared in WSJ.com, Money Magazine, CNNMoney, MSNBC and Runner's World. See her work at kellykearsley.contently.com or kellykearsley.com.

You can reach Kelly by email at [email protected].
Kelly Kearsley

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