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  • In business 14 years
  • Funding modelClient-driven
  • Team size 45

We create digital solutions that connect people to news, entertainment, ideas – and to each other.

Alley profile

We’re growing and we want you to join us, no matter where you are! We’re a remote-first, fully distributed company and we give our team members the space they need to work how they work best in order to deliver successful products for our clients - mainly large publishers and non-profit organizations. Check out our open positions and peruse our FAQ to find out more about our application process and get a glimpse of what it’s like to work at Alley.

How do you maintain flexibility & balance for your team?

At Alley, talking about balance isn’t enough; we have implemented systems to support different work styles and honor the needs of everyone at the company. We expect that Alley team members choose a work schedule that works for them and communicate with their team what that schedule will be so their team can best coordinate with and support them. Our time off policy includes, but is not limited to: flexible vacation time with a recommendation of 15 days/year and more whenever you need it, competitive parental leave, mental health leave, a day of service in which team members can select a paid day off to serve their communities or an organization of their choosing. Additionally, we host weekly learning lunches, offer a library of mental health resources, and have built many Slack channels for affinity groups for parents, gender identities, and hobbies including fitness, mindfulness, mental health, womxn, and more.
Remote First Parental Leave Company Retreats Flexible Schedule Office Allowance Unlimited Vacation Mandatory Minimum Vacation

How do you ensure autonomy and plan for the future?

At the company level, Alley’s Partners communicate quarterly and annual goals to the company during monthly Town Halls, including a transparent overview of the company’s financial health; which are driven by feedback obtained from our team members (primarily via quarterly employee Net Promoter Score surveys). On teams, we champion team autonomy by using the Scrum Framework as the backbone of our team operations. Within this framework, clients work closely with a liaison on the team (called the Product Owner) to determine a vision for their product, while the remainder of the team is given full autonomy to use their expertise and determine how to turn the client’s vision into reality. Additionally, team facilitators are trained in strategies for conducting weekly reflections on a team’s work and cultivating equity of team voice, participation, and trust. Everyone works differently and we try to encourage both periods of head's down time with asynchronous conversation styles, as well as highly collaborative time when people can get face to face to knowledge share and work together. 
Long-Term Planning Shared Goal Setting

How does your company try to hire people from underrepresented groups and improve the diversity of your team?

We aim to embed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) efforts in all areas of Alley’s business, focusing on supporting equity at all intersections and improving team member learning and development around DEI topics.

Here’s what we’ve done and how we would like to continue to change:
  1. We formed an employee-driven, partner-sanctioned Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion internal working group to guide the future of DEI efforts at Alley in collaboration with the company. Making the space was the first step, and we hope to gain greater consistency with meetings and initiatives by finding people who are truly passionate about making Alley a more inclusive place.
  2. We chose 5 key focus areas for taking action to improve diversity, equity and inclusion at Alley including: retention, outreach, hiring, demographics, and education. We then drafted a pledge and made it visible to all to keep us accountable. 
  3. DEI goes beyond the boundaries of Alley and for that reason we are always looking for groups that we can work with to make change. Some of our past and present partnerships have included:
    1. WordPress' Women & Non-binary Release Squad with a dedicated group of contributors (WP 6.4). 
    2. Out in Tech is a group of tech leaders creating professional opportunities for LGBTQ+ communities in our industry. We volunteered for their Digital Corps and provided web services to LGBTQ+ activists and social entrepreneurs.
    3. Women’s Leadership Accelerator is a program through the Online News Association focused on empowering women in digital journalism by providing leadership and management skills. 
  4. We established a #belonging Slack channel to share and discuss our unique perspectives and experiences of belonging (or a lack thereof) in our personal and professional lives.
  5. We worked with Culture Cipher—a consulting firm founded by Nadia Jones focused on building inclusive environments - to improve the diversity of our hiring pool, among other initiatives.
  6. We audited our hiring practices to include: 
    1. Mandatory anti-bias training for anyone involved in the hiring process
    2. Review of job descriptions and hiring process for possible bias or language that might signal an un-inclusive work environment 
    3. Identifying new job boards aimed at diverse and underrepresented communities that we have historically not utilized before
    4. Ensuring we’re prepared to make any needed accessibility accommodations an interviewee might need.
  7. We invested in antiracism and unconscious bias training for all staff, including additional training for Alley leadership related to their responsibilities in recruiting and hiring, client engagement, team dynamics, and professional development.
  8. We conducted qualitative research to evaluate our Coaching Program and have since rebuilt it into our Mentor Program with a focus on equity for all Alley Mentors and Mentees.

How do you support your team to grow and improve?

We help our teams grow on both an individual- and and team-level through:
  1. Feedback systems for growth, including
    1.  Weekly team retrospectives for continuous process improvement (technical & interpersonal), and
    2. Quarterly Review Cycles that encourage time for self-reflection, peer to peer feedback, and focus on personal growth and goals
  2. Ongoing training opportunities and a Professional Development (PD) policy that includes a commitment to both time and resources—after a year at Alley individuals receive $1,000 annually for PD, which scales to $2,500, then $4000 as the individual takes on different roles at Alley.
  3. A mentorship program for one-to-one support and career development 
Professional Allowance Regular 1×1’s Personal Growth Plans Mentorship Process

Perks and benefits

  • Flexible time off, with 15 days recommended (our previous “unlimited” vacation policy caused team members to take off less time and we adjusted it accordingly)
  • Competitive salaries
  • 401(k), profit sharing, health/dental/vision insurance, life insurance
  • $100 monthly lunch allowance
  • Annual equipment and software budgets which can be accrued year to year to a maximum total of $3,000.
  • Co-working memberships or office rentals paid for by Alley

Further reading


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