Uber offers brutal job, and applications pour in

WANTED: a seasoned exec to take the top position at a troubled startup. Must be willing to fix a broken culture, deal with an aggressive predecessor, battle a risky lawsuit and prepare the company for an initial public offering. Self-starters preferred.

This is essentially the pitch Uber is making to potential CEO candidates after Travis Kalanick, the ride-hailing company’s co-founder, was ousted last month. By some accounts, the job appears to be thankless. So who would want it? Quite a few people, as it turns out. Despite a series of scandals that have rocked Uber to its core, competition for the top spot is robust, according to people familiar with the search who asked to remain anonymous because the process is confidential. The company has received a flood of interest since Kalanick vacated his seat in June, and Uber’s board has interviewed multiple candidates.

Despite Uber’s problems, executives see an opportunity to shepherd the company – which operates in more than 80 countries and pulls in billions of dollars each quarter – through the most trying time in its eight-year history.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for someone who’s wired for problem solving and wants to make their mark by turning around the image of the company,” said Jason Hanold, managing partner at Hanold Associates, an executive search firm.

Among those up for consideration have been Susan Wojcicki, who leads YouTube. Others include Adam Bain, Twitter’s former COO; David Cush, a former CEO at Virgin America; the former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer; and Thomas Staggs, a former chief operating officer at Disney, according to three people familiar with the search.

Bain, Cush, Mayer and Staggs did not respond to requests for comment. A YouTube spokesman declined to comment about Wojcicki.