Pax8 looks to bring tech jobs to rural area

Company awarded Location Neutral Employment Program incentive in 2020 from Colorado

A new partnership aims to open doors to careers in the tech field for residents of Logan County and nor theast Colorado.

Logan County Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Trae Miller recently announced a new par tnership with Pax8, a cloud company based in the Denver Metro area.

“The par tnership with Pax8 is inspiring because it takes our vision and ef for ts for remote work opportunities to a new level,” Miller said. “This is a company that shares our goal of providing access to diverse and well-paying career opportunities in rural communities. Pax8 is truly leading the way in building a model for other Colorado companies to understand the value and oppor tunities of partnering with rural areas like ours. Having the infrastructure in place to

suppor t this type of work, such as The Annex coworking facility, will put Logan County residents first in line for these unique career opportunities.”

Pax8 works primarily with managed ser vice providers, simplifying the way they buy, sell and manage cloud solutions. The company was founded in 2012 and has ranked in the Inc. 5000 for three consecutive years — #68 in 2018, #60 in 2019, and #111 in 2020 — as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., experiencing 400% year-over-year growth, according to Amanda Lee, Vice President of Corporate Communications for Pax8. In 2020, Pax8 was named Denver’s fastestgrowing company in the extra-large categor y on the Denver Business Journal’s Fast 50 List. This was Pax8’s second consecutive year as the categor y winner on the list.

In the past year, Pax8 received a Location Neutral Employment Program incentive from the state of Colorado, which will enable them to create 1,800 new jobs in the next eight years, with 55 of the positions to be rural, according to Ashlie Arnold, Rural Empowerment Programs Manager for Pax8.

As a result of that award, Pax8 has partnered with LCEDC and several other economic development organizations in rural counties across Colorado to recruit employees to fill a variety of positions. And it comes as the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed workers of all kinds into remote settings, which has driven the company to push out into rural communities to “meet people where they are,” said Cleve Lewis, Vice President of Empowerment Programs at Pax8. They hope to identify and recruit “new, diverse talent” in the rural market for the company. Doing so will provide those workers with access to well-paying jobs, he said, while continuing to “build (Pax8’s) reputation as a world-class ser vice organization,” he said.

The company has already had some success with rural hiring initiatives, with a pilot program in Fremont County resulting in eight hires. Lewis said the company hopes to continue its outreach into next year, branching out across Colorado and eventually into rural communities nationally.

“Our mission is to build an inclusive culture that encourages and celebrates diversity and inspires positive change,” Lewis said. “Working with Fremont County Economic Development Corporation’s TechStart, we’ve already started employing talent within Colorado’s rural areas. As an extension of the program, we plan to place Pax8 employees within rural communities to provide mentorship, skills development, and education. Supporting collaborative economic development programs across the state is key to helping us achieve our goal of empowering underser ved communities as well as fostering the successful growth of Pax8 over the next decade.”

Representatives lauded Pax8 as a great place to work, with Lewis mentioning the company’s investment in career growth of its employees. He said working there goes beyond just having a job to include a positive social environment.

Lee agreed, saying, “Culture is at the center and at the core of who Pax8 is. Its people are ever ything to the company.”

She cited CEO John Street’s philosophy that, “If our people are happy, our customers are happy.”

“It is an incredibly special place to work,” Lee said.

Available positions at Pax8 are available on the company’s website, www.pax8.com, and can also be found by contacting the Sterling Workforce Center at www.connectingcolorado.com.