Frequently Asked Questions

• How many people are on the Synex team?

  27 and counting!

• How long does the interview process take?

  Typically 3-4 weeks. It depends on availability (yours and ours). We like to move as quickly as possible, and some people have received an offer within two weeks of their intro call. We’ve also seen it take up to a month if a candidate or member of our team has limited availability, but that’s not our goal.

• Who will candidates talk to during their interview process?

  During the interview process, you can expect to speak with members of Operations, Leadership, and the team you’d be joining at Synex.
  

• Can I talk with one of your current employees during the interview process?

  Absolutely! We’d be happy to introduce you.

• Why would a candidate not be a good fit/not want to join Synex?

  Synex is an early stage startup. With that being said, you can expect day-to-day operations to be a little different than a larger company! Priorities, workload, and even projects can change very quickly. Flexibility and comfort navigating ambiguity are crucial to success at Synex.

  If you prefer a role with a lot of structure and consistency, joining Synex at this stage may not be the right fit for you. While we do provide guidance, opportunities to learn, and financial assistance for training and certifications, we don’t offer comprehensive, on-the-job instruction yet.
  

• Do you sponsor visas?

  We're open to it! We have a strong preference for sponsoring in Canada (rather than the United States) because the process tends to be much easier. 
  

• Where is your team located?

  We have employees in both the United States and Canada. Our Canada headquarters is located in Toronto, and our U.S. office is in Boston. Some of our employees are in other locations and work fully remotely.

• How is remote work handled, and what are the hours like?

   

  In general, we are as supportive of remote work as possible. We recognize that people don’t need to be physically present in an office environment to produce their best work. For fully remote work, we provide all the tools and technology you need to complete your work and collaborate with your team.

  We have a distributed team that spans from coast to coast– and beyond! Because of this, a lot of the work we do is asynchronous. Any meetings are typically held within the traditional 8-5pm ET work day. Beyond that, when and where you work is up to you. As long as each employee remains accountable to their team and manager, we encourage everyone to create a schedule that works best for them. If you want to write code or review documents while beachside in the Bahamas, go for it!
  

   

• Would I be expected to travel for work-related matters?

  We don’t require most of our employees to travel. However, as a distributed team, we do like to get everyone together when we can - so we will offer option travel opportunities to our headquarters in Toronto and Boston.

• Do you offer relocation assistance?

  We do! If you’d like to move closer to one of our offices, we offer $5,000 to help cover your costs.

• What will new hires experience in their first 30 days?

  The primary focus for an employee’s first month at Synex is learning. Getting to know the processes, policies, and people are major keys to success and comfort at any new workplace. You can expect to be introduced to each team, learn about our projects, get familiar with our technology, and set goals with your manager. You’ll have the option to complete part of your onboarding in the Toronto or Boston office if you’d like to, but onboarding for most roles can be completed remotely. While you may dip your toes into some project work, you won’t be expected to dive into your role right away.

  Additionally, prior to your start date you’ll be assigned an onboarding buddy to ensure you have a smooth transition into your new role and workplace. Your onboarding buddy is an employee who will introduce you to each team and meet with you weekly to help you get to know Synex and address any concerns or questions you have. The purpose of the buddy program is to provide you with a formal—and informal—resource to support you during your first month.
  

• What equipment/tools does Synex provide to new hires?

  We provide you with a laptop and other necessary accessories (second monitor, wireless keyboard, etc). If you're not located near our Toronto office, we'll ship everything to you before your first day!

• What do you use internally to communicate with one another?

  We use Slack for day-to-day communications, as well as Google Meets and Zoom for video calls and Gmail for email. We also use Confluence and Jira to collaborate on projects and documentation!

• What programming languages does your team use?

  C, C++, Python, BASH, JavaScript, Reactjs, HTML/CSS, and JSON/YAML

• What operating system does your team use?

  Our platform and the dev environment are Linux-based.

• How do your hardware and NMR teams work together successfully, despite some people working remotely?

  Our platform and dev environment is designed to be modular and web-based; allowing developers to take advantage of offline work and drive our platform remotely.

• Do you have your own patents?

  Yes! We have several patent applications. We work with one of the most innovative and capable patent lawyers in the US. We regularly review our patent strategy to ensure that we are protected while investing our money wisely.

• Is your company building its own internal technology?

  Yes. We strongly believe in getting the technology right before we start productizing anything. Our technology is at the core of our business right now. We have set a very high bar for ourselves, and we intend to reach it before we move on to anything else.

• Does your company work with international part manufacturers?

  Yes. In order to stay competitive, we work with international companies that satisfy our needs. We take these relationships seriously and are continuously building our network.

• Do you outsource any of your design work, or is it all done in-house?

  The majority of our design work is done in-house. Nevertheless, we are still growing our internal resources and recognize when the challenges become too complex or time-consuming for our staff. As such, we facilitate an environment where we are not afraid to admit our limitations and contract out focused problems to experts in the field.

• Are there internal labs or manufacturing rooms that are used to build your technology?

  Yes, we have a few separate labs dedicated to ME / EE / NMR. The people on our teams have a lot of hands-on experience and are not afraid to get scrappy when things need to get done!

• What does career advancement look like at Synex?

  We recognize that performance reviews and conversations around advancement can be stressful. With that in mind, we’ve tried to create a holistic, person-first process that feels intentional and empowering. Conversations between managers and leadership about salary and advancement happen twice a year, but we encourage employees to initiate conversations around career progression with their managers whenever they’d like to.
  

• Tell me about the work/life balance at Synex.

  Life at a startup can be unpredictable, and priorities can change quickly. We tried to be mindful of this while establishing our remote work and time off policies. Along with giving employees the freedom to choose when and where they work, Synex requires each employee to take a minimum of two weeks off per year. We set a minimum (but encourage more!) to ensure that everyone is prioritizing their health and wellbeing, giving themselves ample breaks, and feels supported to take time off. We also provide up to 6 months of paid parental leave for each employee. While this is the law in Canada, we established this company-wide policy to provide the same support to our non-Canadian employees.

• How much collaboration is there between domains?

  Due to the size of our workforce and stage we’re at, there is a ton of collaboration between teams– regardless of your role. While the amount of cross-domain collaboration will vary between roles and projects, you can expect to work with members of nearly every domain during your time at Synex.

  A core part of how we work on projects utilizes the ‘squad model’. A squad is a multidisciplinary group with members from several domains that work together to complete a project or conduct research. We’ve found that this model enhances productivity and innovation by drawing on each member's unique area of expertise, and strengthens communication between different domains.