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Working at Backpacking Light

Learning about outdoor gear and mastering outdoor skills online is difficult because so much information is created with commercial bias or by people who lack expertise or experience. Backpacking Light Membership provides access to trusted expertise so outdoor enthusiasts can enjoy the backcountry with confidence. Backpacking Light employees, staff, and contractors are committed to serving the needs of our members.

Our Purpose

We help people thrive outdoors (our purpose) because we believe connectedness to nature makes humans better (our core belief).

Backpacking Light is seeking people who can help us accomplish our purpose, who believe in our core belief, who resonate with our values, and who want to help inform and educate our members with trusted expertise.

We are looking for team members who are excited to discover the objective truth about backcountry gear, technology, design, engineering, and outdoor skills, and are:

  • critical thinkers
  • creative educators
  • and passionate about spending time in the backcountry.

Roles at Backpacking Light:

We are seeking people for positions that blend one or more of the following roles:

  • Technical leads – strong science or engineering background, especially in the areas of human physiology, materials and fabrics, load carriage physics, biomechanics, or environment/climatology; ability to formulate and test hypotheses with lab and field experiments; ability to apply research methods and testing methodologies; data collection and analysis; technical editing and writing experience; project management experience.
  • Research assistants – strong academic research skills with the ability to conduct literature reviews, market assessments, product category audits, user surveys, subject matter expert interviews, and using AI LLM for accurately interpreting and summarizing large sets of data and text.
  • Test technicians – ability to adhere to sound scientific methods to conduct repeatable laboratory and field tests for investigating technology, material, and gear performance.
  • Field testers / reviewers– ability to use gear and apply skills in challenging backcountry environments where you are able to discover the limits of gear performance and objectively assess and compare the strengths and limitations of different gear and techniques.
  • Subject matter experts – you have expertise in a particular area of outdoor gear technology, materials, design, or wilderness skills and can be available for interviews, data reviews, and content reviews.
  • Educators: presenters / podcasters / writers– ability to deliver outdoor skills or gear education using narrated video with demonstrations or presentations, audio (podcasts), or written narrative (reports); understanding of pedagogical techniques for transformation learning; ability to communicate complex concepts with clarity; scriptwriting.
  • Presentation / visual artists – ability to communicate complex concepts clearly via images, illustrations, tables, graphs/charts, and presentation slides.
  • Content editors – ability to edit and proofread to a style guide and organizational voice standards.
  • Web layout specialists – expertise in HTML, CSS, JS, and other UI-centric technologies for creating and delivering engaging text, video, images, tables, and interactive tools (e.g., online calculators).
  • Audio/video editors and producers – ability to work with educators for creating quality audio/video presentations; audio editing and sound design; video editing, including color grading, sound processing, and animations.

Qualifications & Compensation

  • STEM competency preferred.
  • Pay range: $22-$50/hr DOE/DOQ/role for W-2 Employes. 1099 Contractors will be paid on a per-project or retainer basis. Paid internships are available.

How to Apply

The current call for applicants closed on May 19, 2024. Please check back here from time to time to review open positions.