taco 'bout a dream job

Do you fancy yourself to be a taco aficionado? If so, you’ll really eat up a new job opening at delivery service Favor.

Owned by San Antonio-based grocery chain H-E-B, Favor is hunting for its first-ever chief taco officer. Yes, a chief taco officer — not to be confused with another type of CTO (chief technology officer).

“The company will pay one energetic, hungry, and social savvy Texan $10,000 to track down the best tacos across the state this summer,” Favor says in a news release.

Aside from the $10,000 in pay, Favor will provide food, accommodations, and transportation in each city, as well as wellness activities such as massages and yoga classes. In addition, the chief taco officer will receive customized Favor swag and one year of free Favor delivery.

“Tacos are one of the top Favored foods across all of the cities we serve throughout Texas,” says Jag Bath, CEO of Favor. “The history and culture behind one of the most iconic foods in the Lone Star State vary from city to city, and we’re excited for our new Chief Taco Officer to discover some of the best and most authentic tacos out there.”

Texas residents over 21 are eligible to apply. Applicants must create and share a short video on why they should be Favor’s chief taco officer, and submit a short form on Favor’s application page. The application deadline is 11:59 pm Thursday, May 12.

Favor’s chief taco officer may want to stock up on digestive aids, given the mass quantity of tacos they’re likely to consume. In 2015, Texas Monthly compiled a list of the 120 Texas tacos “you must eat before you die.” The list highlighted taco purveyors in 15 areas around the state, from Amarillo to Corpus Christi.

By the way, Austin-based outdoor services provider LawnStarter recently crowned Austin the state’s best city for tacos, followed by Round Rock, Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston. But if Favor’s chief taco officer is traversing Texas the entire summer, they’re bound to visit dozens of cities that could argue they deserve the title.

And perhaps Favor’s chief taco officer will do us a favor and crack the shell of Rent.com’s recent ranking of Texas as the No. 2 state for tacos, behind California. Everything’s bigger in Texas, right? That includes our appetite for tacos — and our prowess in producing them.

This article originally ran on CultureMap.

The government is gearing up to dole out billions of dollars in funding to support innovation within hydrogen — and the city of Houston wants a chunk of that cash.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was announced by the The U.S. Department of Energy to seek out opportunities in hydrogen, includes $8 billion to go toward establishing Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs. At Greentown Houston's first anniversary event, Mayor Sylvester Turner announced he's determined to position the city as one of those hubs.

"Houston and the Gulf Coast are ideally suited to scale up and become a leader in the hydrogen economy," Mayor Turner says. "We have the knowledge, the workforce, and infrastructure to produce clean hydrogen."

"The Gulf Coast has the nation's largest concentration of hydrogen production assets, dedicated hydrogen pipeline infrastructure, and many industrial hydrogen customers," he continues. "I am confident we have the tools in our toolbox at our disposal right here in Texas — and especially right here in Houston — to lead the global energy transition initiative."

The city has made other efforts to advance Houston as an energy transition leader, including the Greater Houston Partnership establishing the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, led by Executive Director Jane Stricker.

"We have the right assets, the right infrastructure — all of that exists. This is where all of the big investment decisions get made in the energy industry," Stricker says on Greentown's panel that followed Mayor Turner's address.

She continues, adding that something that should be top of mind for the energy industry and local universities is the workforce.

"If we're going to create 600,000 jobs in Houston over the next 30 years through this energy transition — and that's what we need to do — we need to be thinking about what those jobs are," she says on the panel.

Greentown's Low-Carbon Hydrogen Accelerator, which kicked off earlier this month, is another ongoing initiative in collaboration with the city to support innovation within hydrogen and low-carbon technologies.

"In Houston, we dream big, and make big things happen," Mayor Turner says on the future of Houston as a leader in this space. "When we play as a team, we do well."