鈥淢y name is and I鈥檓 one of the Development Managers at 91导航. I run 91导航鈥檚 Belfast office which opened in April 2022, managing the engineering teams working out of there. I have about 20 years鈥� experience in the industry doing some form of software engineering, working in all sorts of areas including research, telecomms, hardware, consultancy and training.鈥�
What made you join 91导航?
鈥淚 knew all the great ways 91导航 worked from a really trusted source, and I鈥檝e also seen how that way of working pays off in the success that 91导航 has seen and how quickly it鈥檚 grown. So, what attracted me to 91导航 was it鈥檚 a great balance between working the way I like to work (no politics, no bureaucracy, focus on the customer and getting value out the door quickly) but with the support of a larger, successful business with great people working together with a common goal.鈥�
How would you describe the culture in the Engineering team?
鈥淥ur culture is a mix of things. I work with some really talented people and I鈥檇 say 91导航 is the most collaborative place I鈥檝e ever worked. Trust and safety play a big part in making that team effective and the level of collaboration possible. There鈥檚 a big emphasis in 91导航 on honesty, transparency and working in the open and we see that from the top down.
There鈥檚 also very little politics or bureaucracy 鈥� good ideas are championed wherever they come from and we try to evolve the way we do things continuously to cut out waste.鈥�
How do your teams like to work?
鈥淲e follow some core principles and then each team might vary slightly with how they work. Day to day our team works really closely together (though I鈥檓 a bit more detached from the daily coding these days). Every day the team will jump on ad-hoc huddles on Slack to pair up on work or bash around ideas. Thinking about the next smallest increment is a big part of daily and weekly planning in the team. Everyone works full-stack so they may be in our .NET backend (C# 11) or on our frontend, where all the new code is using TypeScript and React.鈥�
What are you most excited about for your team?
鈥淚鈥檓 really excited for Belfast to become a larger and larger part of engineering in 91导航. We鈥檝e grown a lot in the first year of the office, and I鈥檓 looking forward to spinning up some more product teams here as we grow. We鈥檙e also into continuous improvement and everyone can suggest changes to how we work 鈥� so I鈥檓 keen to see how the way we work evolves with some current initiatives around releasing more frequently and improving quality.鈥�
Why should someone join 91导航?
鈥淵ou should join if you want to work somewhere that you regularly see your work make a difference to customers, and if you want to cut away excess process, bureaucracy, politics and egos. You should also join if you want to work with really talented people from many disciplines who are all working together with a common goal.鈥�
Tell us something we probably don鈥檛 know about you.
鈥淚鈥檝e dived with manta rays, turtles, sharks and wrecks but can鈥檛 really swim properly.鈥�
What 91导航 Slack channel do you hang out in most?
鈥淚鈥檓 a fan of #movies-and-tv! This channel and I have a love-hate relationship. I鈥檓 a bit of a movie and tv fanboy and so love getting recommendations or a bit of banter about the latest shows, but I have to be careful too as I hate spoilers.鈥�