So, like many other trendy managers nowadays, I also decided to go ahead and write my README doc…

Welcome to me 🙂

Raz.README

What is this?

This is a document to tell you the reader about me – the writer.

Just to make it clear, this document should/will not replace a conversation, it’s just a way for you to better understand who I am, what I do and even why I behave the way I do.

Oh yeah, and also, for myself to map who I am 🙂

What do I do?

Role Overview

As the Vertical Lead of Engineering at Delivery Hero – Fintech, I am entrusted with leading and driving the technological vision, strategy, and execution for our engineering teams.

My primary focus is on leveraging technology to enhance our delivery services, optimize our platforms, and ultimately improve the customer experience.

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership:

• Define and execute the long-term technology roadmap aligned with business objectives.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to align technology initiatives with company goals, between central and our platforms.
• Identify emerging technologies and trends to drive innovation within the organization.

Team Management:

• Lead and mentor a diverse team of engineers, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning.
• Establish clear goals, expectations, and KPIs to drive performance and accountability.
• Promote diversity and inclusion within the engineering organization.

Technical Excellence:

• Oversee the design, development, and deployment of scalable and reliable systems.
• Ensure adherence to best practices, coding standards, and architectural principles.
• Implement robust processes for code review, testing, and deployment automation.

Stakeholder Engagement:

• Collaborate closely with product management, design, and other stakeholders in our Platforms, to deliver high-quality products and features globally over many different Platforms
• Communicate effectively with senior leadership and key stakeholders to provide visibility into engineering initiatives and progress.

Achievements

• Successfully led the migration of a monolith to a modern microservices architecture, resulting in improved scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Implemented agile methodologies, leading to faster delivery cycles and increased deployment frequency.
• Drove cost reduction in our infra costs, our current absolute cloud costs is 60% lower than it was when I started, and we serve many more platforms while doing so.
• Spearheaded initiatives to improve developer productivity, such as implementing CI/CD pipelines and enhancing development tooling.
• Played a key role in recruiting top engineering talent, building high-performing teams, and fostering a culture of excellence.

Approach to Leadership

As a leader, I prioritize transparency, collaboration, and empowerment. I believe in creating a supportive environment where team members feel valued, challenged, and motivated to excel. By fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation, I strive to drive impactful outcomes and deliver value to our customers.

My Availability

TLDR; If you need/want to talk, I’m here for you. There are many things I do, none of them is more important than to listen to you and help you.

Don’t wait for our 1:1, 1:1s are good to have don’t get me wrong, but if you have a pressing issue just come to me and we’ll find the time.

Also, my calendar is a bit crazy, I know, if you can’t schedule something with me, let me know and I’ll move things around to fit you.

My Assumptions

You care about what we do here. So when you suggest something I know you do so because you care and I take it into account, I never doubt that! Sometimes things just can’t happen, I will do my best to give context and reasoning… please insist and challenge me if you feel I’m wrong.

Team’s opinions / decisions > mine. (most of the times). I am just one person, if you and the team feel something should be done differently – in 99% of the time you will have my blessing to pursue it, it doesn’t mean that I won’t ask a lot of questions and even check what you are talking about, but it’s more to vet your ideas than anything else. Only on rare occasions, I will override them.

You’re very good at your job. And I can’t do your job… I trust that you know what you are talking about, if I am asking questions it’s because I either am: a) Trying to gather context. b) Playing devil’s advocate to understand how convinced you are about what you say. C)  Trying to be a sounding board and rubber duck.

You will come and talk to me if something is wrong. I try to keep up and I will do what I can to see if all is good, but generally, I am a flawed human and sometimes I don’t notice things, if anything is bothering you, let me know… otherwise, I might not notice.

What I value

Honesty. If something is wrong let me know, if you have an idea to improve and it contradicts something I say – I have a minimal amount of ego (I think), I can live with it… talk to me, don’t be afraid to tell me what you think – I always prefer to know what’s up over realizing it after the fact.

Empathy. Because honesty without empathy could be destructive to the fabric of a team I will be very honest with you but always empathetic.

Self-reflection. Self-reflection is an important part of growth. You’ll miss opportunities without it.

Team Work. A team can achieve more than one individual can as long as they work together they could scale and do great things.

Good Spirit. It’s always good to hear laughter and happiness in our surroundings

One on Ones

The best 1:1s I’ve had have focused beyond the moment: Your career development, team strategy, and opportunity etc.

I’ll share a 1:1 document with you, feel free to park things you want to bring out in our 1:1s there and I will do the same so we won’t forget…

Generally, we will start with 30 minutes once a week, but we can adjust, it could vary from outside at a cafe/lunch, walk in the park, meeting room.

Duration could vary as well, I’ll try and tailor-make it to our needs.

Retrospectives

So you might have heard that I really like retros, I do them on myself each month, try to ask myself what I do well and how to improve (and then I try small things to improve).

My teams are doing the same thing and I would love that you would take an active role in that, small incremental changes will drive us forward and help us improve.

If you want to read more about retros:

https://somehowimanage.blog/2018/06/04/how-to-retrospective/

The “I’m not perfect slide” 🙂

I’m not good with on the spot solutions. That means that you might have a brilliant idea, but I won’t recognize it on the spot and still have to think about it for a day or two and only then understand how great it really is… and for my side, I will usually avoid finding on the spot solutions – they just don’t work for me.

My time management is lacking (to say the least). My schedule is terrible (as I mentioned before) and I have to learn to manage it better.

I wear my emotions on my sleeve. When I’m upset/angry it usually shows… I’ll try my best to change that as my mood should not affect your work.

I could be a bit stubborn. If you feel I’m wrong and I’m insisting, just go at me again, remind me that I’m stubborn, I forget it sometimes.

I discovered recently that I have Aphantasia – Read about it here

Things I might babble about (not work related)

My kids and spouse. I will most likely babble about them a lot, like A LOT.

Pop culture. TV shows (mostly The Office US). Because The Office is my favorite, a close 2nd would be Star Trek Next Gen (i’ll reference those 2 like a million times a day, sorry about that, feel free to roll your eyes at me when I do it).

And those dumb Marvel movies, I just love them what can I say…

Triathlons. I used to be a competitive swimmer, now I am trying to get back into shape, but generally, I finished a lot of triathlons and even 3 full distance Ironman tris.

Puns. Well… I will make a lot of puns, lots and lots, out of those lots, hearing a good one is like winning the… lottery (wak wak) feel free to roll your eyes at me as well, beware, I see the eye rolling as a positive reinforcement to continue.

Diving. I am a divemaster and I try to scuba dive at least 2-3 times a year, I also plan to tattoo on me a log book of cool things I’ve seen underwater. (currently, I have made 0 tattoos of that nature (wak wak) )