Insider Look: Joining the Payara Product Team

A Conversation with Senior Product Managers

Over the last few weeks, Payara Services announced multiple exciting job openings, attesting to the growing acceptance of our solutions as well as our company. As we look for many engineering specialists to join our Product team, we believe it is important to give any potential applicants an insight into what it is like to work in this team and what they can expect as Payarans.

In line with this, we interviewed our Senior Product Managers, Louise Castens and Ilias Efstathiou, to discuss what it’s like to work hands-on on the Payara Platform.

Can you tell me more about your role? What do you do and what does your typical day look like?

As Senior Product Managers, our primary focus is driving the development of our products, in line with our vision, strategy and roadmap. In practice, this means advancing these solutions to enhance their value and their ability to address customer needs. Of course, the issues we address are highly technical, related to Enterprise Java and the Payara Platform. Because Enterprise Java has a 25+ year history as the most respected coding framework for mission-critical applications, we have our work cut out for us!

In a typical day, we will be monitoring the progress of our multiple roadmap initiatives, making sure our teams have the correct processes and resources to succeed in our goals and deliver our roadmaps. At the same time, we will be examining customer and community requests in order to help our users get the most out of the Payara Platform. And we will be in constant communication with the Product Marketing and Sales teams to keep our customers up to date on the latest innovations, announcing to the world all the exciting things that we are delivering and what can be expected in the near future.

What do you find most exciting about your role and the tech team at Payara?

We have some excellent professionals in our tech team, all extremely passionate and driven. Perhaps the most exciting aspect is seeing how a small team of dedicated engineers makes significant contributions to the industry. Together, we are shaping a highly technological product. It is rewarding to see how this is foundational for the many mission-critical apps that our customers and our community use to serve, in turn, their own customers and communities. This is Software Engineering at its best, with quality, security and performance being non-negotiable.

Thanks to our skills and our state-of-the-art technology offering, we are able to compete with some of the biggest names in the industry. Even more fulfilling is knowing that they are watching us closely!

Why would you recommend the tech team? What do you think is the most unique aspect(s)?

One thing is clear: There are professional programmers out there that create mission-critical Enterprise Java applications. This is some of the most rewarding Software Engineering, in terms of personal growth for the developer. The tech team at Payara serves these experts. In order to successfully support them, our engineers need to be able to understand and continuously advance their engineering skills, as we work on very varied initiatives and issues. Also, we collaborate on industry-leading committees.

This means that only engineers of the highest caliber can drive the success of our customers, our company and of the industry itself! This is why we emphasize the importance of continuous education and growth – we want every member of our tech team to become the equivalent of Formula One race car engineers!

What can new hires expect to find?

As Payarans, new hires can expect to find a welcoming environment with a great onboarding plan and plenty of support. There is a strong focus on growth – of the company and the individuals that make it, so anyone is encouraged to learn, collaborate and develop their unique skillsets.

When it comes to our team, we are a bunch of friendly, highly intelligent and closely knitted engineers that grow in their craft daily and can discuss multithreading resilient Java architectures while making a joke in the same sentence!

How will Payara help the professional growth of new hires?

There is a strong focus on developing one’s skills and this is supported by providing Payarans with the time and the resources to grow. There are many opportunities for everyone to learn on an individual basis, as a team and at the company level. Also, nobody here is confined to a ‘job box’, anyone can shape their role according to their preferences and needs as well as take on new responsibilities.

Is there any exciting project that new hires will be involved in?

The Payara Platform is the middleware between enterprise apps and enterprise infrastructures. This is a unique position to be in from an architectural perspective, as it means we handle a variety of software development aspects. What’s more exciting than that?!

Our current vacancies include:

If this interview gave you the motivation you needed to apply, visit our Join Us page now to begin your journey as a Payaran!

Topics: Fish Food, Newsroom, Payara LifeTagged Community, culture, People Team, Product Team

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