Employee Q&A: Ralph Vieira

Today we delve into all things DevOps with Ralph, the DevOps Team Lead at Mappedin. We discuss the problems he’s trying to solve, what he enjoys most about his role, along with his experience with remote onboarding and the interview process at Mappedin. 

Ralph, thanks for chatting with me today. To begin, can you tell us about your current role at Mappedin?

Yes, I’m the DevOps Team Lead at Mappedin. DevOps combines development and operations to create a unilateral team that focuses on delivering common objectives. This methodology improves work throughout the software development life cycle by combining culture changes, practices, and tools which empower developers to deliver and manage their applications. 

It comes with a lot of responsibilities that developers usually aren’t used to doing, because they would typically make their application, test it, make sure it works, and wouldn’t be in touch with it after that. Now, they’re responsible for the whole life cycle of the application and keep in touch with why it’s running, why people are using it, and more.

What made you decide to join the team?

Funny story, I used to work in the same building as Mappedin while working for a different company. I looked into Mappedin and really liked their story, which raised my interest in learning more. Things got quiet at my job and there was an open position at Mappedin, so I thought it was a good opportunity to try it out.

I decided to join the team because there was so much potential. An influx of clients, an abundance of new projects that needed attention, and for the DevOps roles specifically, there were a lot of opportunities for me to contribute and make a difference in the company. 

What do you enjoy most about your role in DevOps?

I enjoy doing everything with tech: bringing new applications to life, bringing up new environments, testing things, finding and fixing bugs and misconfigurations, all of it. 

However, what I find most rewarding about my role is helping other teams accomplish what they’re doing. For instance, by improving part of their process or making a tool available to them, I can see how much better they can do something. I feel like what I do is very little but to others it's so much more. 

What are some things the DevOps team is working on right now?

With data privacy rules, and specific needs of some clients, we need to keep all client data region-specific. For instance, someone in Europe wouldn’t want their data processed in Canada or U.S., so we must make the application self-sufficient in that area. We’re creating new environments, running our applications in these environments, and raising tickets to improve our deployment process of these applications. We currently have different environments for different clients, and we’re continuing to make this process easier.

We’re also improving everything we do by being SOC2 compliant. SOC2 is a security framework that ensures that we are aligned with the best security practices globally. We follow this closely, apply it, and verify that we’re always on the right path.

Is there one thing you like most about working at Mappedin?

In general, I like Mappedin as a company and the culture. I really like the people, enjoy talking to them, working with them, and how we handle things professionally as well.

Everyone at Mappedin is fun to work with, which makes work life a lot easier and more enjoyable. It really stands out here. Not to say other companies are bad, but at Mappedin it’s significantly better. The people make a huge difference. 

As you know, Mappedin moved to a remote first environment. How was your experience with remote onboarding, and how has working remotely been for you?

Mappedin is doing a great job at keeping everyone in touch and getting teams together to talk and get to know each other, even when onboarded remotely. When I joined remotely, I was expecting my first day to be like “here’s your work for the day, send it over when you’re done”, but it’s not like that at all. It’s a lot more collaborative. 

Flexibility is the best benefit of working remotely. It’s easy to make a coffee and come back to your work station, but you can also go into the office whenever you’d like.

We’re hiring for many developer roles currently at Mappedin. What are these roles and why should a developer come to Mappedin right now? 

We’re hiring for two Team Leads, a Full Stack Developer, a Front End Developer, and a Developer Evangelist (see our open roles here). I would encourage anyone looking to work at Mappedin to apply! 

It’s a fast-growing company, there are tons of opportunities, and you can make significant contributions that make a great impact. You’ll also be enjoying anything you’re doing because of the people at Mappedin. What could be better?

Do you have any interview tips for a developer who wants to apply to Mappedin?

During the interview process, I had the opportunity to talk to different managers at Mappedin and ask about the company goals, the projects they’re doing, and what I would be doing in my role. I would advise applicants to discuss these things during the interview, and find out how you would fit into Mappedin. 

Most people are worried about the testing process, but this is only at the beginning, and after that, it’s just learning more about the company and giving out ideas of what you could be doing. 

I loved the interview process. Most places you go to for a job interview feel like you’re really being interviewed and it’s not that great, but at Mappedin it was a really good conversation between two professionals trying to figure out how we could tackle some problems. Even if it didn’t work out for me, it still would’ve been a nice interview process.

What advice would you give to a developer on their first day?

On your first day, settle in, accommodate yourself, and introduce yourself to colleagues and other teams. Schedule coffee chats to get to know your colleagues and friends that will help you later down the road with your work. Getting to know people is the best asset you have, and everyone at Mappedin is very easy to talk to. 

Interested in working with us? Check out our Careers Page for all open roles, or send an email to our recruitment team at careers@mappedin.ca.