Working at KOMODO: Scott Salisbury, Senior Software Engineer

Our team are our greatest asset, but what do they really think about working here? To get the inside view, we’ve interviewed a range of people at KOMODO HQ to share the scoop on their roles and why we’re their employer of choice. 

Meet Scott Salisbury, a Senior Software Engineer who joined the team around 3 years ago...

I’d worked for a company for around 10 years but as redundancy was on the horizon, so I finally took our Commercial Director, Armin, up on all the times he’d tried to headhunt me and decided to apply for a  role at KOMODO.

My instincts on what I thought KOMODO would be like as an employee were totally accurate. The place is amazing and I genuinely get on with everyone I work with. It’s the kind of place I hope good things continue to happen for and that great opportunities keep coming our way. Everyone works so hard and the moral compass of both directors are correctly aligned, in my opinion.

I'm very grateful to work here, everyone cares about each other and we all just want to do good, honest work to the best of our ability and for me, that’s what a rewarding role is really all about.

The duties of my role differ depending on what particular hat I’m wearing for any given project: 

If there's a project that I'm currently leading, I'll often play a key part in doing code reviews to ensure the work being done by the team is high quality and project requirements are being met. I'll usually lead the discussion on how the project should be built and what technology we should use, balancing client expectations and best practices to find the best possible outcome.

Personally, I don't usually write as much code as other developers in the team as often I will focus my time on ensuring that all the components built by the team are working well together and make sure everything works from end-to-end.

I spend time completing research and investigation on how to integrate various technology into the project (for example, how to integrate a payment gateway) and then ensure that the project has all the foundations in place for the rest of the team to build on.

I'll often attend Client Discovery Workshops - a key component of what we offer and the real foundations for a successful project - at the beginning, help with writing project proposals, discuss and refine project scope and requirements, technical architecture, tech docs, costs, estimates, and delivery times, etc.

Finally, when the work is ready to be delivered, I'll usually help with getting the work deployed on the client's infrastructure and make sure the entire project is working as expected and configured properly. Additionally, during development, I help to set up any automation tools that we might need to run automatic tests and deployments.

What do you love most about working at KOMODO?

The people, projects and clients, the friendly banter, the gifs and Friday pints. Oh, and the office dog, Shadow.

I also feel really grateful that our ever-growing reputation has put us in a position where we can bid for big, exciting and more interesting work, so I hope this continues.

Lastly, I think there's a nice balance between flexibility and process. Not too many processes that make the place feel rigid and bureaucratic, but not too few processes that we're not able to function.  We’re trusted to get on and do what we do best, but there’s also the right amount of communication and accountability through daily standup meetings, etc.

What does a typical day look like for you?

We operate a flexible working hours policy so - when in the studio and not working remotely as we currently are - I’ll arrive within the realms of the specified hours and deal with my most important duty of the day: greeting Shadow.

Then it’s to the kitchen to grab a coffee, have some banter with colleagues and discuss the quality of the office snacks before I head to my desk and check Slack for any memes I’ve missed and my emails in case there’s anything important that needs to be prioritised.

I’ll then check in with the team for progress updates and get to work on whatever the morning requires, breaking focus from time to time to throw playful insults at a colleague or draw on whatever parcel is lying on Armin’s desk.

At lunch, I usually go walk the dog with Ian and have a packed lunch, but there are odd days when we'll do something different.

We often go out in groups for something to eat if someone suggests something or declares a particular fancy for something, which will usually drum up some interest. As you can probably imagine, being in the centre of town has its benefits when it comes to lunch choices and it’s definitely something I’ve missed since lockdown!

Usually, my afternoons are fairly quiet where I either have my head down on tasks or an afternoon full of meetings. Afternoons are where most people are at their desks and super engaged with their work, whilst enjoying the ongoing Slack banter and sharing questionable gifs.

If it’s a Friday then there are usually folks trying to drum up some interest for pints after work.

What 1 piece of advice would you give someone who was thinking of applying for a job at KOMODO?

If you like the look of the work we do and if you like to see more of the process that a project goes through, from selling to pitching, designing, architecting, estimating, building, delivering, etc., and if you don't want to feel like you're a small cog in a big machine then I think you'll get a lot of value out of working here.

If you're still early in your career, like my colleague and Associate Software Engineer, Dan Carney,  I genuinely think this would be a strong choice to get some solid experience amongst like-minded dev talent.

Share insight into the work you’ve done, the kind of work you like to do and the kind of work you maybe don’t. We’re an open and honest bunch and the dialogue will come in handy should you be successful in getting a role at KOMODO.