The One on One series is a format where we take a moment to chat to our Heroes across the global Delivery Hero team and ask them: what do you do?
In order to demystify the various job titles, we take an in-depth look at what they really mean and give a behind-the-scenes peek at the inner workings of the company. Read on to find out more about what Jaime Sanchez, Glovo’s Staff Engineer at Growth cluster, actually does!
What is your job title and which team and brand are you part of?
I’m a Staff Engineer on the tech team at Glovo. I work on the Growth cluster where we build tech systems to acquire new customers, enable discount mechanics and loyalty programs to build a habit of ordering through Glovo. We are also responsible for calculating operational fees associated with an order, the most known one being the delivery fee.
What does a typical day look like for you?
I conduct my day in two parts. In the mornings, I wear the leader hat, where my goal is to produce artifacts that are relevant to the cluster of teams that I work with. Those artifacts can be code changes, technical designs, proposals for new processes, or proof of concepts to validate different solutions to a problem. Then, in the afternoons, I wear the supporter hat, where my goal is to help individuals and unblock them if needed. The outputs are not very tangible here, but equally important. I provide feedback on pull requests, technical documents, and whiteboarding sessions. I have regular one on ones with engineering managers and other individual contributors.
What do you like most about your job?
At Glovo the Staff Engineer role is a leadership one. As such, you have a great deal of autonomy, which is what I love the most about working here. It’s up to you to find problems and prioritize them, deciding what’s most critical and deserving of your attention. It works best when management trusts you and it takes very little time to align. It’s understood that you’ve demonstrated a great deal about your technical and non-technical skills during the very strict interview (or promotion) process.
Could you summarize your core tasks?
I’d like to say that my ultimate mission is to help other people around me grow to the point that I become redundant. Then I can move on to a different part of the company where I can be of more help.
What surprises people most about your job?
Without a doubt, the thing that surprises people most is that Staff engineers are leaders without authority as it is typically understood. You don’t have people reporting to you but, at the same time, you influence a lot of people to move a set of technical systems built by 60-80 engineers to a better long-term state.
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