Partnerships Executive, LoyaltyLion

In LoyaltyLion, no day is the same. It's a place where, regardless of how much software engineering experience you have, you'll continually be presented with new challenges, opportunities to work with new technologies, and a friendly atmosphere for sharing knowledge. The problems we face here can be really tough, but it's wonderful that at the end of the day, you feel a sense of achievement and a job well done.

In LoyaltyLion, you're never left alone with the problems you may encounter. Regardless of the complexity of the issue, you can always count on someone's help, even if that person doesn't have the solution at that moment. Teamwork is truly evident here, and the culture of putting 'we' above 'I' is an important element of success.

LoyaltyLion supports work-life balance but also recognises that challenging personal moments can occur in our lives. The great empathy and feeling that you won't be left behind are, for me personally, significant values of the company.

We follow the Team Topologies model and all of teams are cross-functional. Each Team has a Product Manager, Product Designer, Engineering Manager and Engineering Lead plus multiple Software Engineers. This means the team can make progress with limited coupling and handovers with other teams. Engineering Leadership (and the Exec team) are very supportive of our approach of allowing these teams to design the best solution to solve a problem. Product Management is supportive in terms of balancing feature development against addressing technical debt, and all engineers are involved in joint discovery so that they have the full context of what they're building - we don't 'parachute' requirements onto engineers here!

When looking for my current role my mantra was “culture is non-negotiable - everything else is”. It was really important to me that the company's values were woven into everything we do - career progression, 360 feedback, etc - that's 100% the case here and we call each other out on the (rare!) occasions when we let our standards drop. This ability to show vulnerability and challenge constructively is fundamental to building our great teams. Our values are; "Team before ego", "Delivery over deliberation", "Personally accountable" and "Get uncomfortable and grow"

Engineering is fully-remote and we currently have engineers in all four countries of the UK and several in mainland Europe too. I really value the fact that I am trusted to manage my own time and that I'm judged on outcomes rather than 'attendance'. The company flies us all into one location at least twice per year for several days of workshops, Hackathons, social events and leadership presentations and I really enjoy this face-to-face time too.

LoyaltyLion works hard to make sure that the motto of "move fast and break things" is cordoned off by appropriate guard rails So as an individual contributor you can be entrusted with trying out things beyond your comfort zone, and know that even if you manage to break something, it won't break too badly.

LoyaltyLion took a chance on me while I was changing careers, and recognized and gave me credit for the elements of my career history that played into what I would eventually do for them. This same willingness to recognize potential and growth has continued through my tenure with them. I've found the impact that I have had has been recognized, and I've never felt like I needed to go out of my way to prove I was contributing in order to have my career progress.

We all own the collective goal. Whether that's a high level company goal, or the downstream translation of that into tactical objectives at a department or team level, even down to our individual sprints. That means that you are empowered to take action to address that goal, and if the options or actions available to you don't seem to be impacting the agreed goal? Raise it, we'll figure it out. As long as what you're doing is working towards the shared objective, you can do it how you like.

We're growing fast and breaking new ground every day. Everybody is expected to bring something to the table, find new ways to innovate, be creative, solve problems - and are given the space and tools to do this.

Managers and peers are constantly recognising the work that has (and still is) building LoyaltyLion. Our weekly-round ups are filled with shoutouts and thank yous!

Startups have a reputation for being gruelling and draining - LoyaltyLion breaks this mould. Everything is aimed at making it an enjoyable place to work, and I look forward to starting every day!