TechLead Story: Clemens Utschig-Utschig, CTO/Head of Technology Strategy at Boehringer Ingelheim

Team

Size and Roles:

• Multiple product teams in IT, distributed across different locations with up to 10 members each.
• Each team includes at least 4 engineers, 2 in frontend and 2 in backend.
• A startup incubator with 50 colleagues, including 20 engineers, working on innovations in various specializations like Data Engineering/Science, Mobile, IoT.

Organization and Methodology:

• Utilizes Scrum and Product Teams with a 100% focus on products.
• Teams spend about 20% of their time on Open Source contributions or collaborative initiatives.
• Disciplines organize into Chapters.
• Emphasis on proximity to the market where products are deployed and alignment with Product Owner's function.

Distinctive Aspects:

• Emphasizes diversity and agile freedom within small teams.
• Backed by a stable, family-owned pharmaceutical conglomerate with over 55,000 employees.
• Provides a sandbox for team members to work happily every day.

Recruiting

Integration in Recruiting Process:

• Engineers play a crucial role in recruiting, following the approach of "Engineers hiring Engineers."
• Involved from the initial screening to the final decision, taking responsibility beyond.

Onboarding Procedure:

• Implements a Buddy System and multi-week/month transitions for new employees.
• Regular Jour Fixes and small community gigs are part of the onboarding process.

Qualities Beyond Technical Skills:

• Values the willingness to transform a large company, acquire and share new knowledge.
• Looks for individuals with potential and envisions success when employees are sought after by top companies.

Technologies

Technical Challenges:

• Engages in a wide range of activities from data science to e-commerce.
• Building all products on a unified stack and methodology poses a significant challenge but is essential for scalability.

Technologies in Use:

• Openshift, Kubernetes, AWS, Node.js, Spring, Python, Scala, Ionic, Angular, Vue.js, React, Hadoop, Postgres, Triplestores.
• Codebase available on GitHub.

Evolution of Technology:

• The technology stack has remained consistent since day one, with an early adoption of Openshift.
• Clemens Utschig's GitHub profile.