Committed to learning and continuous improvement, Kogan.com’s Engineering team develops its engineering talent through giving and taking responsibility, co-creation, mentorship, and the opportunity to experience internal secondments to grow skill sets. As our Engineering teams continue to expand, we’ve created opportunities for new leaders and provided stretch roles that align with our engineers individual goals.
There are opportunities for Engineers at Kogan.com regardless of background. Some engineers at Kogan.com are Individual Contributors, Tech Leads or People Managers – and the growth path is up to them. Read on to get to know Akshay, Ganesh and Adam who all share their engineering journeys and advice for other Engineers who are trying to expand their careers.
Tech Lead & People Leader - Akshay Wadhanave
Q: You grew from an Individual Contributor(IC) to a Tech Lead through a secondment opportunity that became available. What led you to taking up the opportunity and how were you supported through this journey?
The opening interested me as I had really enjoyed the team and technical challenges I was working on and wanted to see how else I could grow my career within the company.
I also had previous experience as Tech Lead so wanted to apply it here.
Through this secondment, I was given exposure to different parts of our e-commerce platform and the technical challenges faced by the new team I was joining.
Part of my transition to the new role, I received regular coaching from our Head of Engineering & CTO. It was great to be exposed to Senior leaders within the team and to learn from their experience. I felt they were really invested in my progress. To gain more targeted leadership coaching, the company also enrolled me into a Tech Lead course where I learnt from an expert in our industry. I also had the opportunity to learn with Tech Leads from other companies and share our different perspectives.
Q: What do you do in your day-to-day at work?
My top priority is keeping engineers on my team unblocked to do their best work. This involves working with our stakeholders and product teams to ensure we’re continuously working on the right things and that we're delivering on time.
We’re always working on technical improvements and I like driving these conversations with my team and listening to their ideas.
Despite being in a leadership position, I still enjoy the hands-on parts of my role. I believe this keeps my technical skills sharp.
Q: What advice can you share to anyone considering a similar journey?
My advice to someone considering how they can make a transition to a role like a Tech Lead is to put your hand up and be brave to take on the challenge.
If you know the environment you’re working in nurtures and supports (like I have at Kogan.com), don’t doubt yourself and just do it!
Tech Lead & People Leader - Ganesh Kawade
Q: You joined Kogan.com as a Tech Lead. Your most recent role before joining us was as an Individual Contributor(IC). What helped you gain trust and influence within your team and how were you supported through this journey?
When I joined Kogan.com as a Tech lead, I was completely new to the domain and tech stack. The team here is already so diverse in tech stacks and skills that I felt I fit right in. I was supported by my awesome team from day 1.
What helped me gain trust and influence in the team is mostly open and transparent communication. The team that I lead consists of individuals with a very high technical skill set and all have a passion for doing things the right way.
I mostly gained their influence by helping team members work to their full potential with minimal distractions. I guide and provide advice to them but equally take a step back so team members can come up with their own solutions.
Q: What do you do in your day-to-day at work?
I help my team build cool things. My day to day is around helping my team deliver some amazing features across our product suites. I also work with them to solve challenging technical problems at scale.
Q: What advice can you share to anyone considering a similar journey? Just go for it, you will learn on the way, so don’t hold back.
Senior Software Engineer - Adam Slomoi
Q: You joined Kogan.com as a Software Engineer and within a short period progressed to a Senior Software Engineer - Individual Contributor(IC). What did you do to achieve this and how were you supported through this journey?
I try to ask questions and learn from those who have more experience than I do, and similarly help others where I can. We have lots of things going on in the engineering team and I’ve had the opportunity to lead some initiatives.
Q: What do you do in your day-to-day at work?
We’ll generally discuss the cards we’re planning on doing for the day. I’ll either start coding myself or join up with someone in the team and we’ll do some pair programming. I’ll then review someone else’s card, mine will get reviewed and then we’ll close out anything raised in QA. Weaved throughout this are lots of architectural discussions, system monitoring and upskilling.
Q: What advice can you share to anyone considering a similar pathway to you?
Enjoy it and keep learning throughout. The technology landscape is massive and constantly evolving so it’s important to keep learning new things and stay up-to-date.
Come grow with the Engineering Team at Kogan.com—we’re hiring!
Interested in taking the leap into leadership or finding ways to expand your technical impact? We’re always looking for experienced engineers to join our growing team!
