Newfire at Split, Croatia: Meet the Team
It’s been more than 2 years since our founders Stephen S. Hau and Jaya Plmanabhan, CEO and CTO respectively, decided to expand Newfire Global Partners’ operations to Croatia. Over that time, we’ve opened Croatian offices in Zagreb, Split, and Osijek that now include over 100 team members across all three locations. And we plan to double in size there by the end of 2023!
One of our hub locations in Croatia is Split, where we opened office doors in the Poljička cesta, a central location within one of the city’s business districts. So, why have we chosen Split? Split is a city that’s home to a vibrant, growing tech community bolstered by a wide variety of tech events, meetups, and professional organizations.
Here at Newfire, our culture strongly supports the personal and professional development of our team members. In addition, it’s been essential for us to capitalize involvement within the local tech communities where we operate. We recently became a member of Split Tech City, an organization dedicated to connecting and promoting Split’s tech community and encouraging its development. It includes more than 80 companies within the area. With this move, we look forward to becoming an even more active member of the thriving local tech scene and giving our team members the opportunity to benefit from all the local tech resources.
All-in-all, immersing ourselves in Split has been an adventure! To reflect on our journey, we asked some of our very first team members in Split to share more about their personal experiences and insights. Read on for their stories!
Meet Some of Our Newfire Split Members
Tea, Recruiter
Tea generously shares her insights about the Split office culture, atmosphere, and our expansion plans for the future: “I was one of the first team members in the Split office and I must admit that with every new person, the atmosphere just keeps getting better. Our team members’ positive attitudes make a big difference in how enjoyable it is to come to the office and despite having the option to work remotely, many of us are here several days per week! Continuing to expand our Split office is one of the main goals for 2023. We plan to add another 20+ team members here, predominantly middle and senior level engineers as well as Scrum Masters, Business Analysts, and others.
Vojko, Backend Engineer
Being one of the first employees is exciting, but also comes with its own unique challenges. While our local team in Zagreb was establishing the Split office in order to make it fully operational, we simultaneously onboarded our first development team member, Vojko. We asked Vojko about his first impressions working with a global team spread out across the world: “From the get-go, I noticed a certain level of professionalism regarding the technical skills of everyone involved in my chapter. This was very helpful since this is one of the most important things to me. My personal development plan was very clearly communicated, which is not something that many companies do, so it was not hard to advance my career to the next level.”
Newfire at Work
When it comes to work, our teams have been supporting projects that focus on solving real-world problems through the use of human-centric technology across various industries with a strong focus on digital healthcare. According to Tea, “While most of our projects are headquartered in the US, one of our biggest strengths is that we operate globally, and therefore have the opportunity to work with experts from all around the world on a daily basis from Split, Croatia to San José, Costa Rica. It’s something we are extremely proud of.”
Vojko talks more about what this actually looks like: “Currently, I’m working as a Senior Backend Engineer for a client working to improve part of the U.S. health insurance system by offering more affordable drugs and health plans to end users. Right now my team mostly consists of Croatian team members (in Split and Rijeka), but we also have members from the U.S. that we collaborate with regularly. Since we’re very flexible in our work, delivery has never been a problem and often we deliver more work than planned each sprint. Even though we are in different time zones/countries/continents, with careful planning sessions and by using proper communication tools and schedules, none of the typical ‘issues’ are really an issue for us at Newfire or on the client side.”
According to Tea, “Our biggest strengths are our high level of communication, growth opportunities, and fun!” Our leadership team is dedicated to transparent communication and we are always encouraged to innovate in our domains and share new ideas. We work hard to nurture our culture and create an open environment where everyone can feel comfortable. Furthermore, in order to improve connection opportunities, we encourage our team members to meet IRL, from internal Newfire events in Croatia (eg. client visits, corporate parties and teambuilding, etc) to external events globally (conferences, global team gatherings and interoffice exchanges, etc).
When it comes to professional development, “Newfire values learning and improving your skill set, so education is a big part of our culture. That’s why we offer mentorship program and career coaching, and also support team members when it comes to project rotations to expand their knowledge of new technologies. Our CEO always says if we’re not improving, we’re declining, and we take that seriously,” says Tea.
Vojko recently had the chance to participate in the Career Coaching program himself. “When Newfire launched the Career Coaching program to help team members with their personal growth, I was really excited. I got the opportunity to be a Python career coach for the Python chapter, which includes team members from all around the world. My Python chapter teammates are always looking to learn, grow, and improve their skills. When it comes to personal growth, one of the benefits that Newfire offers is a personal education budget that can be spent throughout the year according to your liking (courses, books, conference tickets, etc), as long as it’s part of your professional development plan.”
“I also like the fact that I am very flexible in my work and I have the option to work from home. Unless I have some scheduled meetings, I am free to do my work whenever I want. When you have a family/kids, that comes in handy. The only thing that matters is that you get the work done on time.” says Vojko.
Are You Ready To Join Us?
We value work-life balance and it’s important to us that our team members are happy. So as long as you get the work done, there’s always time for the famous Split “fjaka” to boost productivity. Are you ready to join our team in Split? Take a look at our open vacancies and reach out to us! We are waiting for you. 🙂
