Meet Viktor Ivanov

Welcome back to our Life at AMPECO series, which meets you with the people behind the success of our leading EV charging management platform.

Today, we introduce to you Viktor Ivanov, one of our company’s first employees and a Team Champion at one of the engineering teams. 

Viktor has been with AMPECO for over four years now, and because of that, he is a true source of knowledge about the platform and its development over time. 

Music has always been a part of Viktor’s daily life, whether working or relaxing. He’s a heavy metal and rock fan, and his headphones help him concentrate on even the most complex development tasks. In his spare time, he enjoys going to the gym, playing console games, and spending time with his family.

Like many colleagues, Viktor is passionate about electric vehicles and the industry’s dynamic development. Learn more about what else drives him to succeed at AMPECO in the following interview. 

What path led you to AMPECO?

After graduating from university, I started working in the IT sector. I had the opportunity to learn from experienced software developers, which helped me gain knowledge and skills. This allowed me to develop a broader perspective on the job and determine my programming language and framework preferences.

I began working for global companies and realized that flexibility and a hybrid way of working are crucial for my effectiveness. During this time, I met Borislav Borisov, one of the founders of AMPECO, who later contacted me due to my experience with the Laravel framework we use for the AMPECO platform. Even then, one of the first things I recognized when joining the company was its global potential due to its innovative product, along with the vision and experience of the founders. This has proven true four years later, and I’m happy to be here.

What’s the thing about your role that ignites your power?

The complexity of the product is one thing for sure. Another is related to my experience as a professional and an individual. For the last four years, I have learned that I have the soft skills to be a mentor, which has made me love my job as a team champion even more. 

AMPECO gives me the life-long learning opportunity I’ve always been searching for. My career journey has been going on for more than 15 years—from being an intern to a junior and then to leaping as a senior. So, one specific thing about AMPECO is that you won’t find unskilled developers here. However, working in a product company has its specifics. Not everybody has a similar product experience before joining our team. That’s where we, the team champions, come into action with help and guidance. 

I like that there is a balance between establishing processes that keep us going and giving us the freedom to grow and show the best we’re capable of without micromanagement and having to deal with bureaucracy. When we combine that with the exciting and challenging product, we’re working with and the nonstop evolving EV charging industry, you can only be satisfied that you’re part of the people making history on an unpaved path. Due to all of this, I cannot imagine not working at a product company anymore.

What does your typical workday look like?

When I start my day, I review my tasks and schedule. We have a daily meeting where we discuss each team member’s goals and achievements from the previous day and what we aim to accomplish today. We also identify any obstacles and decide whether we need to investigate them further. In the morning, we check for any bugs and determine if we need to prioritize working on them before our dedicated bug-squashing day on Friday.

We are also working on two-week sprints to deliver results according to the product roadmap. We’re collaborating with AMPECO’s product teams to ensure the best possible delivery of our work. I’m also actively working with the Customer Service department in dedicated Slack channels, where I support them with my product development knowledge. This cross-team effort is essential for further developing the product and shows the importance of teamwork in our company culture. 

As a team champion, I have monthly 1:1 meetings with each team member, during which I try to see their development on a professional and personal level. As a lead, I’m also part of the recruitment process when we’re looking for new developers, so as you can see, there are many aspects of my day-to-day work. 

What are the go-to skills for working on the developer teams in one of the world’s leading EV charging software companies?

The AMPECO person must be great in verbal and written communication. People here are friendly and empathetic; our general approach is to help each other as a team. Therefore, we put aside our egos and look in one direction. At AMPECO, everyone is skilled in their craft, and we’re looking for senior professionals.

When talking about my team, I insist they are good at debugging and can do reverse engineering on something (almost) done. Sometimes, you cannot figure out a case by looking through a tutorial or reading an article, so you must be skilled in reading existing code. Testing skills are a must because we wouldn’t have this success as a SaaS without proper, thorough, and extensive code testing.

How does your journey at AMPECO contribute to your personal and professional growth?

The professionalism of AMPECO’s founders convinced me to join the company. It amazes me how a person can be so experienced yet humble to this day. It was pretty unusual for me that they were not only okay with me asking them anything but also urged me to do so and showed me there were no stupid questions. This attitude is integrated into the company’s culture and has helped me evolve. They lead by example, and I hope I contribute to the company’s knowledge resources. 

What’s one thing you do that is important to you?

As a team champion in a company making such an outstanding product, one thing that matters to me is ensuring everyone on my team feels like they’re part of the company’s culture and that their ideas and contributions matter.

What do you like the most about your team and the people here?

Four years later, we’re more than 150 people, and getting to know every colleague is becoming more challenging. However, I know everyone will help you when you have a problem. People at AMPECO are professional and highly skillful in their craft. I haven’t seen a single person in our teams who is here only for the 9 to 5 experience; we’re all looking towards a common goal that makes a difference in the company culture at the end of the day.

What would you tell a friend who was considering working in AMPECO?

Are you a big fan of learning new things? Do you have a curious mind? Then AMPECO is the right place for you.

What’s your advice for someone wanting to join our team?

Understand that it’s OK if you don’t know everything coming in. Here, you’ll have the time to advance your knowledge.

We seek people eager to learn, grow, and contribute to our versatile, innovative, and global mission.

Describe AMPECO in 3 words. 

Innovative, versatile, and mission.