At Allegro Pay, where I have worked since September 2022, I hold a multifaceted role as an Engineering Manager, Tech Leader, and Software Engineer. I lead a team of 5 software engineers and oversee two critical products, Onboarding and Customer Processes, essential to Allegro Pay's operations. As a tech leader, I focus on enhancing team knowledge, maintaining technical documentation, writing application code in C# and .NET, and describing complex technical processes through diagrams. Simultaneously, as a team manager, I handle HR-related tasks, foster the professional growth of my team members, and manage our meeting schedule.
Key technologies utilized
During my tenure at Allegro Pay, I've been at the helm of a dynamic tech landscape, harnessing a versatile array of technologies such as C#, Angular, TypeScript, HTML, CSS, MS SQL, PostgreSQL, CosmosDB, Docker, Kubernetes, Azure DevOps, Azure DevOps Pipelines, AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service), Grapfana, Prometheus, and Snowflake. These tools have been instrumental in orchestrating the development and deployment of our systems, enabling us to meet the unique challenges and demands of our projects with precision and efficiency.
Key responsibilities
As an Engineering Manager and Tech Leader, I play a multifaceted role within the organization, ensuring the successful development and maintenance of crucial products critical to Allegro Pay's operations. My responsibilities are as follows:
- Team leadership: I lead a team of 5 software engineers, fostering collaboration and skill development to drive project success.
- Product ownership: I oversee from tech perspective the Onboarding and Customer Processes products, ensuring their efficient and reliable functioning.
- Knowledge management: I develop and maintain collective team knowledge to enhance productivity and address complex technical challenges effectively.
- Documentation: I compile and update technical documentation to ensure comprehensive project records and knowledge sharing.
- Coding: I actively contribute by writing code in C# and .NET, setting a high standard for technical excellence.
- Personnel management: I handle HR-related tasks related to team members, such as onboarding and development planning.
- Professional growth: I nurture the professional growth of my team members through mentorship and guidance.
- Meeting planning: I strategize and orchestrate essential team meetings to foster collaboration and productivity.
Projects
Onboarding and Customer processes
As the manager responsible for the Onboarding Process at Allegro Pay, I oversee a crucial phase of our operations. This process seamlessly guides new users through creating an account, completing the worthiness assessment, and establishing their user identity—all achieved through a straightforward and user-friendly form.
Within the Customer Processes area, I oversee all aspects of the customer journey after the onboarding phase. This encompasses various post-sales activities and interactions, including account management, support, and service delivery. This area plays a pivotal role in the success and satisfaction of our customers and contributes significantly to the overall performance of Allegro Pay.
Both of these areas are fundamental to the functioning and growth of Allegro Pay. I am committed to ensuring that they operate efficiently, effectively, and in alignment with our strategic goals.
Implementation of the Anti-Usury Act
As an Engineering Manager, I led the design, implementation, and rollout of Allegro Pay's Anti-Usury Process, ensuring compliance with Poland's Anti-Usury Act. This complex, high-stakes initiative required coordinating multiple teams, managing a strict legal deadline, and delivering a robust, ready from day one system aligned with the organization's critical payment infrastructure.
This project was critical to ensure Allegro Pay's compliance with regulations that introduced stringent caps on fees and required thorough creditworthiness assessments. My responsibilities included:
- Breaking down complexity: I decomposed the larger issues into smaller, manageable problems, demonstrating my ability to lead and organize complex, multi-faceted projects effectively.
- Long-term commitment: From business analysis and defining technical requirements to presenting them to the team and monitoring work schedules, I was deeply involved at every stage. The entire process spanned several months.
- Critical infrastructure expertise: The solution required the use of my unique experience in building highly available distributed systems located on a critical payment path, ensuring the system's reliability and scalability.
By dividing the project into stages and closely monitoring progress through team data, we accurately estimated and implemented the solution on time, allowing space for testing and improvements.
Team leadership
Throughout the project, I ensured alignment across teams and maintained a productive and motivated workforce:
- Team coordination: I was in constant contact with the Product Manager, reporting progress during weekly meetings, advising on required actions, and ensuring cross-team collaboration.
- Knowledge sharing: I conducted event-storming workshops at every stage to level up knowledge within and outside my team, creating a culture of shared understanding.
- HR topics: As the direct manager, I focused on maintaining high team satisfaction through bi-weekly health checks and solving current challenges. Task satisfaction and technical development consistently received high ratings (averaging 4.2 to 5.0 on a 6-point scale).
Despite the complexity of legislative topics, I ensured that every team member had opportunities for growth and skill development. Additionally, technical training sessions I organized were well-received and contributed to both individual and organizational growth.
Key Achievements
The implementation was a success, with the following outcomes:
- Delivered the solution on time, meeting strict legal deadlines while maintaining the highest quality standards.
- Ensured the process worked flawlessly, without errors or negative impacts on Allegro Pay's business outcomes.
- Fostered a positive, collaborative, and innovative team environment, with team satisfaction scores consistently high (5.8 to 6.0 on a 6-point scale).
This project exemplifies my ability to lead teams through high-pressure, complex initiatives while ensuring operational excellence, legal compliance, and team satisfaction.
Integration with PESEL Number Reservation Register
I led the integration of Allegro Pay's systems with the Rejestr Zastrzeżeń Numerów PESEL (PESEL Number Reservation Register), a service provided by the Ministerstwo Cyfryzacji (Ministry of Digital Affairs). This project was critical to comply with new regulations aimed at preventing identity theft and fraud, with a strict implementation deadline.
The Rejestr Zastrzeżeń Numerów PESEL is a governmental register that allows individuals to flag their PESEL numbers, preventing unauthorized use in financial agreements. As of June 1, 2024, financial institutions are mandated to verify the status of a PESEL number before entering into certain contracts, such as loans or credit agreements. Failure to comply can result in the inability to enforce claims arising from such agreements.
I managed the end-to-end integration process, which included:
- Cross-functional collaboration: Coordinated efforts between development, compliance, and legal teams to ensure all integration aspects met regulatory standards.
- Technical implementation: Oversaw the development of secure APIs to interface with the Ministry's register, ensuring real-time verification capabilities.
- Regulatory compliance: Ensured that the system adhered to the legal requirements set forth by the Ministry of Digital Affairs, meeting the strict deadline of June 1, 2024.
Key Achievements
The successful integration enabled Allegro Pay to:
- Met the regulatory requirements by the mandated deadline, avoiding potential legal and financial penalties.
- Improved the security of financial transactions by preventing unauthorized use of PESEL numbers, thereby protecting customers from identity theft.
- Seamlessly incorporated the verification process into existing systems without disrupting services.
This project underscores my ability to lead complex integrations under strict regulatory deadlines, ensuring compliance and operational efficiency. Also, once again, it showcased my project management skills, such as leading a multidisciplinary team and coordinating with external governmental bodies.