Meet Tullio Coppotelli, Engineering Manager at Zencargo

Hello, my name is Tullio Coppotelli, and I’m an Engineering Manager at Zencargo. 

I joined Zencargo in November 2021, and I’ve been a backend software engineer for a large chunk of my life. I started in 1999 when Java was still in version 1.2, and I quickly found a passion for software and the programming language. 

A few years ago, I became an engineering manager for my previous company which was a significant milestone in my career. It brought an entirely different set of challenges to my day-to-day role compared to a role in solely just software development. 

Whilst I enjoyed my role at my previous company, I knew I had to take crucial steps to develop my career. And, Zencargo gave me the opportunity to progress in my professional development whilst also maintaining my work values. 

The Flexibility of Remote Work

One thing that became very important to me was to be able to work remotely.

The wonderful thing about Zencargo is that they already had a solid remote work structure before the pandemic. However, even when COVID hit, they didn’t force people to adopt a remote working lifestyle if it didn’t fit. 

I’m a father, CrossFit enthusiast, and I enjoy motorbiking. As much as I love my work, I needed an environment that allowed me to balance it with my other priorities and interests.

Fortunately, Zencargo provides employees with the opportunity to adopt flexible working hours. 

The culture at Zencargo includes autonomy and trust, so everyone has the freedom to work the way they need to do their best. You can go to the office and work alongside your colleagues, or you can work from anywhere you want. 

Making an Impact

As an Engineering Manager, it was essential to be in a space where I could help my team and company while learning new things and stretching myself as well. 

As soon as I joined the company, I contributed to my team and Zencargo as a whole. I was able to join some cross-team initiatives to see how things work and what I could improve. And my role naturally provides opportunities that have led to a lot of learning and progress.

Working for a large company makes it difficult to see how you make a difference. This company is large enough to be doing amazing things, but it’s still small enough that every person can see what contributions they make. 

Plus, unlike a brand new startup, Zencargo has the stability and processes of an established company. But we’re learning, growing, and trying new things every day. 

The Day-to-Day of an Engineering Manager at Zencargo

One of the most exciting things about working with Zencargo is that no two days are ever the same for anybody.

We’re constantly trying new things, finding different processes, or building unique products. And you can do as much as you want. If you’re up for a new challenge, you have the freedom and space to try it.

At times, my responsibilities include managing the project we’re working on at that moment. It could be building a new product or transitioning to a different tech. 

Since we’re in a rapid growth stage, we’ve been looking at improving the hiring process and onboarding experience. 

The responsibilities and work each team in the engineering department varies from one another. There are bigger tech challenges that a single team can’t address. So multiple groups will work on the problem from different angles to find the best solution.

The Structure of Engineering Teams

Every team might have a slightly different structure, but we typically have two backend engineers, a frontend engineer, and a full-stack engineer. 

Teams also differ in the platforms they work on. We’re transitioning to a Microservices architecture, but we’re not just extracting functionalities from Monolith. We’re still enhancing those too.

One team works mainly in Ruby on Rails Monolith, while others focus on Kotlin Microservices. And some work a bit in both. 

It just depends on the knowledge and experience of each group. 

Every quarter, the prioritisation of products and goals changes, which also affects each team’s work. 

That’s part of what makes this such a dynamic job; we can quickly adjust to the needs of the company and our customers. 

Joining a Culture-Driven Company

The culture here is one of support, consistent improvement, and autonomous, dedicated work. We value everybody’s contributions and personal growth. Everybody here is friendly, enthusiastic about what we’re doing, and invested in individual learning as much as the company’s growth. 

At Zencargo, you have the opportunity to truly make a difference in both your company and the world by helping to fix the broken supply chain.

If that’s attractive to you, you can reach out to me on LinkedIn. I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have. Alternatively, take a look at our open positions here.