Kogan.com Engineering Growth Paths

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!

Celebrating International Women’s day

Tuesday 8 March was International Women's Day, a celebration of women and their achievements. A day of celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. This day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality. This year we thought we’d celebrate by spotlighting an incredible group of women who work in the Kogan.com engineering team. We’ve cultivated an inclusive environment to ensure that women in our team can thrive, from providing equal opportunities, coaching and mentorship at every career stage to various benefits that support home and work life. Here’s what this group of Kogan.com women had to say about why they love working in our product, design & engineering space and how to grow—personally and professionally. Check out their stories!

Why do you love being an engineer at Kogan.com?

“ There’s always something that pushes me to get out of my comfort zone, whether it’s a simple feature implementation or a head-scratching problem. I’m surrounded by very talented and driven teammates, so there’s never a boring day. Most importantly, I feel supported and I’m constantly reminded that working within the Engineering space doesn’t have to be monotonous.”

Ana Teo, Software Engineer.

“ Working in the Engineering Team is rewarding because we get to work on a variety of features and continuously learn new things. We have an amazing, talented team and the work environment is friendly and fun.”

Hanna Koskela, Software Engineer.

What do you love most about the product and design space at Kogan.com?

“ Before I became a member of the Kogan.com engineering team, I was an avid customer. I loved the vast number of products that Kogan.com offered and that I could buy anything from home appliances to clothes to setting up a credit card. Being a pre-existing customer I was already fairly familiar with the end-user experience, after joining I got to see how things operated to make the whole platform run smoothly. I enjoyed meeting the people behind the scenes, from the people involved in the financial operations to the customer care team. I’ve learnt so much from these experiences. I love that there are always new things to learn. This has encouraged me to think outside the box and keep developing my professional skills. Our team has an incredible opportunity to grow as every new project provides new experiences to learn from. No day is the same and I always feel like I am learning something new.”

Hien Do, Product Owner.

“ We don’t limit our products on e-commerce itself. We have brought Australians the most in-demand products and services such as Kogan Internet, Kogan Insurance, and Kogan Super. As a designer, I will continue exploring the possibilities with my colleagues, and designing a user experience that can benefit our customers as well as support our Kogan staff.”

Mengfei Hu, Senior User Experience Designer.

What comes to mind when you think of growth in the technology space?

“I think about growth and development as a tool to cultivate ownership. The more responsibility you give someone, the more ownership they have. Our team provides a wide range of growth paths for engineers and within our product design space. Team members get to really think about the details of what they want to do and chart their path so they get to have a high impact. Having clear goals and direction and using tools like CultureAmp, provides clarity so that each person knows what success looks like and how to get there.” 

Anita Rajalingam, Talent Acquisition Lead

“User experience has become one of the most widely used term in the technology space. Kogan.com is well known as one of the largest ecommerce platforms in the technology space that cares about their customers’ experience. They are meticulous about the product design as well as the functionality to ensure the users’ needs are always being listened to and responded. It’s such an honor for me to work as Senior UX Designer at Kogan. I endeavor to continue bringing immersive experiences to my product users.“You’re limitless if you go out of the box”

Michelle Huynh, Senior UX Designer

What is the best advice that you’ve received, or want to share to other women in technology?

“Perfectionism is the enemy of progress” 

Working in a male-dominated field, it’s easy to get into the mindset of having to “prove yourself” and wanting to do things perfectly. I learned early on that nobody will be as critical of my work as I am. Don’t let your sense of perfectionism stand in the way of delivering great work. 

Sandra Kärcher, Senior Product Manager

“Be exactly who you are and stay true to your values! The key to thriving in your work environment is authenticity. Also, take on any opportunity to learn something new - keep an open mind and don’t be so afraid to not succeed that you never try different things. The technology sector is incredibly diverse, and people are surprised that I work within the field despite not having formally studied computer science or IT. I remind myself every day that I don’t have to know everything, I just need to bring together the right people to find our solutions.”

Christine Kha, Product Owner

Supporting and celebrating women worldwide

We’re thrilled that we get to celebrate the accomplishments of women around the world—and within Kogan.com. Keen to see how you can take your engineering career to the next level at Kogan.com? We’re growing our engineering team and would love to hear from you!