– It gives a start-up feel even though we are part of a big company, says Tomasz Zarzeczny, manager for the Gdansk department.
Zarzeczny led the build-up of Schibsted Tech Polska (STP) in Krakow from early 2012 until he moved to Gdansk in May this year to use his experience to start yet another unit for Schibsted in Poland.
First programmers
Three programmers (including frontend and PHP developers) have been hired so far, calling themselves the SEALs team. Their tasks is to help different companies in Schibsted Media Groupwith short-term projects.
As a first project the SEALs team is now developing an application called Schibsted Security Risk Management toolbox. The customer is Schibsted´s new Chief Security officer, Roy Stranden.
Stranden explains that the toolbox shall help with different tasks such as incident reporting, security risk analysis, document handling, education and awareness and contact lists, to name a few.
– It is valuable to be able to develop this application within Schibsted. And I am very pleased with the work so far. There is good progress and the cooperation is excellent, he says.
Ruby developers
A new team of Ruby developers is also being recruited in Gdansk to work with the French price comparison site Monsieur Drive.
- Job position: Lead Ruby developer
- Job position: Ruby on Rails developer
New offices in September
The Gdansk unit is currently located in temporary offices in a technology park in Gdynia. In September/October the company will move into new and much more spacious offices in Olivia business center in central Gdansk.
The first employees in Gdansk (from left): Tomasz Zarzeczny, Szymon Skórczyński, Karol Sójko and Mateusz Derks.
Wants passionate programmers
In the first phase Schibsted Tech Polska may recruit up to 20 programmers in its Gdansk office.
– We look for excellent programmers who are passionate about technologies. They must also love to work in teams and in an international environment, says site manager Tomasz Zarzeczny.
Team leader Karol Sójko says he first met Schibsted Tech Polska at the PHPCon conference for PHP developers and that he was impressed by the presentation the company gave.
– My ambition here is to build a behavior-driven team where all the developers are highly motivated and passionate about their work, he says.
Meet the first Gdansk employees in this video
130 employees in Schibsted Tech Polska
Schibsted Tech Polska has been growing rapidly since the company was established in the fall of 2011. Currently the company has around 130 employees, and almost all of them in Krakow.
STP serves as a programming hub for 14 different companies owned by or associated with Schibsted Media Group.
CEO Stig A. Waagbø explained at a press conference in May that recruitment challenges in the heated Krakow market led the company to also establish a department in Gdansk. He hopes that recruiting in two markets will enable the company to grow at higher speed.
– The Gdansk market is less heated than Krakow, confirms Zarzeczny after his two first months in the area.
– There are fewer huge players – and it gets attention when a company like Schibsted Media Group enters the market. Also we notice that the Scandinavian way of working is recognized, no doubt because there a quite a few Norwegian companies in the area with good reputation.
Programmers Szymon Skórczyński and Mateusz Derks working on a mobile application