Employee Spotlight: Michael Micucci

"Expectations are the key foundation for self-growth"

What is your current role?

I’m the Head of Consumer Finance Engineering Department in the Engineering Division. Our team takes care of server-side engineering for a couple of new products being created outside of the existing payment solutions in Paidy. Our mission is to expand our scope of product/service offerings from the technical perspective.

How have you grown yourself at Paidy until today?

I joined Paidy 3.5 years ago, looking for new learning opportunities in the financial technology industry and since joining I have grown not only as an engineer, in terms of technical skills, but even more so in terms of leadership and communication skills.

Working as a member of the former CTO’s research team, after joining Paidy I learned Scala and Rust from scratch, in addition to diving deeper into server architecture and software design. Eventually, I moved into the role of team manager in Paidy’s engineering department. It’s not a common trait among engineers, but I love to teach and to grow other people and the team, rather than only focus on software and machines. Our organization has really been evolving in these 3.5 years, continuously welcoming new members and cultivating a collaborative culture.

How would you like to grow yourself going forward at Paidy?

When I was working with the former CTO, we came up with many ideas for Paidy’s future products and services. The ideas have been alternately actively worked on and put on hold for these past three years, but finally, some of them are moving from concept phase to real projects, which my team will have a chance to work on. I’m excited and looking forward to further growing these projects (which I see as “my Paidy children”) into real services which can accelerate Paidy’s future business.

What aspects of Paidy’s culture are the most attractive for you?

I am very excited about the diversity that our employees bring as well as the non-traditional styles that Paidy embraces as part of building a modern work environment. It is interesting that Paidy’s working culture is a combination of Japanese and Western styles. We try hard, work hard, and put a high value on things like “quality” and “details,”like a typical Japanese company. At the same time, we embrace non-overtime, balance of business and private life, and taking care of our physical and mental health like typical American tech companies.

What type of talent would you hope to have join Paidy and work with?

I’d like to welcome people with skills, but also with a breadth of experience and healthy fundamentals underlying their attitude in the workspace. These are traits like embracing a customer’s perspective, being team players, and being able to work hard for both themselves and others.

Please give a message to those who are considering to join Paidy.

“Expectation” is a very important idea in my management philosophy. I believe people can advance because we have expectations for our team, products, business and life. Without expectations, we stagnate. For our teams, we have high standards in terms of skill, experience, and understanding of fundamental principles. These allow us to push to market fast and with a lot of energy, but also with a lot of opportunity to work with new technologies and the chance to explore new markets! My main message is: Let’s work hard and have fun!

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