In 2021, foodpanda opened its second Asia tech hub in Taiwan, focusing on technology development in the food and grocery delivery space. Together with other tech hubs worldwide, the team looks to build a seamless user experience for millions of customers, riders, and merchant partners who are using the platform daily. Hear more from our Engineering Managers (LightBlue, Derek, and Andy) as they share why they decided to join foodpanda and their journey with the Taiwan tech team.
Derek (Engineering Manager of Taiwan Tech Hub).
What attracted you to join foodpanda as a Senior / Engineering Manager?
LightBlue: I was drawn to the opportunity to set up a team that I can build, evolve and groom. foodpanda is a consumer-centric tech company, “the new e-commerce” that is growing rapidly. As a technical leader, I wanted to be in a business that can be close to the consumers’ mindset and behavior.
Derek: I wanted to contribute to foodpanda’s product features. I had ownership of end-to-end processes, which includes brainstorming and conceptualisation to ideation in terms of product development. Here, I get to see my ideas and suggestions go live and receive direct feedback from consumers who are using a platform that my team and I helped to build! Also, I get to collaborate with other professionals from other domains who are also heavily involved in this process too (product and analytics team, etc.)
Andy: My interviewers, Sebastian Rodriguez and Ben Mann, shared their leadership values which inspired me. During my interview with foodpanda, I genuinely felt that they care about the wellness of the engineering team and the importance of building a two-way communication culture.
Since joining foodpanda, what are the exciting leadership roles and job scope?
LightBlue: As a Senior Engineering Manager in foodpanda Taiwan, there is an opportunity to manage stakeholders from different regions remotely. Imagine an overseas exposure without having to leave Taiwan! Many regions I have never been exposed to in the past (Pakistan, Turkey, etc.) are part of my daily job scope now. This is great because I get to learn so much about the local consumer culture and habits of these exotic places. I am now developing features that are used by consumers across many global regions.
Derek: foodpanda is an international team with 4 tech hubs globally (TW, SG, Berlin, Istanbul). I enjoy working closely with these tech hubs to develop our product used in over 11 countries. I am now leading remote members from other regions, which is fulfilling too.
Andy: The opportunity to lead a remote international team in the future is a rare opportunity in Taiwan without having to leave the comfort of my home country!
Engineers at foodpanda collaborate across different countries where foodpanda has a presence in.
What is the future for Taiwan Tech Hub?
LightBlue: The great thing in foodpanda is that we have the agility to evolve our own processes in Taiwan but are also supported with resources from other regions to achieve our goals. Moving forward, we are excited to develop best technology practices to share with and influence other regions.
Derek: As we develop and expand the team, new business and subscription verticals will be built under the Tech Hub in Taiwan as critical business growth engines after the pandemic.
Andy: Taiwan Tech Hub will be the second-largest tech hub aside from the HQ Tech Hub in Singapore. Under the ‘one platform for all consumers’ strategy, I believe any TW Tech Hub engineer will be critically involved in the entire software development lifecycle.
What are the exciting roles an Engineering Manager will handle for Taiwan Tech Hub?
LightBlue: Building our own team! Being able to take part in recruitment as well as retention and training.
Derek: Renewing old practices that better fit the current team’s work model. Groom and coach our team members with available resources from other regions to refer to.
Andy: Values we can bring to our team members as a mentor. We take part in the end-to-end feature discussion, design development, and live support.
Andy is pleased with the regular 1-on-1s with team members he is building at foodpanda. Together, they set goals and cultivate the team culture.
What will the junior and senior engineers be handling for Taiwan Tech Hub?
LightBlue: Our tribe and squad model allows our engineers to work across squads as chapter leads or within our own squad with other background engineers.
The junior engineers will decide if their current engineering domain is the right career direction for them through this experience. As senior engineers, they can work with other squad engineers as chapter lead. This allows them to practice their leadership capability.
Derek: Subscriptions like PandaPro, Dine-In and Pick up Squad features currently will extend to other added services. Each squad will be part of a feature which can deep dive into extended functions to handle (e.g. Pick-Up feature extends to– search, restaurant mapping, restaurant menu, shopping cart, food preparation and payment)
Andy: New joiners will be placed into the squads when they onboard foodpanda. There will be close collaborations with squads internationally.
What is the technology used in foodpanda as described in the JD?
- Fully automated CI CD pipeline
- Frontend: ReactJS
- Backend: Golang
- Android: Kotlin
- IOS: Swift
- DevOps (Infra): Kubernetes
- Datadog for Cloud monitoring dashboards and utilizing Opsgenie for the incident and dev on-call tools
- Modern software development tools (e.g. JIRA, Miro, Figma, Slack, Apiary, Teamretro)
LightBlue (left) and Andy (right) at foodpanda’s Taipei office.
What are your thoughts on the future of the delivery business globally?
LightBlue: The delivery business in the near future will branch into other services. We want to provide convenience to consumers in this fast-moving economy. This includes helping them to save time and have a better experience with dining or non-perishable goods.
Derek: Delivery business is definitely a trend post-pandemic. Not only is this business catered to food but also other areas of our daily lives (makeup, groceries etc.). SEO, digital advertising, and convenient experience in restaurants (pick up or dine in) can be utilized to create more business opportunities as well.
Andy: Tech Hub will continue to support new businesses and users globally, and there will always be new projects and new businesses to take part in.
———–
Interested to be a part of foodpanda’s Taiwan Tech Hub? Apply now!
This article was contributed by Angel Yu.