A Culture of Collaboration in Action: Interview with Senior Software Engineer Darya Arbuzova

When your team is responsible for ensuring the stability and reliability of the machine learning solutions that other teams rely on, teamwork is essential for keeping things running smoothly. Senior Software Engineer Darya Arbuzova has come to value this as a member of the AI Infrastructure Team since joining SmartNews almost a year ago.

“We work as one team,” she says. “If there’s an incident, people from different teams jump in to help investigate, and we resolve it together.”

A Culture of Openness and Trust

Darya also values the openness and transparency at SmartNews, which is necessary for maintaining the mission-critical systems her team supports, with information readily accessible through Slack and shared across departments. This transparency not only helps resolve issues faster but also fosters trust across teams.

“If you need help, people are happy to give it,” she says. “There is no strict ownership of code or projects. People don’t say, I’m the only one who can work on this, and no one can touch it.’ Also, if you have a good idea and the opportunity to do something quickly, you can just go for it.”

Growing Through Collaboration

When Darya first joined SmartNews, she faced the challenge of learning new technologies and skills, such as Java, which are essential for many of the company’s applications. “My role challenged me to learn more about the underlying technologies that I used to rely on as an ML engineer without thinking how they worked under the cover,” she explains.

But while the role aligned with her interests and direction, she was apprehensive about working at a senior level with these new focuses as part of a mission-critical team. She credits her colleagues for their support as she adjusted to her role.

“I felt supported by my managers and colleagues. I’m a fan of learning by doing and trying to figure things out myself, but I am also not afraid to ask people for help. There is a balance, but I feel comfortable saying, ‘I don’t know how to do this. Please help me.’ I think my colleagues also feel good when they can teach me something. They have a lot of experience I can learn from.”

The Power of Teamwork in a Mission-Critical Environment

For Darya, the best part of SmartNews is the people who work here. “I think the people working here are great. I really enjoy working with and learning from them.”

When thinking of the kind of people who would make a positive contribution to the culture and product, she returns to the importance of having the mindset that everyone takes responsibility to ensure that no issue goes unresolved.

“I mentioned this before, but let me mention it again. We say that we work as one team, and we do. So if you are ambitious and have initiative, it will be a great fit.”