We sat down with Mariano Quintela, Global Services Manager in our second largest global office in Buenos Aires, about growing a new team of customer-facing engineers collaborating across the organization.
Question 1. Tell me about your role at MuleSoft.
I manage the Global Delivery Services team in MuleSoft’s Buenos Aires office. It’s exciting because this is a brand new team we’re launching to support our Services organization, which works with our customers to ensure they’re getting the best use possible out of our platform. We’re a team of technical people with engineering backgrounds that love to solve problems for our customers. The Global Services team is responsible for driving real world feedback into product and helps support innovation across Engineering and Product.
Question 2. What’s the most interesting problem you’re working on solving right now?
Hiring! No, seriously, that’s the best kind of problem to have—we’re growing so fast that we need to hire a huge team of exceptional people (check out our open roles!) It is a rewarding task, though, once you look at the team we have and the excellent professionals that are a part of it.
Question 3. What was your path to becoming a Global Services Manager?
Well, my early career was in software engineering then transitioned into project management. I started working at MuleSoft almost four years ago as a project manager for a now deprecated product, and then I began working as a Release Project Manager with all of the Engineering and Product Management teams. Following project management, the Professional Services team wanted to launch a team in Buenos Aires because this office is comprised mostly of engineers, and the business wanted to have a team of Services people very closely aligned with Engineering. I was the first person on that team, and I gladly took the position as a new, exciting challenge. Now I have a team under me and we’re defining what this team looks like in the organization.
Question 4. Why did you choose to come work for MuleSoft?
I was wowed by the products we had back in the day, which have only gotten better with time). I also had a great time during the interview processes, meeting the team that was going to be my managers. Yes, I actually liked the interview process! I truly believed I had found a place where I can grow my career and frequently work on new challenges. I’ve made the progression from handling small teams to large ones, changed roles, am now responsible for growing a brand new team in a different organization, it’s huge for my career. All the while, everyone feels like one big family, and whenever we can help each other, we do. The people at MuleSoft are talented and intelligent—it’s amazing what they’ve created using things that didn’t exist even two years ago. Plus, lunch twice a week is great!
Question 5. Take us through a typical day in the life in your role here.
Every day is different, which I love, because we’re helping so many customers get the most value out of our platform and helping them drive unique and real business outcomes. I participate in two or three calls a week with Regional Services Directors to make sure we’re aligned. I’m also part of the product readiness team on the services side, which encompasses people from Sales, Pre-Sales, Engineering, Support, and Professional Services. Every time we launch a new product or feature, my team owns the process for launching it in good condition, from the quality of the code to the communication with key people in the organization working with customers.
A big part of my day-to-day is to be available to my team. Anything I can do to help them in their everyday job is my concern, so we have one-on-ones, or discuss how I can help them or what they need from management or other parts of the organization very frequently. I try to keep them close and make sure they know they can count on me.
Question 6. What teams do you work with most, and how do you collaborate?
The truth is, I collaborate with almost everyone! I work mostly with Services, Pre-Sales, Sales, Engineering, Product, Support, and Talent teams, both in Buenos Aires and globally. My team actually has an active rotation into Engineering, which allows them to have visibility and also be super knowledgable about our product. The great thing about being in Buenos Aires is that we can stand up and walk over to someone’s desk to talk about an issue we’re having that a customer brings up. The speed at which we can help drive innovation and feedback and troubleshoot issues by working so close to Engineering is really special.
Question 7. What’s your favorite activity outside of the office?
I’m a huge Video Game Nerd, so I play games on PC, and on PlayStation a lot (when I have time).
Question 8. What’s your proudest accomplishment in your role here so far?
I’m new to my current role, only started in July, so what makes me proud is the quality of people we managed to hire in such a short term and the work they do. I work with some of the most intelligent and collaborative people I’ve ever met.
Question 9. What’s the latest technology or tool you’ve learned to use and why did you need to learn it?
I’ve been toying around with React Native, which we use across our products. I come from a .NET background so I wanted to know what all the hype was about. What’s unique about this is I was interested in learning React, so I just posted on our office’s general Slack channel asking about ways to work with JavaScript. Seven different people across the office pinged me with suggestions, examples, and everyone was trying to collaborate with me. That’s the spirit here, a spirit of collaboration.
Question 10. What is your favorite thing about working on the Services team at MuleSoft?
That I see the impact we have on business outcomes for our customers first-hand. It’s amazing to know that we’re the ones behind such huge customers like Cisco, Coca-Cola, and Spotify.
If you want to feel the same, send me a note! We’re hiring! (but I already said it a thousand times, didn’t I?)
As Mariano said, our Services team is growing! Check out our open positions and see where you can make an impact.
