My Paysafe: A week in the life of Toni Ilieva

For you, is there a typical day or week at Paysafe?  

As a senior software engineer, my days always have an air of mystery. It usually begins with catching up on the communications from our other offices located around the globe that I have missed overnight. I prefer to focus on creative mailing work in the mornings while my head is still fresh.

There are always minor tasks on my to do list as well, which helps me easily prioritise my day. I also enjoy working on initiatives outside of my current projects and extending my technical knowledge on a daily basis. For example, currently I am investigating an alternative way of integration testing – Contract Testing. This could replace the good old Wiremock, bringing us a little more confidence in the tests we’re doing. 

My personal favourite new activity is spending time on our Internship program. My role is a Product Owner/Technical lead in the team, which involves creating requirements and supporting our interns when they need some help.

As a developer, I am also heavily involved in two projects. The first is the card payment processing core. This is an end-to-end payment solution that enables businesses of any size to accept payments through a single integration. The second is a hosted solution, which provides three SDKs that help merchants easily integrate with our payment processing solutions without worrying about PCI compliance level SAQ-A. 

What do you think about the career opportunities at Paysafe?

For the two and a half years that I have been working at Paysafe, with the help of my manager and thanks to the transparency of progression within our department, I have progressed from a Senior Software Engineer to a Principle Engineer.

There is a well-established career development plan throughout the company. It has always been crystal clear for me what steps I should take in order to pursue my dream role. I received huge support from my manager in choosing the career path that suits me best.

What initially motivated you to join Paysafe?

At my former company, I reached a point in my career where I had to choose to either continue being a senior software engineer or abandon development and become a people manager.

Paysafe made the transition easier for me. Here I can keep hold of my passion for the technical aspect of software engineering, and extend my soft skills running a team and mentoring at the same time.

What do you think about diversity and inclusion at Paysafe?

Paysafe has put a lot of effort into ensuring that all employees are involved in the creation of inclusive work environment. 

The result is a great example of a smooth and efficient collaboration between people with different ethnic backgrounds, religions, genders, and sexual orientations. The company has offices all over the world thus we have built very diversified environment full of people with different life experiences and perspective.

Does Paysafe do a good job of communicating with its employees?

The company does a remarkable job communicating with us. We have regular All Hands meetings for the whole company, and combined with the local comms everyone can get a clear picture of the company's recent activities and changes. Paysafe also cares about our wellbeing, conducting monthly Glint surveys and addressing our needs.

How did you find having to work from home as opposed to working from the office? Would you explore this opportunity in the future if given the opportunity?

I easily got used to the new normal. I cannot say that much has changed since we began working from home on a regular basis.

We have organised many remote team activities throughout COVID-19, so it has been easy to stay connected and not feel down by being isolated. I see only benefits from working from home as I am always available, do not waste any time traveling to the office, and spend more time with my family.

In addition, my productivity has increased because I am more rested. So it would be amazing to continue working mostly remotely in the future.

Describe Paysafe in three words.

Open, pioneering, courageous.

You should come to work at Paysafe, because…

We have a great culture and team spirit, an enormous variety of technologies and teams that you can choose from. We are open, innovative, and ambitious. And most of all, we all are one big family, ready to welcome you with an open heart.

Toni Ilieva is a newly promoted Principal Engineer at Paysafe. She is involved in designing and developing our products, defining our division's technical initiatives, and works closely on our internship program. In her free time, Toni enjoys playing RPG games, taking care of her garden, and travelling. She holds Master's degree in Computer Science.