What can an experienced developer learn and build in the Bank? Meet Valdas Mazrimas.

Steep learning curve brings no surprise when we think about internships or entry-level jobs in IT. After making it through the bustling period of being a beginner in the field, come celebrations of first successes and promotions. Eventually, one might find themselves taking a pitstop, figuring out the direction that leads to a larger impact and more complex challenges. Valdas Mazrimas, a Cloud Solutions Architect at Danske Bank, shares his story of joining the company as a senior developer five years ago and his following development.

Learning by doing was always a silver bullet

With an education background in business management field, Valdas first stepped into IT world accidentally. After starting his career in a small company, he acquired basic programming skills as the job required that. Briefly after that, switched his position to the one requiring even more technical skills. “Not having an IT diploma was never a problem for me. I have learned programming from experienced engineers, certifications, courses, hands-on fintech projects and even internet sources. This was a way to acquire skills that were the most applicable and relevant in the market. Meanwhile, having a degree in another field taught me to see the bigger picture. I find that important, particularly when working with complex tasks that require some business understanding," Valdas says.

Vast range of technologies behind the bank’s infrastructure

Working in a bank as an IT specialist can mean many different things. Some build our internal systems used by more than 21 000 colleagues including developers. Others contribute to the smooth run of the crucial payment systems, develop vast variety of online products used by our customers or take care of our cyber security. Starting as a senior developer, Valdas was working hands on and learning more about Python, SQL, Non-SQL, and some front-end technologies as Node.Js and React framework. Eventually, moving towards cloud solutions architect role, Valdas acquired IT infrastructure skills – Kubernetes, Terraform, and most importantly, Amazon Web Services understanding. Valdas adds that maturity of the organisation strongly contributes to his overall experience here:

“Rather than opting for quick fixes, we focus on quality. I enjoy creating safe and well thought out solutions that will be scalable and maintainable in the future.”

Mindset shift brought by the public cloud

One of the most impactful projects Valdas has been involved in was the incorporation of Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud into bank’s infrastructure. “The change public cloud brought is significant. We had many resources dedicated to maintaining our local infrastructure. Now we are moving our applications to the public cloud, and this is a positive change for developers - we will be able to put our mind on towards more meaningful, complex tasks and developing new software, making the most out of AI and data. I feel that I work with strategically important projects here and have plenty of colleagues to learn from. It's simply interesting," shares Valdas. Moving thousands of applications to the public cloud is part of Danske Bank’s broader strategic focus on the technological area and Forward’28 strategy.

💡 To accelerate the migration to the public cloud, we are actively hiring IT professionals of various profiles, that are familiar with public cloud technologies, or would like to learn more about this field.

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