Paula Dieli

A doctor is our new CTO... Here's the story. In May 2020, I was CTO at Remote. It was mid-pandemic and we had started growing our engineering team. I had budget for one frontend developer and had already found my hire. I was prepping a job offer when I realized I had another interview for the same role within hours. I kept the meeting because the candidate's background perplexed me: first job listed as "Paediatrician". I met Sofia and the first thing I asked was "how does a doctor end up becoming a Frontend engineer?" She said: "I tried, I liked, I kept going". By the end of the hiring process, I knew I had two problems. 1. I was the one being interviewed by her and I failed. Sofia told me directly she wasn't super convinced on joining us; and 2. I now had two fantastic candidates but could only hire one person for the role. I called Job van der Voort (my co-founder) after the meeting and told him, "we have budget for one engineer, but I found two. The foundational team needs to be epic and we need to find a way to afford them both." He immediately said "do it, we'll find a way". I left out the part where I still had to convince her to join. It took a few more calls with Sofia and reaching out to people in our common network to convince her but I finally managed to hire her. Being a doctor is one of the hardest jobs in the world, high impact, often well compensated, lots of risk, and yet she decided to take up another very complicated craft, Frontend Engineering. Why? Because she liked it and no one could tell her otherwise. This determination struck a chord with me. She also aced our technical challenges and came back with feedback on how to improve them. Year after year, Sofia kept taking on more; going deeper and wider. She went from Frontend engineer to Tech Lead > Team Lead > Engineering Manager > Director > VP of Engineering. The VP of Engineering role came naturally to Sofia. She is a born leader and technically brilliant, but above all else, she cares deeply. She cares for the team, the company, our users, our customers - no rock left unturned. Where to now? Meanwhile, as co-founder, I go where the business needs me, from CTO to COO, and eventually, to President. Over time, as Remote grew, I took on more responsibilities and engineering became just one of the many pillars I was overseeing directly. I realized "overseeing directly" was mostly me clinging to my past CTO role. Sofia had taken over entirely, and garnered unanimous trust from our whole executive team. AI is rapidly changing everything, Remote went from "engineers can build" to "everyone builds". Every team is AI-pilled. It's a significant change in mentality and pace, requiring a fundamental embrace of this new reality. So, the decision was clear. We promoted the person who lives by "you can just do things", long before AI made it a slogan. Sofia S. is now CTO at Remote! Can't wait to see how she makes the role her own. As for me? Stay tuned to find out…

Big news. We've acquired Bravas. Managing identity and devices for global teams is one of those problems that sits right at the critical intersection of security, compliance, and operations. It is one of those challenges that compounds as you scale across borders, and one that global teams have had to solve with too many disconnected tools for too long. Bravas has built something impressive. We are excited to welcome the team to Remote and keep building toward a world where global teams have everything they need in one place.

Big news! 🎉 Remote is acquiring Atlas to streamline how international teams spend and scale. By integrating Atlas's global card and expense solution with Remote’s employment operating system, we’re building a single platform for how global teams hire, pay, and work… anywhere. Read more here 👉 https://okt.to/53SWpE

With businesses refining their hiring strategies in advance of the new year, one thing is clear… ➡️ The search for talent is intensifying...but so are the solutions! 🚀 I'm super excited to be speaking at From Day One's December Virtual Event next week (Dec 10 at 12:55 ET) on the Future of Work representing Remote!!! 🌍 We’re breaking down how Emerging HR Tech is unlocking new paths to help with the limited time and resources HR has. It's about utilizing powerful tools to open doors, not just filling seats 🚪✨ What we'll cover: 🤖 AI-driven recruiting support ✅ Efficient, people-first talent workflows 💜 Expanding reach to find the RIGHT candidates Best part? It’s completely virtual! Grab your spot here 👇 https://lnkd.in/g_irhhXK

Workday + Remote ⚡ One seamless, reimagined global payroll experience. Workday GO Global Payroll simplifies paying teams anywhere. Discover how 👉 https://okt.to/G68wlZ Together, we’re redefining what it means to manage and pay global teams. Simpler, smarter, and ready for wherever business goes next. 🌍 Workday GO Global Payroll. Coming soon.