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El’s journey is one of resilience, dedication, and constant growth, offering valuable insights for engineers aspiring to build a career in cloud architecture. We spoke with him about the unique rewards and challenges he’s encountered as our first Architect at Aliz in the Indonesian team.
El’s story begins in an unexpected place—customer service. He started his career as a high school graduate with no formal background in IT, spending four years in customer service before feeling “stuck” due to no more opportunities to grow at the time—he felt ready for a new challenge.
The growing presence of online businesses caught his eye. Being ever the self-starter, he taught himself web development in just six months. “I bought books, took online courses, learned how to create and deploy websites,” he says. Eventually, El began freelancing, which he describes as a transformative experience: “Every project taught me something new, and that’s when I got hooked on learning.” These new projects introduced him to the basics of DevOps, as most clients included infrastructure provisioning and setup as part of their requirements. Working with servers and cloud technology in these web development projects ultimately set him on the path to becoming a Cloud Architect.
But building his tech stack did not stop there: through learning during the weekends, he gradually also mastered Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and pursued certifications. By 2024, after several roles in tech startups, he was ready for Aliz—armed with six GCP certifications and a vast set of skills gained by being a true autodidact. El’s advice to aspiring Architects? “Dive deep, stay curious, and learn by doing. Real-world experience is the best teacher.”
Our Architects are lead engineers who possess either highly specialized or broad knowledge in their field. However, they go far beyond mere technical implementation. They embrace leadership, are essential in aligning the engineering organization with our company’s strategy, and take responsibility not only for their own work but also for their entire project team’s. Architects at Aliz are true Swiss Army knives of engineering, who spend about equal time on hands-on implementation, pre-sales, and being a tech lead. If you’d like to learn more about what this role entails, you can read our related blog post here.
El appreciates Aliz’s transparent culture and emphasis on trust, which contrasts with the typical professional dynamics he encountered previously. "At Aliz, everyone is open about their progress and limitations, which fosters real trust and teamwork. In Indonesia, open communication about setbacks is less common, but here, if something isn’t feasible, we discuss it openly to find solutions,” El said.
Adjusting to strict resource management and transparent time tracking was also an initial challenge, but El found that these practices support a healthy work-life balance. “At Aliz, I can schedule time off, prioritize my well-being, and know it’s respected—a significant difference from past experiences where overtime was expected. I’ve even been able to pick up gaming again,” he laughs, mentioning his current favorite, God of War Ragnarök.
Beyond cultural adjustments like the above, El faced a baptism-by-fire initiation at Aliz. He joined our ranks in January 2024 as a Cloud Architect, and just a few days later, he took over an ongoing project when a colleague went on paternity leave (at Aliz, our colleagues are eligible for a one-month paid paternity leave). "When I joined, the project was already in motion, and it felt like jumping in at the deep end." However, the close collaboration with the Project Manager and the Account Manager helped him onboard to the project smoothly (shoutout to Eszter Fülöp and Balázs Szörényi 🙌🏻). Despite the initial challenges, they delivered the project successfully and even achieved a perfect client satisfaction score—an accomplishment he’s particularly proud of.
For El, the most fulfilling part of his role is engaging with clients directly. He shared, “I enjoyed my customer service years, but in my last role, I mostly worked internally without client interaction. At Aliz, I get to engage with clients, understand their needs, and find solutions that align with their unique requirements.” This client-centric approach brings constant challenges, as each project involves a different tech stack, forcing him to stay up-to-date on various technologies and architectures. “It’s a continuous learning process, which I love.”
Moreover, in the pre-sales domain, El has been actively working on a major project opportunity in London—a potential million-euro initiative with a significant impact. The project involves close collaboration with other Aliz team members across regions, “exemplifying how engineers at Aliz tackle large-scale, international challenges”.
El’s journey is a testament to the power of self-driven learning and resilience. As Aliz’s first Architect in Indonesia, he not only sets the foundation for our regional team but also exemplifies the collaborative, client-focused approach we value. His work continues to pave the way for future growth and innovation across the APAC region.
If you’d like to know more about what’s it like to be an Architect at Aliz, you can read Csaba Kassai’s blog post here, or our blog post on the Architect Career Path here.
Want to learn more about life in the Jakarta office? Click here.
Ready to join us? Check out our open positions on our Career Page.
