Helena Rivas: Even working remotely, I’ve felt like a part of the team from day one

Helena Rivas joined UpCloud’s IaaS team two years ago as a Senior Software Engineer. Originally from Uruguay, she has lived in Finland for over 17 years. Her rich experience in development and operations positions is accompanied by an 8-year career as a research scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

After being a researcher for a fairly long time, Helena decided to return to more hands-on positions. When looking for a job opportunity, one of her criteria was that she would like to work in the Golang (Go) programming language, and that’s when UpCloud came to her radar. 

Helena has been working on various projects in our IaaS team, such as the VPN product and enabling encryption features on our storage platform. Her job tasks include everything from planning and designing specific solutions to coding, testing, and reviewing for others in the team.

“Previously, I worked with a specific product or area, such as eCommerce. In UpCloud, we focus on more core-level development, such as storage and network. It’s not always the same repetitive tasks, and at least in our team, we need to do some research to evaluate how things work. I enjoy the variety of tasks and constant challenges to solve problems.”

• Helena Rivas, Senior Software Engineer

Flexibility and support for remote work

Remote work is an essential part of UpCloud’s working culture. It brings valuable perspectives from people from different parts of the world. We’re equipping our people with all the necessary tools and support to work efficiently from anywhere.

While Helena is based in Finland and lives in Oulu, a seven-hour train ride north of our HQ in Helsinki, she is also working fully remotely. This is the case for most of her team, with people based around Europe. 

“For most of my career, I’ve had some sort of flexible working arrangement, but I didn’t always manage not to feel isolated. In my previous company, we would have team calls, but the video was turned off. In UpCloud, I have really felt like a part of the team since day one.”

At UpCloud, the arrangement of an individual’s working hours during the working day is flexible and depends on the agreement within the team and the requirements of specific tasks.

“I like to work in the morning. Some of our team start at 6 a.m., while others join later and stay until the evening. It has worked perfectly because there is always some part of the day when all of us are present,” explains Helena.

Another perk of remote working, according to Helena, is the balance it brings her between her work and family time. “It became especially important after I had kids. When they come from school, I can be around. Or on the other hand, it’s easy to take a morning off and work in the evening instead if I need to,” concludes Helena.

Would you like to join UpCloud? Check out our open positions!