Hailing from Dordrecht—only a short train ride away from Salacia’s Rotterdam office—Mathijs Meijer (37) is the new Head of DevOps at Salacia Solutions. Mathijs entered the field after studying Media Technology at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. “After my graduation internship at DPDK Digital Agency, I started working there. I worked with large brands in a dynamic world full of tight deadlines. I took care of the digital part of their marketing campaigns and later developed their websites and apps. I did that for about six years. Then I made the switch to Fonto, a software startup. There, I got into long-term product development and worked on a user-friendly structured content editor. In total, I worked there for eleven years and progressed to leading development teams”, he says. “During my time there I increasingly got involved in managing work processes. In the end, I oversaw the operational aspect of the organization. However, I started to miss product development and working with the technology behind it. So, I started looking for another challenge.”
Ended up at Salacia through his network
“My first interview with Martijn went really well,” explains Mathijs. “I came into contact with Salacia through my network. We connected right away. Then I spoke to Kees, we had a good talk about where I could add most value. I’ve been working here since April 7.” When asked about his work at Salacia, Mathijs replies: “A large part of it consists of supporting the product development teams in building and delivering quality software. That ranges from implementing supportive technology to improving processes and is a combination of development and operations. DevOps is about delivering quality software to end users as fast as we can build it. I work closely with Christian.”
The human aspect was a driving force behind the switch
We also asked Mathijs what attracted him to Salacia. “It was not only because of the change in work and technology, but also the human aspect. I’d like to think that Salacia and the product it builds attracts likeminded people who have a drive to work together to create positive change.”
Mathijs was already mindful about sustainability. At Salacia, he hopes to make a difference on a professional level. “I’m critical when it comes to my own lifestyle, and I hope I can contribute to positive change through my work. I believe a key aspect is making our current standard of living sustainable. Persuading people to lower that standard feels like the bigger challenge, though that’s likely also required. I’m positive Salacia can contribute to that goal by helping businesses move in the right direction, who will then hopefully help people do the same.”
Finally, we ask him where he thinks he will be in five years’ time. Mathijs: “I like to always be in a role where I feel I can bring most value, so who knows what that will be five years from now!”
