Our team

Portrait of Etienne, Infrastructure Manager

His ambition was clear: join a company where he could thrive 100%, both personally and professionally. Etienne found it 6 years ago, and he now manages and develops Tixeo’s infrastructure.

From systems administrator to team manager

Working in IT wasn’t necessarily written in the stars for this native of Dijon, who moved to the Montpellier area 20 years ago: “I studied electronics, and when I moved down south, I went back to studying and got a master’s degree in computer science”. Etienne then worked his way through private and public organisations, before eventually looking for a role that truly matched what he needed at the time, ideally with remote working. “At the time, I was about to become a father for the first time, and I wanted a better work-life balance”, he explains. In 2018, he came across an opening for a systems administrator role at Tixeo: “The project caught my interest straight away, I went to a lot of interviews, and I was won over”.

Being close to the head office also meant Etienne could easily get there for maintenance work. He joined Tixeo and discovered fully remote working.

Driven by innovation… and the power of the wind!

His role within the company has changed enormously. Today, he manages a team of 4: “we cover three main areas: client production, internal production and technical support”. When he started, Etienne managed the existing infrastructure on his own. The health crisis meant capacity and resources had to be scaled up to meet exponential demand, and that’s when the team gradually took shape: “I went from administrator to recruiter, and then to team manager!”. To explain what he does today, Etienne uses the metaphor of a factory production line, where “you have to supply the raw material, industrialise the rollout and make sure it’s always available”.

Working entirely remotely has also let him “reorganise his life”. A keen sailor for 30 years, this adopted southerner can now free up time for his passion at the end of the day or during his lunch break. That said, Etienne admits he wouldn’t have stuck with 100% remote working for so long without the right tools and routines: “with the virtual open space, you don’t have to wait hours to talk to someone. I don’t get stuck on things, and above all I stay in regular contact with my colleagues”. He also has fond memories of the quarterly seminars, which offer a break from “the daily grind” and create memories with his team, and not only with them! “At our seminar in Brussels, I’d just left my colleagues when I bumped into a local who wanted to show me around the city”. Staying in regular contact with the teams matters all the more given the other, rather particular role he holds at Tixeo.

Giving employees a voice

Etienne is also a member of the company’s works council. He quickly took an interest in the role, having had a poor impression of it from previous experience: “I like Tixeo and its management, so I thought it was a chance to speak up for everyone and get involved in helping the company move forward”. His term began two years ago and runs for the same length again. Once a month, he discusses staff questions and expectations with the management team and puts forward ideas and solutions that can work for everyone.

/ What’s a typical day like for him at Tixeo?

“I’d be inclined to say I don’t have a typical day. Generally, my day starts at 9am, and at 9:30 it’s time for the daily (editor’s note: a daily team meeting) where we go over the topics to deal with. After that, I move between ongoing industrialisation work and catch-ups with other team leads on security and development”.

/ If he had to sum up what makes his role special…

“Tixeo is an R&D company, so you definitely need a strong appetite for new technologies and innovation. Keeping your knowledge and skills up to date is essential in my job, because technology moves fast and you have to stay on top of it. I’m lucky to have real freedom on plenty of topics, which lets me keep learning every day”.