Our office in Barcelona is in the Sant Antoni neighbourhood in the heart of the city. It is famous for its octagonal intersections and grid layout designed by Ildefons Cerda, one of the first urbanists in the world. The office is located in a superilla, which is an attempt to claim back public space, making neighborhoods people-centric by using street furniture, cassettes for plants and encouraging these areas to be pedestrian and bicycle-friendly.
Our Kiwis say it’s a trendy district, full of cozy bars, cuisines from around the world, as well as local restaurants, coffee shops and open markets selling fresh products, craft and books. Not only do our colleagues get to enjoy what’s in the neighbourhood but they can also plan evenings in other parts of the city, and be there quite quickly. Moreover, they do all of it in a city that has on average 2,500 hours of sunshine per year!
Our Frontend Engineer, Viktor Borszeki mentioned that for him, the size of the city is perfect, because you can get almost everywhere in half an hour by bike. “Every neighbourhood is self-sufficient, you have everything you need locally for your daily life. Lot of nice projects are going on, to make the city more human-scaled and less car-centric. Apart from that, sea, mountains, sun, mild climate, good food is what I really love about Barcelona.”, said Viktor.
Our Director of Corporate Solutions, Abdelhakim (Hakim) Cherif agrees and adds that Barcelona is full of people coming from different horizons. “Lots of people from Latin America, UK, France, Italy, Germany. For a foreigner guy like me, it’s great and I get to meet more people sharing my status of foreign young worker attracted to Barcelona, seeking a good work/life balance,” said Hakim, who moved from Brno HQ of Kiwi.com to Barcelona in Autumn 2020.
Teams in Barcelona
The Kiwi.com office in Barcelona was established in 2017 and today has 30 people working there. The main focus of the Barcelona office is Engineering and Sales and Marketing although there are people also working in UX, Infrastructure-Security-Data Platform, Software Platform, Customer Experience, Facilities and HR. What does the office look like in reality?
- Booking and Self Service software engineers. They provide the best “purchase” and “after purchase” experience for our customers; and have built a self-service help centre. They deliver fully functional products or allow customers to use their data, build a messaging system that keeps our customers informed via localised, personalised, and context-aware messages.
- Fintech software engineers. They protect core business against illegitimate transactions and handle the entire chargeback agenda such as offering comprehensive refund options and automating refund processing flows.
- Sales and Marketing. They build a unified approach to partnerships, direct customer acquisition and retention, and define our go-to-market strategy going forward including:
- Business Development: search for new partners and build long-lasting relationships with airlines, airports, consolidators, car rentals, accommodation, and insurance providers and many more.
- Strategy: forge short and long-term strategy, ensure competitiveness, monitor the creation of long-term value for the company and its stakeholders.
- Growth: build the Kiwi.com brand – tied to unique product benefits, increasing awareness, consideration, and usage intent, and acquiring new customers.
What makes the Barcelona office special?
We asked and our colleagues from Barcelona said…
A lot of flexibility and freedom. Autonomy to work on your tasks. “Can do” attitude. The benefits, environment, international atmosphere, and the company culture. Community events. No micromanagement. Transparency, colleagues you like to meet after working hours as well, who are agile and honest.
“Working in our office was super flexible before the pandemic. The culture we have is very open and multicultural, and I feel we can easily connect, discuss a big variety of different topics without being judged,” said Viktor.
Inside the office, in Covid 19-free times, our people like to get together and share a good time over lunch break. There is an office rooftop terrace with amazing views, where our folks usually gather for some beers after work.
“Time to time we’re also hiking in the surrounding mountains or having mountain bike trips there. Just chilling on the beach is also an option. Occasionally, we’re meeting on some of the squares to have some tapas and vermouth on the weekend,” added Viktor.
Get to know more about the Barcelona office
Read the interview with our Barcelona site lead, Gabriela Manová, and get to know more about the Barcelona office.
We’re searching for people who can bring leadership and knowledge to the office. If you are interested, check our open positions for Senior Python Engineer for Finance Tribe and a Revenue Management Analyst.