Office Spotlight: Our Linköping R&D site is expanding
February 8, 2024
Axis is home to some of the most exciting industry innovations currently in production, with our Linköping office leading the way. We met with Henrik Kurelid, R&D Director for Linköping and Rickard Hermansson, Engineering Manager to learn more about some of these products, office life, and how you could be part of their growing organization.
Tell us about what goes on at the Linköping office?
Rickard Hermansson: A lot of what we do is designing products and services to make the life of the end user as easy and straightforward as possible. Whether that’s in creating, developing, and maintaining analytics software to help a chain of retail stores save time in reviewing footage for instance, or in our body worn camera offerings to help across different sectors.
Henrik Kurelid: Until recently we have been almost exclusively a software site. Meaning all the engineering work that’s been going on here has been within the software engineering department. As we grow as a company and a department we’ve expanded into other disciplines, such as electrical and mechanical engineering.
Tell us a bit about what it is like to work in the R&D team?
HK: Teamwork is very important, especially here in Linköping. We enjoy working together to solve specific tasks and we want to build something that everyone is a part of, and everyone can contribute to. The team setup is central in our development since it’s important to spread knowledge and create an understanding of the product as a whole, rather than only the specific part you might be working on.
RH: I would say you’re given a lot of freedom to build the right thing, but also a lot of responsibility. Our engineers in each team handle the entire product life cycle. From being a part of the specification, the development, the verification, the integration, and the product deployment. This gives everyone a great chance to actively influence our products.
What can someone expect when they start working in the Linköping office?
RH: As early as the recruitment stage we have something we call ‘pair programming’ in which you will have a programming session with your potential future colleagues. It’s a good way to see if we are a good fit together and it means there will be a familiarity from the start. When joining a team at Axis, you will be writing code from day one. Even though we don’t expect you to have any product knowledge, your colleagues will share that with you. You will bring the skills and experiences that are unique to you, and so by getting involved to that degree from day one, you will contribute to the product development from start.
HK: You can expect a lot of flexibility. We like to operate in what we would call ‘self-organized teams’, meaning you are free to choose your own path when it comes to technologies or ways of working. As long as it fulfills the requirements we set as an organization and you can work well with other teams and departments, how we get there is entirely flexible.
RH: We just set the expectations and let people find the most efficient way of working which best suits the product they are working on and the team they are working in. This is something we like to promote a lot.
How do people stay inspired and motivated in the team?
HK: A lot of the work we do can be quite intense. Working in pairs or groups on individual parts of code can be challenging and require a lot of focus, so we make sure there are plenty of opportunities to allow rest and recharge. For instance, we have areas where colleagues can go and play Mario Kart, ping pong, arcade games, or just sit around and chat over coffee. We also hold what we call Freaky Friday’s, which is another opportunity to step away from the day-to-day work, and shift your focus to something you, as an individual, see as a priority.
Tell us more about Freaky Fridays
RH: Innovation is a big part of what we do and what Axis does, so we are always looking for new opportunities to encourage it. Therefore, every other Friday our engineers are free to work on something that contributes to their development and knowledge growth. It could be learning new technologies, improving the tools you and your team are using, trying out a new concept, or dealing with a bug that wouldn’t normally be a high priority. It’s an opportunity for our engineers to find new and smarter ways of working or increasing their skill set.
HK: It’s a good chance to step away from the usual workload and push yourself outside your comfort zone. To try something that you may have thought about trying and seeing if it will work. It may not always go as planned, but there are times when something will come together as a result of these opportunities that works out well. For instance, in a personal and professional development standpoint. An engineer might use that time to become skilled in a different program language, which they then end up using in a project in future. Something that may not have been possible had they not had the time to set aside and learn.
What advice would you give to someone looking to get into a career with Axis?
RH: We are quite engaged with the student community. Every year we bring in a group of students to join our teams as summer workers. We look for the right people who we feel have that mindset for thinking outside the box, and who are engaged with engineering and technology. We then invite them to create teams and work on ongoing projects alongside our engineers in the same manner as our own teams do. This gives them the opportunity to see what it’s like working for a global organization like Axis, while also actively contributing with fresh ideas and new experiences.
When it comes to recruitment, we want people who are curious, who loves what they do, and can be adaptable. At Axis we look more at the person than the skill set you might bring. Skills and knowledge can be shared. It’s more about who you are than what you know. It’s about having the right mindset, everything else can be taught.
Are you ready to join the team? Take a look at our open positions!