ShipEngineer Spotlight: Joe Pill

What do you do at ShipEngine? 

My role is to help the team deliver working software efficiently, and mitigate or remove any barriers our engineers face while doing so. I’m responsible for understanding the status of projects in flight, as well as determining and communicating priority. 

The short answer is: I do my best to do what I’m told.

What does your typical day look like? 

It can certainly vary, but most days involve a heavy dose of reviewing my team’s open JIRAs, monitoring the release channel for updates, discussions for ongoing and upcoming projects, triaging user- and partner-reported issues, and, of course… meetings. 

I also like to get a coffee and a snack—or two—in there at some point.

What tech do you get to work with?

I have a variety of great tools at my disposal — Kibana, SumoLogic, Redshift, etc.

Though, the most valuable resource I have available to me are the people I work with every day. Not just on my immediate team either. Whether ShipEngine or ShipStation, I’ve found my colleagues to always be eager to help. Sappy, yes, I know. #sorrynotsorry

How long have you been working on ShipEngine?

I was brought onto the ShipEngine team in April of this year. Prior to that I had been with ShipStation in User Support and the Escalations department. Needless to say, it’s been a very busy four months!

How did you get into this type of work?

Before coming to ShipStation, I was a contractor on a sales support team for another tech company in Austin. When that ran its course, I was encouraged to apply to ShipStation by a co-worker.

Once at ShipStation, I was given support and mentorship from my superiors each step of the way, which led me to today. I’m very grateful for that.

What is one of your proudest achievements? 

Two years ago I was driving the second of two hand-me-down minivans. No longer! No shame in driving a minivan, but I’m glad that’s behind me.

What do you wish people knew about ShipEngine?

Most any label that gets generated in ShipEngine can later be downloaded in .pdf, .zpl, or .png. It’s evident in the response to label creation calls, but it’s a unique offering and it’s cool that we have that functionality.

The branded tracking page is another awesome feature that we’d love to see more users discover. It’s a fantastic way to brand your business to your end customers, while providing a valuable core service.

How do you spend your free time?

Scroll down to see what I love most about Austin. For the tl;dr — guitar and guitar related things.

Tell us what you wanted to be when you “grow-up”

In descending order: A dinosaur, an astronaut, or a writer. It could still happen…

What do you love most about Austin? 

I enjoy being outside, trying new restaurants, live music, collecting music, playing guitar, looking at guitars, reading about guitars… and, among other things, talking about guitars. This is a great city for all of that!

More specifically, here’s a list of my favorites in town: Barton Springs, P. Terry’s, HEB (no store does more), seeing Redd Volkaert at the Continental Club, Bill Kirchen at El Mercado, Homeslice, La Fonda San Miguel, Uchiko, Habeñero Cafe, the Cactus Cafe, the Sour Duck, the UT Turtle Pond, Chili’s at 45th and Lamar, the Moody Theater, Bass Concert Hall, Austin Vintage Guitars, the Backlot, Péché, the Austin Record Convention, the Zilker dog park, Rosita’s Al Pastor, Tony’s Jamaican, Taco More, Taco-Mex, Wholy Bagel, Mt. Bonnell, the Pennybacker bridge, the Elephant Room, Breakaway Records, Collings and Waterloo Guitars, We Are Blood.

I also really enjoy the mild winters and hot summers (I grew up in New Hampshire).

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