Heidi Wagner has two job titles: backend engineer and vice president of “getting stuff done” (GSD) at Fetch Rewards.
Creative title aside, Wagner serves as a full stack engineer on a team that combats fraud on the Fetch platform. Preventing fraud is sensitive work, so Wagner can’t divulge her latest project — “If I told you what I was working on currently, that would let the fraud users know what we’re cooking up!” — but she is adamant that it is thrilling.
“Imagine if every day was a hackathon,” Wagner told Built In. “That is Fetch. And it’s been my experience every day of the last eight years working here.”
WHAT FETCH DOES
As a leader, Wagner subscribes to Fetch’s future-centric mindset: Celebrate successes, learn from mistakes and keep moving.
“I never do rollbacks, only roll forwards,” Wagner said, attributing the company’s success to its doggedly forward-thinking culture. “We were scrappy, and we delivered a prototype that helped prove our concept.”
Fetch’s forward-moving culture doesn’t end with its technology. Wagner has her sights set on mentoring fellow women in tech. “I know we can do better as a society, so I feel passionate about continuing to ensure that happens here,” she said.
In conversation with Wanger, it’s clear that a sense of fun is as baked into Fetch’s DNA as its innovative sensibilities. “In the early days, I encouraged all employees to find bugs in our application,” she remisced. “If you did, you would get the plush bug for your desk for the week.”
With a robust remote work program in place, Fetch employees might not always find a snuggly bug on their desk, but the opportunity for career growth under its dynamic leadership is just beginning.
What’s your vision for leading your team?
As my title suggests, I believe in hard work and being able to have fun. I encourage my team to enjoy successes and look back at failures to help learn from them — but not fixate on them.
We always move forward and focus on the future. Having had the opportunity to head up tech at one time, I believe this forward-thinking mindset is why we were successful in the early days.
How do you build team culture?
Culture is so important. My team builds its culture by encouraging everyone to have a voice — and having off-sites to get together, strategize and connect outside of work. I have been fortunate to bring in other team members who helped grow the culture of Fetch in our technology areas.
How do you help your team grow their careers?
I have been an engineer for different companies over the past 25 years, so it’s very important to me to help mentor engineers who are just starting their career.
In our QA department, I helped bring to the forefront the idea that our best QA employees could come from our support department. Who knows our app better than our support staff who are helping users on a daily basis?
What is something exciting that you are currently working on with your team?
The most exciting project I have worked on at Fetch is the Fetch Rewards application! I could not be more proud of the lean team we had in 2017 that built the first iteration of the app that we have today.
What impact does working at Fetch have on someone’s career?
Imagine being able to learn from others who have years of experience building and scaling technologies. Fetch will give you the avenue to grow your career from building endpoints that only a couple of users hit a day, to endpoints that millions of users hit a day.
If you want to work for a fast moving and innovative company, Fetch is the place.
