IT & Digital: We move logistics forward
Technology and digitization are shaping the future of Hellmann. For this reason, it is imperative to combine our IT solutions with our 150 years of experience in the excellence of logistics. We make IT the center of our everyday logistics. We enable our teams to connect, communicate, jointly develop and implement logistics solutions for our customers worldwide.
We are courageous achievers, and we drive a global family business forward with our ideas and solutions. Above all, we are a fantastic team that makes logistics chains faster, better, and more convenient in technologically challenging and diverse projects. This is our main motivation!
As part of our team, you can help us to write this success story. Together we will tackle the future: Join the team and "keep moving forward"!
IT makes the difference.
Impact – Let’s make the difference
IT is the key to the future of logistics and the future of Hellmann. Challenge accepted: We embrace these challenges and design IT solutions that make a difference in global markets. As a driver of innovation, we bravely move forward and put ideas on the road that benefit people all over the world. This is what we are recognized for, and this is what we stand for.
Team – Let’s do it together
As IT experts in a global family business, we are a team within a team. Each of us contributes our individuality and uniqueness to the team, but also the big picture - to our Worldwide Family. With exceptional team spirit, we develop technologies and logistics solutions that shape the future of logistics. This makes us even stronger as a team and as a company all within an agile environment and with an open culture that can be individually shaped by everyone.
Development – Let’s stay ahead
Standing still is not an option: if we continue to develop ourselves courageously, we will develop Hellmann further. That's why we give everyone the freedom to develop their strengths and gain new skills in a technologically diverse environment. As a global player, we have the projects, the technology, and the knowledge to grow continuously, both individually and together. If that's exactly what you want, we offer various opportunities for exciting, varied, and successful development.
Our strengths. Our ways of working.
INTERDISCIPLINARY & FLEXIBLE WORK
What characterizes us as a team of almost 400 colleagues? Our diversity. We bring together inventors, designers, makers, and developers from a wide variety of backgrounds. Our common goal: the best possible solutions. Our way of working: always unique. With our interdisciplinary teams and an agile organization, we always adapt our processes to reflect the optimal fit for the team and the challenge. This not only makes us more effective, but it also makes the work more fulfilling for each individual. Coupled with a culture of cooperation and family cohesion, these are ideal conditions for creating great things together.
UNIQUE INFRASTRUCTURE
Reliability, stability, and security - these are particularly important to us. Our central IT infrastructure is the heart of everything we do in the Hellmann universe. With around 400 applications for almost 30,000 internal and external users worldwide, we ensure that all elements interact perfectly every day. We rely on our own data centers in Osnabrück, Melbourne, Miami, and Hong Kong, as well as on the latest cloud solutions and various enterprise technologies. Our goal: state-of-the-art solutions for our operations and customers.
MULTI-FACETED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Whether Scrum, Kanban, or a customized process – each team is free to determine which tools are best suited to solve our tasks. Everything is self-organized and, if needed, with support from coaches. The choice of deploying services in Docker, Kubernetes, or in the cloud, is also left up to each team. Thus, there is a lot of room for development. Through architecture rounds, we ensure that we never lose sight of our goal. With regular exchanges in the developer community, there is always the inspiration for trends and new possibilities.
Insights into our working world
Stories, special features, and interesting facts - from the everyday life of our team members.
Software Developer
Hello Aljoscha, what makes up your work?
Aljoscha is working as a software developer in the platform team for the Road & Rail division. Together with a team of about 40 colleagues, he develops transport management software for the Road division. The focus of his work is on the conceptual design and further development of the internal development and operating platform.
What does your role as a software developer look like?
On a typical workday, I first look at our various system environments - Is everything running as expected? Are there any problems? By consistently using the cloud, our teams can create and run a wide variety of system environments without our involvement.
What I love about my job is that we can be experimental!
My two colleagues and I are responsible for supporting this process and developing it further with modern technology and concepts. We rely on a combination of different solutions, develop some ourselves, and are the "glue" between the technology stack and our colleagues. What I love about my job is that we can and should experiment to find the best possible solution for our team. Learning is a central part of our everyday life and that excites me.
What does collaboration look like in your team?
Our project team consists of about 40 people and is divided into different smaller teams consisting of about 3-6 people. We are supported by Agile coaches and organize ourselves more or less as we wish in the process. Our role as a platform team is to provide the other teams with modern development and an operational environment that integrates with the company. Therefore, in addition to the contact with our project team, we also have a lot of connections to the various other areas at Hellmann, for example, the Hybrid Infrastructure, Cyber Security & IT Governance, or the Integration Platform Team.
How would you describe the atmosphere in IT Department?
The atmosphere in IT Department is characterized by closeness, cohesion, and helpfulness. I have experienced many situations in which colleagues have supported me immediately and without hesitation, even though we had never met before. After that, you know each other, you're on first-name terms, and you know who to ask for advice when the next challenge arises. That is enormously helpful!
What surprised you the most about Hellmann?
For someone who has had little contact with logistics aside from the trucks on the highway and the package in the mailbox, the processes were definitely a surprise. I now understand better how complex logistics is and which parts all have to interact perfectly for our way of life to work. At the same time, there is still a lot of room for optimization. This is where we can add a lot of value with the help of modern software.
Insights into our working world
Stories, special features, and interesting facts - from the everyday life of our team members.
Software Developer
Hey Erik, what do you do exactly?
Erik has been working as a software developer at Hellmann since October 2021. With his "Digital Customer Experience" team, he is primarily responsible for the interface to the customer. The focus is on all technical topics that help customers to conduct their business efficiently.
What does your role as a software developer look like?
As a software developer, I have a very varied daily routine be it through exchanges with product owners, customer interviews, or pair/mob programming sessions. Through our agile way of working, each of us takes responsibility for our products while enjoying the freedom of decision and technology. Each team is free to determine which tools are best suited to solve the tasks. Each developer is also free to choose their own operating system.
Currently, we are modernizing many old applications. This often involves developing microservices in Kotlin, which we then run on Kubernetes clusters in the AWS Cloud. Industry standards such as IntelliJ, Git, and Docker are of course in place.
I have never experienced this amount of freedom anywhere else.
Once a week, I have 4 hours to take care of my personal development. This also provides enough room to explore new technologies that could make our daily work easier.
How would you describe the atmosphere in the IT department?
It feels a bit like a global village where everyone knows everyone. You are often in communication with each other, which also improves your own English. There are a lot of jokes and no chat/miro/... is complete without at least one meme.
What surprised you the most at Hellmann?
SCRUM is really lived here. You feel like a valued developer and not a code monkey doing assembly line work. Ultimately, the business comes to us with requirements that we must solve efficiently. The developers are completely responsible for finding the solution themselves. I have never experienced or seen this degree of freedom anywhere else.
Insights into our working world
Stories, special features, and interesting facts - from the everyday life of our team members.
Product Ownerin
Hello Isabel, tell us!
Isabel has been working as a Product Owner at Hellmann in Hamburg since December 2020. As part of the "Digital Customer Experience" team with about 25 colleagues she is responsible for digital solutions for customers. As a product owner of the tracking application, she takes care of the individual further development of the tool and provides customers with digital information about the status of their shipment at any time.
What does your role as a product owner look like?
In our team, we use Scrum for agile software development. This means that we work in two-week planning cycles and provide users with small pieces of functional software as early as possible in order to continuously gather feedback from them. This way, we can ensure that we meet customer needs in the best possible way and continuously improve our products.
In my role as a product owner, I analyze our customers' requirements through close contact with them, prioritize the requirements and create a roadmap. My colleagues from IT are then responsible for implementing this roadmap. I am also responsible for analyzing user figures.
In addition, I make sure that my colleagues and our customers worldwide are always informed about the current development status of the tracking, and I am available for all tracking-related questions. The best thing about my job is probably that every day is different, and you always get to adapt to new situations and circumstances.
What does the collaboration in your team look like? ?
Our team is spread across Hamburg, Osnabrück, and Budapest. Despite the physical distance, we have a very close exchange and talk to each other several times a day. What is special about our team is that we all like to try out new things to achieve our goals and are thus constantly learning and finding out what helps us and what does not.
I particularly appreciate the pronounced willingness to help and the flat hierarchies.
We are cross-functional, which allows us to take different perspectives into account when making decisions. Our team consists of developers, business analysts, data analysts, product owners, agile coaches, rollout managers, and UX / UI designers.
What surprised you the most about Hellmann?
What surprised me the most was the pronounced willingness to help and the friendly interaction between colleagues, which is not necessarily a given. At the same time, I really like the fact that Hellmann not only advertises flat hierarchies but actually lives them.
Sounds interesting? Then discover your opportunities!