Advance Your Career: Life as a Rapid7 Belfast Software Engineer

Nov 09, 2020
5 min read
Rapid7

Last updated at Thu, 04 Mar 2021 20:47:15 GMT

At Rapid7, we believe that by hiring a diverse team with different levels of experience and varying backgrounds, we can #ChallengeConvention as #OneMoose, push the boundaries of our thinking, and pursue our goals of continuous innovation to achieve secure advancement for all. As we continue to build this team, we are looking for new Moose who exemplify our core values, and are passionate about making a positive impact on our customers. We are excited to continue to expand our herd in Belfast, our largest engineering hub, as we also open our new-and-improved office in the heart of Belfast's city centre.

This office has been created to foster the collaborative, creative, and bold spirit that our Moose (how we refer to our team members and our company mascot) embody everyday. We talked with three of our Belfast engineers to hear firsthand about their experiences at Rapid7.

Read on to learn more about why they chose to bring their talents to Rapid7 and how they are advancing their careers and security for our customers every day!

What makes being an engineer in the Belfast office unique both within Rapid7 and in the Belfast market in general?

“Our Belfast office is one of our main engineering centres. It means we have loads of talented people working in different areas. In terms of the Belfast market, I always hear American companies moving here getting a bad rap here after expanding. Rapid7 never had that issue here because Belfast is enabled like the rest of the company to take ownership of substantial projects and not stuck maintaining legacy code.” — Erran

“Rapid7 offers a really great workplace experience—everyone is friendly, willing to help out, and has so much energy! The Belfast office is unique in that it’s the first place I’ve worked in Belfast that I felt I could truly “Bring You,” or be my authentic self every day at work. Rapid7 is definitely a pioneer in workplace culture in Belfast, and now more and more companies are following in their footsteps.” — Claire

“First and foremost, it’s the people and culture that make our office unique and such a great place to work. We are passionate about doing the right thing. We have lots of different teams in the office but we love to collaborate on cross-functional problems to find solutions. The energy and drive people bring to the office is infectious, and we all work as a team to help achieve our goals. We have a unique mix of qualities but with the same common goals. We ask that you bring your best and help us make an impact together.” — Neville

What attracted you to Rapid7, and what keeps you here?

“When I was a kid, I used and contributed to Metasploit. That was definitely the first shiny thing that got me interested! After being offered an internship, I stayed because there are growth opportunities everywhere. I’m still learning loads every day.” — Erran

“The opportunity to work for a large cybersecurity firm attracted me, and the company culture, the intelligent and friendly people, and the interesting work are keeping me here!” — Claire

“There were a multitude of factors that attracted me to Rapid7. The company's reputation was a major factor, the technology and the security industry was something I was always interested in and wanted to learn more about. I also love Rapid7’s willingness to encourage learning and present new opportunities to help people grow. What keeps me here are the people I work with on a daily basis. Working in this environment gives me an opportunity to learn something new every day. Every opportunity is given to people who want to succeed.” — Neville

How would you describe the office culture and/or environment?

“The Belfast team welcomed me with open arms when I moved from Austin. I’ve seen Belfast grow from less than 40 employees to over 200! While I haven’t met some of our new Moose in person yet, we’ve kept up cross-team social video calls pretty well since lockdown started.” — Erran

“I’d describe it as friendly, welcoming, and energetic; there’s always something awesome happening!” — Claire

“Our culture is very relaxed. We give people the freedom and responsibility to make decisions that will best serve the interests of their team and the company. We believe in leadership over management, and we encourage everyone to challenge convention to help us keep pushing forward. People are empowered to take accountability for their actions.” — Neville

What extra opportunities has Rapid7 either provided or paid to support further learning and training?

“My favourite training experience would be getting sent out to HashiConf EU in 2016. Rapid7 paid for the trip/conference tickets/two additional training sessions. Most recently would be training focused on becoming a team lead. It’s been super thorough and it’s helped me coach my team.” — Erran

“Through Rapid7, I’ve been able to attend AWS Re:Invent in Las Vegas, and have attained my AWS Associate Solutions Architect Certification through them. I’ve also had the opportunity to attend a training course on the CompTIA Security+ certification in Boston, which was a great experience!” — Claire

“Taking advantage of our “Never Done” core value, Rapid7 is always encouraging new development opportunities, either in-house or by giving people the opportunity to attend third-party training sessions or developer conferences. This has allowed people to stay up-to-date on the latest development technologies and best practices.” — Neville

Interested in learning more and joining the herd? Check out our open roles in Belfast today!