We love highlighting our people and hearing their stories. This month we spent time with Bernhard Hansbauer, our Head of Operations in our Vienna office to learn more about him and what he does at Trayport.
Bernhard joined us in September 2020 to lead the Operations team in Vienna and is also a member of the Vienna Senior Management team.
1. Tell us a little about your background before joining us at Trayport
I began my career as an IT Manager for an international car repair chain where I was “the IT guy” for everything from POS systems to financial reporting, from doing network cabling to interconnecting various European headquarters via VPN, from programming to price calculations.
After 10 years there, I moved to a new company where I started in IT but after a few years, I was given the opportunity to start a Technical Operations team. This grew to become a big department spread across countries, and I was responsible for implementing processes around Service Management, Application Security, Service Operations and many more.
Both of my previous employers were acquired by bigger companies, and after another 12 years, I decided to use that experience as an asset, and Trayport seemed like the right place to go, and I can only say that has been a great decision!
2. Can you explain what the Operations Team does?
There are many crucial roles and responsibilities within the Operations team such as Customer Support, Information Security, local IT support, system engineering and automation. A lot of exciting and challenging areas!
We mainly work with Linux, for both servers and workstations. As a team, we think “cloud first”, with automation being a top priority for maintaining and upgrading customer systems. During the next 12 months, we will continue to focus on our highly scalable, stable and reliable architecture for our customers.
3. What technologies are you particularly excited about?
Personally, I am very excited about AI, machine learning and related technologies. My own development experience mainly comes from commercial solutions, web services and system management, but AI is a big deal, and I am happy that here at Trayport where we work with it.
Other than that, I am always learning more about system automation, orchestration and cloud systems.
4. For those looking to make the move into management, what advice would you give them?
For me, managing people is about being there for them with advice and support, as well as being a good motivator by leading through example. And a key part of this is managing expectations for your superiors, yourself, and your team – usually, you are right in the middle, which can be a very uncomfortable position.
It’s also about making the right decisions at the right time, even if these decisions are difficult. It’s not so much about being liked and loved by everyone!
It’s important to note that not everyone is a natural leader of people. And that’s ok. No matter how much of a guru you are in your area, sometimes it’s better to just focus on that, and become a technical expert.
5. When you’re hiring, what is the most important skill or attribute you look for?
I believe that any new joiner needs to fit the team, in one way or another and I believe diverse teams flourish. Everyone should be willing to contribute to our common goal, and bring input and ideas. Working independently, agreeing on objectives, fulfilling them, always striving for more, and the willingness to take responsibility are key traits in my book.
6. And finally, do you have a favourite interview question?
I like to be asked about what I do in my personal life. As someone who loves reading, watching movies and is very interested in all sorts of arts, especially music – listening to, making music, collecting records…I like bringing this personal aspect into an interview. My professional experience actually helps me facilitate my hobbies – I do a lot of programming around my hobbies and my sons also challenge my tech knowledge – they are the typical gamers and have an ever-increasing demand for the latest hardware and software!
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