Building up Belgrade’s software division

Cross-border cooperation has long been part of everyday life at digitec Galaxus. Our German subsidiary Galaxus Deutschland, founded in 2018, is closely affiliated with its Swiss parent company. Whether the category manager or creative designer is based in Hamburg or Zurich, our teams plan their activities in Switzerland, Germany and Austria together and implement projects and campaigns in close collaboration. The same applies to customer service, also at home in three countries.

An Eastern European metropolis with IT potential

We’re now also looking east in terms of engineering, setting up our first cross-border software development teams – with workplaces in Belgrade and in Zurich. An obvious step, especially since we’ve already been active in the Eastern European metropolis since 2016 with a subsidiary, employing over 300 colleagues there. «Even though we’re a small name to the Serbian labour market, we can offer local IT cracks a lot: the autonomous development of our software, working in an agile and international environment, exciting development opportunities and competence building in online retailing,» says Aleksandar Zabunovic, Country Manager of Digitec Galaxus in Serbia.

The rapid growth of the e-commerce industry demands more and more engineering resources. In order to recruit the urgently needed IT specialists, we need a large pool of capable developers who fit the bill. «There are many good universities and highly qualified IT specialists in Serbia that we can attract to Galaxus,» Aleksandar continues. «Belgrade definitely has the potential to establish itself as a second development location alongside Zurich in the medium term.»

Proximity to the product is crucial

Until now, employees in Serbia were responsible for customer service inquiries and the quality of product data. And it is precisely in these areas that the new development teams will also be active. «The fact that we’re as close as possible to the product in software engineering and understand exactly which further developments are important is match-critical for the quality of the store,» says Stefan Müller, Chief Technology Officer. «That’s why it’s a logical step that we also develop the software for customer service processes and product data quality in Belgrade.»

The Product Development department at Digitec Galaxus develops both the online store and the ERP system itself, employing more than 250 people in Switzerland. These include software developers, product owners and data analysts, among others. And our developer crew continues to grow. Last year alone, six teams were launched. And further engineering teams will also be added in 2022.

Update: The above article has apparently led to confusion, which is why we would like to briefly clarify again here:

1. Our main development hub is and remains Zurich.
2. We are not relocating any existing IT jobs abroad. The opposite is the case. We want to build more teams in Zurich and are constantly looking for motivated developers. We are looking forward to your application - click here.
3. Our motivation for building two development teams in Belgrade in addition to Zurich is obvious. The proximity of the developers to the operational teams on site facilitates communication and delivers better results. Furthermore, there are many good universities and highly qualified IT specialists in Serbia. Lower wage costs play a secondary role.