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Radoslav Nikolov is the Managing Director of SAP Labs Bulgaria and has been with the company for over 20 years. During this time, he has held various roles, including Team Leader, Director, and Vice President of Development, and since 2014, he has been the Managing Director of the strategic development center in Sofia. The company employs more than 1,600 software professionals working in the fields of software development and on the latest SAP in-memory and cloud technologies.
We know that SAP Labs Bulgaria has grown a lot in recent years, and the number of open positions on your career site continues to increase. How are you managing to maintain this growth and what are you doing to attract and retain candidates?
SAP started its development activities in Bulgaria 24 years ago. Back then, the company was one of the first foreign companies to recognize the potential of Bulgarian IT professionals, and was actually a pioneer in helping to boost the interest of many up and coming international brands in Bulgaria.
Over these 24 years we have continuously developed and improved our brand as an employer on the market. We have been recognized as the best employer in Bulgaria nine times. We are leading many initiatives to support the education system, working closely with various institutions in the field to spark the interest of students and students to pursue a career in the IT industry. In addition, we are convinced that our colleagues are our greatest promoters in the market, and they are driven by their belief in our culture and values: an open and friendly working atmosphere, a culture of knowledge sharing, empathy, feedback and collaboration, a common goal to deliver the best for the company and our customers. Thanks to all of the above and many more initiatives, as well as hard work, of course,
we have been welcoming around 200 - 300 new colleagues over the past few years.
For more than 20 years, we have also been able to prove ourselves internally within the global SAP company as a trusted location with strong and educated professionals who can contribute and also lead strategic topics and projects. We are glad that in recent years the need to introduce ourselves and convince large organizations in the company to trust us with new topics has "evaporated", and now they rather organically and based on our good image are increasing their investments in Bulgaria and growing their local teams.
Our good culture, diverse topics, globally relevant projects, long career paths and the opportunity to keep developing also lead to the retention and long-term commitment of colleagues in the company.
In which areas/organizations of the company are you growing?
When I think of it, maybe 90% of the organizations in the company that have opened teams in Bulgaria have been growing in recent years. In particular, we've seen strong growth in teams contributing to the development of our cloud platform,
the SAP Business Technology Platform, as well as newer teams in innovative areas such as sustainability, globalization services, artificial intelligence, security and compliance.
What are the career opportunities in the company for a junior candidate? And for senior candidates?
First and foremost, our colleagues are encouraged to develop within their own team - through open communication with their manager and a continuous desire to learn and grow. When the opportunities within the team run out, we encourage colleagues to look around for their next step within one of the other teams at SAP Labs Bulgaria.
And when the Bulgarian location cannot offer anything more, we are happy to help colleagues look for opportunities abroad, led by our belief that we are not a lonely island, but part of the global SAP family.
In fact, in recent years we have also seen more and more colleagues returning to Bulgaria, attracted by the new teams and topics here.
The opportunities listed apply to both junior and senior colleagues. The number of steps on the way for junior candidates is much bigger, while senior talents can develop their expertise towards expert or managerial positions, in addition to being provided with resources to build leadership skills - by mentoring less experienced colleagues, making and justifying strategic decisions, etc.
You recently launched the SAP Next Talent program - can you share more about it and what is the current status quo?
SAP Next Talent is a global initiative of the company that was launched this year in Bulgaria. We aim to attract high-potential talents who complete an accelerated development program within a year.
Participants start on a permanent junior position with us, and through rotation in two different teams they are given the opportunity to experience different technologies, to learn and find the right fit for themselves.
Just days ago we welcomed the first group of 18 participants, selected from over 700 applicants, for their first day on the job, and applications are open for the next start date in November. We invite students with solid knowledge and experience or recent graduates to grab the opportunity to fast-track their own potential and start their career path with us.
A year ago you moved into a new office. How do you feel and what have you learned?
It certainly feels very good, we recently commemorated one year since our move-in with a celebratory cocktail. This building brought all our colleagues in Bulgaria together for the first time in 7-8 years. In line with our hybrid working model, we are seeing more and more frequent visits to the office from colleagues, and we are happy that the space gives us the opportunity to be together at a variety of in-person events, as well as host multiple events with external audiences such as various meetups and conferences. Given our growth projection, we are also looking into the opportunity to rent additional space in the neighborhood which can meet our high standard for colleagues’ comfort and well-being.
