Inside LinkThat Engineering: Product Groups, Customer Proximity, and Tech Mobility — Takeaways from Steffen Kopany (Head of Software Development)

Context: A DevJobs.at techleadstory recap

In the techleadstory session titled Steffen Kopany, Head of Software Development von LinkThat, speaker Steffen Kopany of LinkThat YouCon EDV Dienstleistungs GmbH opened up about their engineering setup, hiring practices, and day-to-day collaboration. What stood out to us at DevJobs.at was a precise blend of customer proximity, product-group ownership, and a technology stack that balances long-earned experience with deliberate modernization.

The team counts around 20 developers, mostly in Vienna with some colleagues in Slovakia. They work with Scrum and divide into product groups. For customer projects, a project layer brings together the right people from the relevant product groups, led by a project manager, product owner, and scrum master. It is a simple but effective pattern that enables product depth while staying close to concrete delivery goals.

Team structure: Product groups as the backbone, project work as connective tissue

Steffen outlines an organization that combines two layers:

• Product-group teams that own clear domains
• Project overlays that assemble the fitting people from those groups to deliver on specific customer outcomes

Scrum roles provide coordination, but the intent is clear: minimize handoffs and maximize context. Product groups create continuity and domain expertise, while projects provide a line of sight to real-world usage and the customer’s immediate needs. This duality nurtures deep product knowledge and couples it with tangible delivery impact.

Customer proximity over ticket queues

A central theme is how LinkThat YouCon EDV Dienstleistungs GmbH intentionally avoids a pure package or ticket factory model. The expectation is to seek proximity to the customer. When a customer has questions or technical wishes, the project team discusses and resolves them together.

This changes the everyday rhythm in three meaningful ways:

• Context: understand why something is being built and what problem it solves
• Dialogue: route questions and technical wishes into the team’s decision-making loop
• Purpose: see a direct line from your work to customer value

Rather than anonymized backlogs, engineers experience living context and timely feedback. That is an energizing environment for people who want to build products that are actually used.

Hiring: team-driven selection and clarity from the start

The hiring flow is straightforward and collaborative, with a strong role for the future teammates:

• First interview to get to know each other, with team members present. Because needs vary by product group, practical technical feedback is part of the conversation.
• A group decision: do the prerequisites match, and does the person fit the current team constellation?
• Second round, preferably on site: a deeper, in-person conversation; depending on the role there can be a test to assess skills and clarify technical details.

Steffen makes it clear they mainly look for on-site people. That aligns with how the team works, the way customer proximity is enacted, and how learning happens in practice.

Onboarding: a buddy system and an intentionally open entry point

Once the decision is made, the new colleague gets the equipment needed for work and a buddy who accompanies them throughout the first weeks. A standout detail is the openness of the initial assignment:

• No rigid binding to a specific product on day one
• Technologies and code span multiple products, so there is exposure early on
• The first weeks offer room to discover where you feel at home and where your impact can be strongest

This produces a comforting arrival phase without locking someone into a narrow lane. If another area proves more energizing, there is space to switch and grow into that direction.

Internal mobility: try, contribute, and rearrange

Mobility does not stop with onboarding. If someone wants to explore a different area — for example the company’s sizable AI topics compared to classic .NET — there is a pragmatic path. As Steffen explains:

• Either there is some time available, or a project needs an extra hand
• You take on a small part and see how it feels
• Depending on interest and fit, responsibilities are rearranged

This approach lowers the barrier for learning and cross-pollination. Engineers can build depth while still venturing into new domains, step by step and grounded in real project work.

Culture: team play, a familial feel, and long tenure

Team play is absolutely vital. The company is not huge, and that contributes to a familial atmosphere. Notably, most people have been with the company for ten years or more. This continuity manifests in several ways:

• Trust and reliability in collaboration
• Accumulated product and customer knowledge
• A supportive environment that welcomes new team members without rigid tracks

On personal traits and motivation, Steffen is direct: openness, willingness to learn, and an appetite for challenges matter. Someone only seeking a comfortable, strictly bounded 38.5-hour routine is not the ideal match. Instead, the company gravitates to people with drive and genuine interest in the product.

This makes the culture feel purposeful and grounded: less about formalism, more about ownership and momentum.

Technology and domain: connecting telephony and CAM, with modernized operations

LinkThat YouCon EDV Dienstleistungs GmbH has long operated in a distinct domain: the connection between telephony and CAM. That dictates a broad technology footprint because integration needs differ depending on what systems are being connected, both on the telephony and the CAM side.

Historically, the team worked in a Windows-centered setup with IIS and services. In parallel, the company has been modernizing, with a dedicated focus on advancing technology choices. The current emphasis includes:

• Docker
• Kubernetes
• A rethought architecture for how software components interact — defined by 10 to 15 years of accumulated experience and informed by market and customer signals

Even as modernization progresses, the core stack remains clear and pragmatic:

• Most back end: .NET
• Most database work: Microsoft SQL Server (MSSQL)
• Most front end: React

Beyond that, other technologies enter the picture as needed. The combination provides both stability and breadth, fitting a domain where integration requirements vary widely.

AI area: typical AI development patterns with containers and Linux

Alongside classic .NET work, there is a large AI area. As is common in AI, the development approach follows established patterns. Docker, Linux machines, and Kubernetes are used to run and orchestrate these workloads. It’s a natural extension of the company’s modernization strategy: reproducible deployments and scalable environments for operational reliability.

For engineers who value AI workloads grounded in solid operations, this is appealing. The business domain remains the connection of telephony and CAM, while the technical underpinnings benefit from containerization and orchestration.

Scrum in practice: clear roles and decision paths

Teams operate with Scrum and the classic roles. What stands out is how decisions are owned:

• Hiring is a group decision with future teammates actively involved
• In projects, customer questions and technical wishes flow directly into the team’s discussions
• Architectural work draws on long-term experience combined with ongoing market input

This is Scrum as a pragmatic frame: it aligns product groups, project needs, and customer proximity without excessive ceremony.

Why this setup is attractive for engineers

From our vantage point, several clear advantages line up for tech talent considering this environment:

• Customer proximity over anonymous ticket queues: build with context and see your impact
• Product groups with a project overlay: deep domain knowledge, applied to real outcomes
• Team-driven hiring: meet the people you will actually work with, early
• Buddy onboarding: a safe runway without rigid product assignment
• Internal mobility: try small parts in new areas and grow into them
• Stability and belonging: many colleagues have been with the company for 10+ years
• A culture that values drive and learning over comfort zones
• A modernizing stack: .NET, MSSQL, and React at the core; Docker and Kubernetes for operations; architecture guided by long-term experience
• A substantial AI area that integrates with containerized, Linux-based operations
• Primarily on-site collaboration in Vienna, with part of the team in Slovakia, keeping teams close to customers and to each other

This is a rare mix: a clear product domain, a focused team, and a willingness to integrate new approaches where they make sense.

Memorable moments from the session

A few points sharpened our picture of how the organization works:

• A deliberate move away from package processing. No conveyor belt of work packages; proximity to the customer is standard.
• The team-centric hiring process. If collaboration needs to work later, start it in the interview.
• The normalcy of switching areas. Try a small part first, feel it out, and adjust.
• A candid expectation of openness, learning, and appetite for challenges — with genuine product interest as a powerful signal.
• Clarity about the tech landscape: an experienced core, modernized thoughtfully, based on market and customer input.

Together these traits describe an engineering organization that prioritizes responsibility, proximity, and momentum.

Who will thrive here

Engineers who enjoy a mix of product stability and project-driven relevance will likely feel at home. Especially if the following statements resonate:

• I want to understand why I am building something and stay close to end users.
• I value a clear core stack but also want exposure to a broad, integration-heavy domain.
• I work best with teams that give and exchange feedback from day one.
• I like to try new areas by taking on small parts first, then growing with fit and interest.
• I bring drive and genuine product interest.

If that sounds like you, the structures and people at LinkThat YouCon EDV Dienstleistungs GmbH will likely support you well.

The role of on-site collaboration

Steffen emphasizes that they mainly hire for on-site roles. That is more than logistics. It enables quick alignment, collective decisions in project teams, and everyday learning by doing. The buddy-supported onboarding especially benefits from proximity. At the same time, working with colleagues in Slovakia shows the team can operate pragmatically across locations when product groups and projects call for it.

Learning curves in a real product context

Because the same technologies span multiple products, newcomers see various codebases and use cases early. This yields learning paths that go beyond a single language or framework:

• Domain understanding: telephony meets CAM with practical, integration-heavy challenges
• System integration: different prerequisites depending on which systems are being connected
• Architectural thinking: how components interact, guided by years of accumulated experience
• Operations: containerization, orchestration, and running workloads on Linux machines

These learning avenues form a holistic picture anchored in real customer projects — complete with immediate feedback.

Engineering choices guided by experience and market input

A recurring thread is how architecture and technology decisions are grounded:

• 10 to 15 years of experience
• Signals from the market
• Concrete customer wishes and questions

That mix produces robust decisions that remain open to improvement. Modernization is not the goal; value is. The result is a stack that is dependable and improving in ways that matter to customers and teams alike.

Summary: what defines LinkThat YouCon EDV Dienstleistungs GmbH

From the session Steffen Kopany, Head of Software Development von LinkThat with speaker Steffen Kopany, we distilled several defining principles:

• Product groups provide structure; project overlays connect work to outcomes
• Customer proximity is standard — questions and wishes are addressed within the team
• Hiring is team-driven; onboarding is supported and open to exploration
• Internal mobility is encouraged and pragmatically enabled
• Culture values team play, candor, and drive — with many colleagues having 10+ years of tenure
• The tech stack is proven and modernized: .NET, MSSQL, and React at the core; Docker, Kubernetes, and Linux-based operations underpin delivery
• A sizable AI area fits naturally into this landscape

For engineers seeking genuine product responsibility, room to grow, and collaborative work with tangible customer impact, this is a compelling setup. It blends the reliability of an experienced core with the dynamics of modern operations — always with an eye on customer value and team effectiveness.

Next step for candidates

If this mix resonates, expect a hiring conversation that begins where it matters: with the team you would work with. The second, in-person round offers depth and clarity, possibly including a focused test where appropriate. If there is a match, you start with a buddy, a fully equipped setup, and the freedom to explore the product landscape in your first weeks.

That combination — customer proximity, team orientation, and grounded modernization — is what we learned from Steffen Kopany of LinkThat YouCon EDV Dienstleistungs GmbH. And it is what makes this engineering environment a strong fit for people who want both immediate impact and long-term growth.

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  Klio Czirny, Software Developer bei LinkThat

  Klio Czirny von LinkThat erzählt im Interview über ihre Ausbildung, wie sie im Unternehmen gut mit dem Software Development starten konnte und gibt Tipps für Anfänger.

  Watch now