Team-First TYPO3, Docker Discipline, and a Six‑Month Onboarding: What “Attila János, Founder von supseven” Reveals About Building an Engineering Culture

Context: Our takeaways from “Attila János, Founder von supseven”

In “Attila János, Founder von supseven” (Speaker: Attila János, Company: supseven), the founder opens the curtain on how the agency structures its engineering work, invests in people, and keeps the delivery pipeline tight around TYPO3. Three themes run through everything: the team before the individual, learning as a system, and a professional platform—from local Docker development to automated delivery via GitLab CI. Add a monthly Innovation Day, strong community roots, and an onboarding program that runs for six months with a clear cadence.

At DevJobs.at, we listened closely. The throughline: supseven acts like a squad, invests deliberately in upskilling, prefers process clarity over heroics, leans into automation, and takes human qualities seriously. As Attila puts it:

Those two lines explain a lot about how supseven builds durable teams and resilient delivery.

Team structure: Backend, Frontend—and a dedicated TYPO3 operations function

Attila describes the engineering group as “classic” in its core roles—Backend and Frontend—while calling out a crucial difference: a dedicated role for TYPO3 Operations (also referred to as a TYPO3 sysadmin). That function exists because modern project setups have become complex enough that they can stall teams.

• Backend engineering
• Frontend engineering
• TYPO3 Operations (specialized infrastructure/admin for TYPO3)

If Docker on a laptop refuses to start or a local environment misbehaves, this colleague unblocks the path so feature development can continue. Attila is direct about the payoff: without this position, technical bottlenecks would slow the whole team because “the setup has become so complex.” In short, it’s DevEx by design.

Collaboration like football: The goal is collective delivery

supseven explicitly prefers team progress over a narrow focus on individual utilization:

The metaphor is clear and intentional: sometimes you’re the striker, sometimes the goalkeeper. Roles and intensity shift with the situation; what matters is shipping together.

Customer value as a structure principle

Attila emphasizes that the team’s structures are oriented toward customer value. That mindset shows up in the stack choices: automate delivery (GitLab CI), avoid manual pushes “for good reasons,” and tune infrastructure for performance (Redis cache with TYPO3). It’s a pragmatic way to keep projects fast, predictable, and scalable.

Learning as a system: Community engagement and a monthly Innovation Day

supseven is an agency—and unapologetically community-rooted. The team doesn’t just attend; they contribute.

• supseven hosts two TYPO3 events in Austria.
• Each year (pandemic aside), the entire development team travels together to the TYPO3 Developer Days in Karlsruhe.
• Once a month, the team runs an “Innovation Day,” a protected space for passion projects and training beyond client work.

The intent is simple and powerful: keep everyone “am Ball” (on the ball), create energy and cross-pollination, and maintain a habit of exploration. Attila notes that the feedback on this format is “very good,” which tracks with what we often see: learning sticks when it’s embedded as a recurring ritual, not a one-off perk.

Onboarding with cadence: Six months of structured support

One of the strongest signals in the talk is the depth of supseven’s onboarding process. It begins the moment a contract is signed—and runs for six months with a predefined rhythm.

Before Day 1: Ready desk, clear info, warm introduction

• Complete pre-setup of infrastructure—“Schreibtisch‑Ready”—so Day 1 is not blocked by environment work.
• Advance emails that clarify what the first day looks like.
• An invitation to meet the team before the official start, including a short profile (Steckbrief), so there’s “no cold start on Day 1.”

Week 1: Daily check-ins

• Each day includes onboarding touchpoints: Are you doing well? What do you need? Where can we support you? What’s missing? Did we overlook anything?
• Mutual expectations are made explicit: What is your role? What do we expect? What do you expect from us?

Weeks 2–4: Weekly onboarding sessions

• After the intensive first week, the cadence shifts to weekly—close enough to stay aligned, spacious enough to focus on work.

Months 2–6: Monthly onboarding sessions

• The final stretch continues monthly until the “hot phase” ends at six months.

The benefits are immediate: faster ramp-up, faster feedback in both directions, and a tangible sense of being “taken along.” Another outcome Attila highlights: the cadence helps detect interest shifts early and make adjustments quickly.

Role flexibility: From Frontend to TYPO3 integration—when strengths emerge

supseven has learned that the role you apply for and the role you thrive in can diverge. Someone might start in Frontend, then discover after four months that Backend or TYPO3 integration is a better fit—perhaps because a new teammate makes that domain especially engaging. The tight onboarding tempo makes those adjustments feasible “very quickly,” which keeps motivation high and skills aligned with real strengths.

This isn’t an edge case; it’s a healthy response to how people grow in hands-on environments.

Hiring stance: Human qualities before a perfect tech stack

Attila’s hiring philosophy is crisp:

The reasoning: with a solid technical base, people can learn; without the interpersonal foundation, teamwork will “usually” struggle. That pairs naturally with the football metaphor—roles change, intensities vary, respect is non-negotiable. It’s the human context that makes the system work.

The delivery stack: TYPO3 at the center, local Docker, GitLab CI automation, Redis for performance

Technically, supseven places TYPO3 at the core and builds a modern, automated pipeline around it.

• Local development on Docker images
• Automated pipelines on a GitLab CI server (manual pushes are avoided “for good reasons”)
• Frontend pipelines to manage asset builds
• Infrastructure tuned for performance, such as a Redis cache to deliver “high‑performance solutions”

Complexity acknowledged—and addressed

Attila is frank about the tradeoffs of modern engineering: complexity is rising. Colleagues who aren’t deeply focused on infrastructure will feel it. supseven’s answer is organizational: a dedicated colleague “exclusively” responsible for these topics who supports the dev team whenever local Docker or a development environment fails. It’s a deliberate investment in developer experience and flow.

Why supseven is compelling for tech talent

Everything Attila shared adds up to a culture where engineering and people practices reinforce each other. Clear reasons to pay attention:

• Real team culture: “We see ourselves as a football team”—finishing together beats busywork optics.
• Structured ramp-up: A six‑month onboarding with daily, weekly, and monthly cadences—plus thoughtful preboarding and explicit mutual expectations.
• Embedded learning: A monthly Innovation Day for passion projects and upskilling.
• Community roots: Two TYPO3 events in Austria hosted by supseven, and the annual team trip to TYPO3 Developer Days in Karlsruhe (pandemic aside).
• Modern delivery: Local Docker, GitLab CI, frontend pipelines, and infrastructure tuned for performance (e.g., Redis cache).
• Unblocked flow: A dedicated TYPO3 operations/sysadmin role to tackle infrastructure issues and remove bottlenecks.
• Role fluidity: Adjustments between Frontend, Backend, and TYPO3 integration when new strengths emerge.
• Values-led hiring: Human qualities come first—on top of a solid technical base.

Who will thrive here?

• Engineers who prefer to ship as a squad rather than optimize personal utilization.
• People who take TYPO3 seriously and want to understand the ecosystem deeply (or grow into it).
• Colleagues who value CI/CD discipline and the reliability of an automated, Docker-based setup.
• Learners who benefit from community events and recurring space for experiments.
• Teammates who appreciate explicit feedback loops and the option to navigate toward their best-fitting role.

What stood out to us in practice

• “No cold start on Day 1”: preboarding, a short profile, a prepared workstation and environment.
• Two-way expectation setting: not just “what we expect from you,” but also “what you expect from us.”
• Automation as principle: no manual pushes—GitLab CI owns the pipeline.
• Performance as design goal: Redis cache and thoughtful infrastructure for high performance.
• Complexity handled with structure: a dedicated operations role precisely because modern stacks demand it.

Closing thoughts: A system that delivers—and lets people grow

“Attila János, Founder von supseven” paints a coherent picture: a team that thinks like a good football side; a learning environment with clear rituals—community events, Innovation Days, and a six‑month onboarding cadence; and a delivery setup that combines local Docker development, GitLab CI automation, frontend pipelines, and performance tuning. All anchored in a people-first hiring stance.

For engineers who want to take responsibility, value collaborative delivery, and grow within a TYPO3‑first setup, this is an environment with substance. In Attila’s spirit: a place where every role matters, intensity shifts are normal, and the real win is the goal you score together.