Cross-Functional Teams, .NET 9, and DevOps: Inside the Engineering Culture at WKO Inhouse — Insights from “Dominik Amon, Senior Software Engineer bei WKO Inhouse”

Why this session matters to engineers

From the DevJobs.at editorial seat, “Dominik Amon, Senior Software Engineer bei WKO Inhouse” offered a crisp walkthrough of how a software organization evolves when it grows, modernizes its stack, and aligns culture with delivery. The arc Dominik Amon traces is concrete: away from silos, toward cross-functional teams; away from manual, role-split deployments, toward DevOps and containers; and from early .NET experiments to today’s work on the latest version.

In this recap, we summarize what we observed across team structure, hiring expectations, day-to-day collaboration, and the modernization agenda that sets the tone at WKO Inhouse.

From classic silos to cross-functional teams

Amon describes the organizational shift plainly. In the early years, roles were split into separate groups: engineering, testing, project management. Coordination cost time, energy, and focus. As WKO Inhouse grew, the team recognized a better way: cross-functional teams that house all the responsibilities required to ship.

The outcome is practical and measurable:

• Reduced coordination overhead.
• Faster response to change.
• Decisions made within the team, not across organizational boundaries.

Amon labels these teams as lean and very agile—not as a buzzword, but as a direct consequence of collapsing role boundaries inside a single unit.

Team size and structure

• Teams typically consist of 10 to 20 people.
• There are multiple teams with different scopes.
• Amon works in the base architecture team, responsible for the framework architecture used by all applications. This team introduces new technologies and supports DevOps topics, acting as an enabler for product teams.
• Additional teams focus on business applications, especially when it comes to publishing applications externally.

The structure is clear: a dedicated architecture backbone ensures consistency and platform quality, while product teams stay focused on domain outcomes and delivery.

Culture: Self-sufficiency, curiosity, and sound judgment

Amon returns to one theme repeatedly: how people work. Two traits stand out—self-sufficiency and curiosity.

He probes this in interviews through a practical question:

Amon points out the two extremes to avoid:

• Only searching the web and spinning wheels for days.
• Asking questions for every small issue and never building momentum.

The signal is clear: judgment is a skill. Knowing when to research independently and when to ask for help is essential to productive engineering and to the shared responsibility culture WKO Inhouse cultivates.

Two decades of .NET: from version 1.0 alpha to today’s .NET 9

For Microsoft-stack engineers, Amon’s timeline is striking. WKO Inhouse has worked with .NET since 2002, starting with version 1.0 alpha—a phase marked by scarce documentation and incomplete error descriptions. That early-stage learning mindset persists: today, the organization is on .NET 9 and aims to stay at the cutting edge.

Reality, however, is not greenfield-only. Some systems still run on .NET 4, and the teams are migrating them step by step.

For developers, this combination is attractive:

• You can work with current .NET versions.
• You can contribute to pragmatic modernization—moving large systems forward responsibly, not just building new.

DevOps and containers: rethinking deployment and responsibility

Amon draws a vivid before-and-after picture of deployments:

For engineers, this shift means:

• Greater emphasis on automation and reproducibility.
• A more porous line between development and operations.
• Real migration work for existing apps and container-native patterns for new ones.

This is a genuine learning curve. It invites engineers to revisit old assumptions, refine deployment practices, and build empathy for operational concerns—without abandoning delivery pace.

Hiring: how candidates meet the team

Amon outlines a straightforward process.

• WKO Inhouse sources candidates via career portals and referrals.
• The first contact is through HR.
• From there, the process moves into the teams:

1. A team lead sync with the candidate to align on requirements and expectations.
2. An online appointment and a second appointment follow if there’s a good initial fit.
3. A final on-site conversation includes the relevant team lead and colleagues from the area the new hire will join.
4. Domain-specific questions are welcome—both ways. Candidates meet future peers and can clarify interests early.

The intent is transparency: candidates see and speak with the people they’ll work with, not just a separate hiring function.

Onboarding: structure plus a buddy

Amon also highlights how new colleagues get started:

• HR hosts several sessions to introduce the organization and processes.
• A buddy helps navigate the first weeks—names, tools, repositories, and the structure of day-to-day work.

The goal is to help people become self-sufficient quickly while ensuring they are not left alone to figure things out.

Collaboration model: architecture as an enabler for product teams

WKO Inhouse’s base architecture team plays a strategic role:

• Owns the framework architecture for all applications.
• Introduces new technologies and accompanies DevOps topics.
• Supports product teams as they build and ship.

Meanwhile, application teams focus on business outcomes and on publishing applications externally. The division of labor keeps standards consistent while allowing domain teams to move fast.

Why WKO Inhouse is compelling for tech talent

From Amon’s account, several selling points emerge for engineers evaluating their next step:

• Cross-functional ownership: decisions and delivery live inside the team—less waiting on other departments.
• Modern .NET work: build with .NET 9 while tackling .NET 4 migrations—learn both the new and the necessary.
• DevOps journey: hands-on experience moving to container technology and blurring dev/ops boundaries.
• Culture of judgment: self-sufficiency and curiosity are not slogans—they shape how work gets done.
• Structured onboarding: HR provides organizational grounding, and a buddy speeds up learning the ropes.
• Architecture backbone: a dedicated team keeps the platform cohesive so product teams don’t have to reinvent fundamentals.

What WKO Inhouse expects from candidates

Amon’s expectations are candid and practical. Candidates should bring:

• Curiosity: a genuine desire to explore and learn—especially crucial in software engineering.
• Self-sufficiency: the intent to become productive and take ownership fast.
• Judgment: the ability to decide when to research (including search engines or AI tools) and when to tap a colleague.
• Modernization mindset: an appetite for moving legacy to contemporary architectures.
• Openness to DevOps and containers: interest in working across the traditional dev/ops boundary.
• Team orientation: comfort with peer conversations—both in the interview process and in everyday work.

Learning in motion: growth through modernization

Without resorting to buzzwords, Amon’s story is one of continuous improvement. For individual growth, that translates into:

• Sustained technology depth: over 20 years on .NET, plus a readiness to adopt the latest versions.
• Migration skill: refactoring and stepwise modernization as part of the core craft.
• Operational empathy: DevOps and containers invite engineers to understand the run-time realities of their software.
• Cross-team collaboration: the base architecture team as a partner ensures standards and accelerates adoption of new tech.

The result is a steep, relevant learning curve—demanding, but directly beneficial to craftsmanship and impact.

Looking ahead: continuous modernization and the role of AI

Amon acknowledges the road ahead. Containerization remains a priority, and artificial intelligence will influence the work over the next five to ten years.

For teams, that means WKO Inhouse will stay close to technologies that reshape how software is designed, built, and operated—from build pipelines to everyday engineering tools.

The recruiting experience as a cultural signal

The process Amon outlines is also a message:

• HR as the first step clarifies context and structure.
• Team leads and peers engage early, aligning expectations and exploring fit.
• Real conversations with future colleagues reduce surprises and ease the transition once hired.

This mirrors the organizational model: the unit you’ll join plays a central role in the decision—professional and respectful.

Our takeaways from “Dominik Amon, Senior Software Engineer bei WKO Inhouse”

• Structure over silos: Cross-functional teams turn coordination into speed.
• Technology seriousness: two decades of .NET, now on .NET 9, with meaningful modernization work.
• DevOps as practice: containerization and blurred dev/ops boundaries influence daily engineering.
• People first: self-sufficiency, curiosity, and sound judgment are core expectations.
• Onboarding that works: HR structure plus a buddy shortens time to impact.

Conclusion: An environment for builders with ownership and taste for modernization

If you prefer building software with a team rather than across organizational walls—and if you want to work on current .NET while responsibly modernizing legacy—WKO Inhouse offers a strong match. The combination of a supportive architecture backbone, cross-functional teams, a DevOps mindset, and clear expectations around autonomy paints a picture of professional, grounded engineering.

The throughline in “Dominik Amon, Senior Software Engineer bei WKO Inhouse” is continuous improvement—across technology, processes, and collaboration. For tech talent eager to contribute and learn at the same time, that’s a compelling proposition.

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