Culture

Growing together

Of your working hours for learning: 10%
Learning budget per person, per year: €1,500
Nationalities in the team: 20
Training sessions a week with a personal trainer: 2×

The people

At El Niño, talent gets room to grow. You manage your own schedule, choose where you work and work with your team in a self-managing way. Our culture is safe, informal and no-nonsense: a place where everyone can be themselves.

We're also a community that looks after each other. There's a gym and a cinema at the office, and a personal trainer leads a workout twice a week, because a healthy body helps a healthy mind. We've travelled to a tech conference in Portugal together, we support Women in Tech, and we lecture at universities and colleges to share what we know.

We are self-driven

We work in self-driven squads: the team, not a manager, owns how the work gets done. As a senior you're not the one assigning tickets or running stand-ups. You're the one the team turns to when an architecture call needs to be made, when a client conversation gets technical, when a junior is stuck, or when something is on fire and someone needs to stay calm.

You're also expected to push back (on us, on the client, on the brief) when you think we're heading the wrong way. You're not a people manager, project manager or issue gatekeeper; we have other people for that. Your job is to do excellent work and make the work around you better.

What we value

Our core values

Our culture is deeply rooted in the belief that helping others learn and grow is essential. No matter the background, people will always share knowledge and insights. This collective growth empowers us to be the best possible partners for our customers.

Learn and grow
Learning and personal growth aren’t just encouraged — they’re at the core of who we are.
How we help our employees grow
- El Niño provides a learning budget for everyone, which you can spend on developing your skills
- We allocate 10% of the working hours to learning
- We are here to listen to our employees so that is why every 4 months we have a meeting to discuss their development
- We host internal ‘Lunch and Learns’ so we all get a share of the magic
- Join and maybe speak at one of our meetups at our office in Enschede.
Flexibility that actually fits a life
Our team includes parents, caregivers, hobbyists, athletes, and people who just value their evenings. We build work around that, not the other way around.
How we make our own work schedule
In practice that looks like:
- Leaving at 14:45 to pick up your kids from school, and finishing the day at home after dinner
- Taking a long lunch to get to a physio appointment, the gym, or just outside in the sun
- Working from Portugal for two weeks because your partner's there for a project
- Blocking a morning a week for deep work where Slack stays closed
- Going to the school play in the middle of the day without making it a thing
Hybrid by default, our Enschede and The Hague offices are there when you want them. Flexible hours within a reasonable core overlap so we can still collaborate. Part-time options available for the right role.
Diverse experiences
Gaining new experiences and sharing each other’s experiences is something that we love doing.
How we find ways to share experiences
- We use English as our main language of communication, as our team comes from all over the world
- There is a variety of projects we are working on
- We host meet-ups to connect with like-minded people
Adaptable environment
In a dynamic field, you need to be agile.
What we do to always adapt
- Listening to our employees ambitions and feedback is the first step we take
- We adapt based on our clients needs and style
- We have a flat-hierarchy: which ensures that everyone is approachable
Collaboration
No matter your role or experience, we value everyone's opinion.
How we work together
- We work in self-managed squads of people who actually know each other's work.
- Everyone's input is welcome and the people with the most relevant experience are expected to lead the thinking on their domain.
- Reviews are honest, feedback is direct, and nobody wins arguments by seniority alone. They win by being right.
Transparency
Only when everyone is involved, we can together build a better version of El Niño.
How we stay transparent
- We share realtime insights in company financials
- Transparent communication on goals and targets