When you work at LawIQ, it’s not unusual to find the kind of people who love what they do and are discovering something new each day.

Take Christian Hogan, lead software engineer at the SaaS company which delivers new data-rich regulatory and legal intelligence to the energy industry and its financial industry stakeholders. Hogan, who began working with LawIQ as a student and went full-time after graduation, lives and breathes tech inside and outside of work.

“When I get home, I hang out with my fiancé and then just jump into research or a book,” said Hogan. “I’m always exploring things: new programming languages, pieces of infrastructure, trends.”

That curious, self-driven mentality is a spot-on representation of LawIQ’s company values. Working between headquarters in D.C. and offices in Hunt Valley, Md., and Denver, its growing and dynamic team is a mix of highly skilled attorneys, data scientists, energy analysts, engineers and MBAs that share Hogan’s passion for learning.

“[At LawIQ] you will learn as much as you can handle. Any initiative you want to tackle — it’s all there for the taking. It’s only bounded by your willingness to take it,” said Hogan.

We sat down with Hogan to learn more about the culture at LawIQ and his role within the thriving startup.

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Tell us about a typical day in your life as lead software engineer.

I get to work just before 9, which is when we have our standup. These are 15 minutes long and include the entire tech team — contractors, project managers, etc., and are really good for providing us with direction and daily priorities.

Overall, I’m responsible for coordinating most of the efforts of the dev team. Throughout the day I resolve roadblocks, have conversations with production, catch up with Terry MacGregor (our CTO), and answer the team’s questions about the Agile process or anything technical. Our team is full of pretty hardcore devs. They knock out tickets. I also do a lot of development myself.

What is the culture like at LawIQ?

We’re hardworking and focused. We have very high standards and our culture drives people to perform really well. You can’t cruise here, it’s hard work. But you will definitely have the opportunity to learn a lot on the job.

Also, we’re small and nimble, so there are no hard and fast lines around your role. LawIQ is very flexible and accommodating when folks want to learn or pick up new roles. It’s not somewhere where you are siloed in sprint cycles, just writing code all day. It is also gratifying to know our software is used by customers to make high stakes decisions.

For instance, I get to wear many hats, which I like. I get to interact with our customers and help drive the direction of some of our products. I like having a lot of accountability for the immediate scope of work I do and also for a few collateral tasks. I’ve had the opportunity to do a lot of different things and I value that.

For being a small company working out of multiple offices, what are the relationships like on the team?

We’re like a family. It’s good. On the technical team I can literally turn around in my chair and chat with my teammates.

Our tech team is based just north of Baltimore — with a handful of contractors in Argentina — and our subject matter experts and commercial team are based in D.C. Everyone is entrenched in the sprint process and we’re always chatting on Slack and doing daily standups.

In the Baltimore office, we almost always go out to lunch as a team. We also do happy hours most Fridays.

What are LawIQ’s plans for growth?

We’re trying to put ourselves in a position to grow aggressively in the next couple of years. We’re planning on making multiple hires in the next six months. As our revenue grows, we’ll keep working hard to bring new people in.

What do you look for from job candidates?

Most importantly, folks need to be curious. They need to be willing to learn on their own. They should also be strong communicators who can collaborate with a team.

Overall, we’re looking for people with a strong work ethic, who are dedicated to the work, take pride in their craft and believe in our mission.

Learn more about working at LawIQ