Fearless is helping this SRE go beyond her current role

The latter ultimately led Rayemo, a site reliability engineer (SRE), to Fearless. The company, based in Downtown Baltimore, is a full-stack digital services firm dedicated to mission-focused clients, such as those in the government, healthcare and nonprofit sectors.

“I couldn’t really pursue art full-time because, as you can imagine, my immigrant parents are just like, ‘Yeah, we didn’t send you to this country for art,’” said Rayemo, who received a degree in information systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “I also realized I enjoy working with computers. As a kid, whenever something went down, I would always be the one that would do the research and figure out how to get it started again.”

Outside of work, she enjoys working on splash art installations about characters she created as a kid. But as an SRE at Fearless, Rayemo is focused on projects like an E-Verify program for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which helps immigrants certify their identity so they can learn what benefits are available to them in the US.

With a current focus on government work, the company graduated from its federal 8(a) Business Development program at the end of 2022 and has a mission to cultivate “purpose-driven” employees.

“Being a purpose-driven software engineer gives me a sense of fulfillment that can only be achieved in knowing that what you’re actually clocking in to do is something that can help many lives and has a purpose that you can be proud of, like the work Fearless does,” Rayemo said.

As for the work’s logistics, Rayemo uses a tech stack that includes the cloud-focused Amazon Web Services; Terraform, a cloud-agnostic server that allows SREs to write script that maintains sites’ infrastructure; Docker, which allows Rayemo to containerize applications; and software that helps her troubleshoot, such as New Relic and Splunk.

Technical.ly sat down with Rayemo, soon after her first anniversary with Fearless in March, to learn more about her initial interest in the company and what she’s looking forward to (and for more on Rayemo, check out this LinkedIn live conversation between her and Fearless CEO Delali Dzirasa on Monday, April 17).

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What drew you to Fearless?

My friend from college actually works at Fearless and always talked about the camaraderie he enjoys here, and now we sit next to each other at work, so that’s fun. Once I started interviewing at the company, I was drawn in by the people I spoke to and their welcoming personalities.

That continued when I was onboarding. They want you to meet everyone, including people in PeopleOps, the operations team and even the CEO or COO. I’ve never had that kind of contact across the whole organization in my previous jobs. I barely knew what the face of the company was unless I looked it up myself. They take the time out of their busy schedules to meet a single engineer, so it was a very interesting and enlightening onboarding process.

Having just passed your first anniversary, what do you look forward to at Fearless?

Definitely elevating to a more senior role.

My real excitement is the opportunity to teach other people what I’ve learned here. I tend to simplify things so I understand. I ask myself, “Can I actually explain this to a five-year-old?” If I can’t, I don’t understand it well enough yet. I feel like that’s a helpful approach when you’re explaining a concept to someone else, so being more senior is a way for me to actually teach someone at face value and not scare them off with terminology. I’d like to emulate that so other people don’t feel intimidated when they come in.

How does the company support your professional development?

Fearless has a culture and leadership philosophy that prioritizes learning employees’ goals and helping them get there. During an assessment, I shared about wanting to be in a more senior position. Because of that, I have a very clear idea of what I need to accomplish and what a realistic timeline is.

For people interested in Fearless, what’s the most important thing to know about the company?

Fearless places value on actually making a difference. It’s rare to find in an employer and it earns my utmost respect. There’s pride in knowing that Fearless would steer away from projects that go against their values of making a positive impact, and knowing that it’s not just about profit. It’s about serving the mission of making “software with a soul”. It’s a very empowering thing, knowing that my personal values align with the company’s and the many people that make up that company.

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This article is sponsored by Fearless and was reviewed before publication. Fearless is a Technical.ly Talent Builder client.