Meet the Team: Matias Baldi, Regional Director of Latin America
What does leadership look like at an international software company? For Matias Baldi, Regional Director of Latin America, it means collaborating with his teams, sharing his ideas and opinions, and encouraging employees to reach their fullest potential. After over a decade of leadership in the IT industry, he joined Softensity to lead the Latin American teams.
When he’s not onboarding new team members or teaching a technology class, Matias takes cooking classes and plays the piano. He’s a very social person, so working with a big team that feels like family is perfect for him.
What does your day-to-day look like as the Regional Director of Latin America?
I have a hand in all of the processes in Latin America, and I work closely with Monika and other leaders. That means I’m involved in hiring and staffing efforts, account delivery, overseeing the different communities, managing our bench, and onboarding new people.
I’m also in touch with clients to make sure everything is going right on our end, and to see if there’s anything I can do to make things go smoother. Sometimes I even work with the sales team to train them on technical terms (like different tech stacks) they might need to know, or to put together proposals for clients.
What is the IT industry like in Latin America? Is it growing or changing?
From my perspective, the market in Latin America is growing a lot because we have a very strong talent pool. All the countries have a strong work culture, so people are really committed to their jobs.
For the last 10 or so years, we’ve grown with both local companies and external companies looking for resources in Latin America. American, European, and Asian countries especially started working here around five or six years ago — and it’s great to share our talent with basically the whole world.
What is your leadership style? How do you incorporate that into your role at Softensity?
I like to be close to the people but not micromanage everybody. I’m happy to help team members innovate, sort out their tasks, and make sure that everyone is aligned in their goals and direction. I hope everyone thinks of me as their partner who can help them wherever they need. This allows me pretty good visibility into projects, so I’m able to find places to improve, try new processes, and fill in gaps.
I also try to empower everyone to do their best, celebrate their achievements, and grow in their career, so I am often coaching them. I love teaching, and I even teach a technology class on shape processes and agile methodologies at a university here in Argentina. Coaching and providing guidance allows each team member to grow, which in turn helps me grow as a leader.
What is the most rewarding part of leading the Latin American community?
We get to make an impact on the operation of the company, and we have the ability to really innovate. Whether it’s creating a different delivery model or finding a different way to address the daily activities of the company, it’s great that we’re able to implement our ideas and provide a great experience for everyone, including leadership, employees, and clients.
How has Softensity supported your growth professionally?
In my experience, Softensity has made me feel heard and involved in a lot of discussions, and they provide a lot of opportunities to propose your ideas. I’m comfortable throwing out a new implementation or improvement because I know I have people who support me and wouldn’t judge me. It’s a great feeling to know that you’re an important part of decision-making. They care about your opinions, and working at Softensity has really built up my confidence in presenting my opinions and ideas for new processes.
What advice would you give to someone who’s interested in a career in IT leadership?
My advice would be to be a nice person, because at the end of the day that is what people will remember about you. If you’re helpful, a good listener, and a good coworker, people will notice and return the favor. And, of course, train to be a good coder as well.
As a leader, you need to think of yourself as just one piece of the team that is there to build everyone up and create positive change. The goal of any leader really is to help your team grow and encourage them to take on new challenges. If you do it right, your team members go on to be leaders themselves, which is a huge achievement to me.