Employee Spotlight: Rihards Gravis

Name: Rihards Gravis

Location: Cēsis, Latvia

Position: Senior Front-end Developer

It’s an ordinary day in a medieval Latvian town called Cēsis. Rihards Gravis has started his workday with a cup of coffee while chatting with his teammates about today’s priorities and possible pain points. After the morning routines, he usually dives into focus time with software development, but today we’re going to look back at how it all started and how his journey has been at Robocorp.

If you’ve ever used Robocorp’s tools, you’ve probably witnessed Rihards’ fingerprints on every product built. Today, he is leading the front-end development of our newest and most anticipated product – Automation Studio. It’s the first code-native, low-code RPA development solution that offers a simple way for both citizen and professional developers to automate their organizations’ processes.

Computers have been in his life since he was eight, when his father introduced him to Norton Commander and Pascal. Rihards started his career as a software designer, soon realizing that software development was where he was in his element. Before joining Robocorp, he worked in multiple roles at various tech companies and even had his own startup. The first touch with Robocorp was in Slush 2019, where he had a quick interview with Robocorp’s CEO, Antti. In a split second, it was clear that Rihards’ skills and attitude would be a perfect fit with Robocorp, so his journey as a Robonaut began!

– I interviewed just one person that day and immediately saw that Rihards had incredible drive and potential. It took 15 minutes to turn the conversation into a pitch about why he needed to join the company. (Antti Karjalainen, CEO & Founder, Robocorp)

Nearly three years have passed since Rihards joined Robocorp, which can be considered a long time being part of a startup. Over the years, he has been experiencing the turmoils of a Silicon Valley-based startup backed by some of the best VCs around the world. Yet, Rihards feels that Robocorp is the friendliest and most inclusive, down-to-earth workplace, where you can achieve a healthy work-life balance despite the hard-working and high-paced environment.

– Healthy work-life balance is one of the most outstanding features here compared to other companies. Sure, it’s a hard-working culture with high goals and ambition levels, but everyone here takes responsibility for their work and looks out for each other. Robocorp is the first company where these two balance out in a good way.

Rihards highlights that one of the best parts of working at Robocorp is team culture, where people have enough autonomy to make work efficient, and colleagues are all on the same level. “Usually, I like to start my days at the same time but have flexibility on when, where, and how I like to work for the rest of the day. The most important thing, of course, is to get things done, but at the same time, I can do personal things during the day if I need to.” Rihards clarifies. “On a regular day, I don’t get too many interruptions, which is always great for a developer like me. I get to concentrate on bringing designs to life, brainstorming on new features, and squashing the odd bug,” he adds.

Out of the office, Rihards is a family man living with his wife and two kids. Rihards likes to challenge himself, and recently he volunteered at a local school where he taught programming to kids. Mushrooms have also been a long-time interest of Rihards. The hobby grew so dear that he decided to build a mushroom laboratory in his home. “It was a hard decision to have either sauna or laboratory in the basement. My Finnish colleagues will understand the sacrifice,” he laughs. Today, his home lab blossoms with various kinds of oyster mushrooms and some exotic ones like Lion’s Mane.

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