This week, we are meeting Maxime Hilaire, Nuxeo’s Software Engineer. He is currently working from the Paris office, but will join us in New York very soon. As a new member of the Development Team, he is tasked with using his skills and expertise to make the Nuxeo platform better than it already is!
Here’s his story!
Q: How long have you been with Nuxeo and how’s your experience here so far? What is the most exciting thing you’ve worked on since getting here?
I have been working with Nuxeo for 3 months now and it has been a good experience. I had the opportunity to share a lot of technical skills and experiences with the Development Team. The team is very skilled and all the people are very involved and passionate about their work; just like me. So, I enjoy working with them and like the team. It is very exciting and challenging to develop and maintain the platform.
Currently, I am working on a new project called Nuxeo IDM. It’s a new Identity Management product based on the Nuxeo Platform that aim to delegate the management of users and groups in the platform. Unlike the standard users and groups in an LDAP directory, for example, the users are created as documents inside the repository. It’s the most exciting thing I have done until now. It’s a very challenging subject because I am using Nuxeo which is an ECM product to build something that is different than standard ECM project. We could handle this only because the Nuxeo platform is very flexible. So, it’s a very interesting job and I love it!
Q: Tell us a little about your background prior to joining Nuxeo.
I worked for 4 years in Toulouse, France, where I was a software engineer for Airbus CIMPA and developing web based tools for the Physical Engineer to manage technical documents and simulation data of the aircrafts. There was a huge amount of data to manage. The goal was to enable the physical and mechanical engineer to provide simulation data quickly, run calculations faster and take smarter decisions to improve the process used to design an aircraft. The project involved ECM and PLM applications. The technical aspect was very challenging because there were many users and security, regularity and sustainability were crucial. It would be a disaster if an application lost any aircraft data. An aircraft has a life of about 30 years. We had to manage that data and be familiar with the technologies that had been used over that period. It wasn’t easy but it was exciting.
Q: You have worked extensively in the ECM market before. How is this experience helping you in mastering the Nuxeo Platform? How do you feel Nuxeo compares to the industry?
In my previous company, I had the chance to implement many ECM solutions for different functional use cases. So, now I am more comfortable with ECM standards and principles, and can provide Enterprise Content Management software to any given use case more quickly. I know what is needed to build an ECM application, both the functional and the technical aspect. So, when I hear the functional requirements from someone, I immediately know whether those requirements can be implemented in the ECM system or not. My previous experience in this market has definitely helped me to be more efficient here.
Of all the ECM applications that I have developed so far, I am very surprised to see how easily customizable the Nuxeo platform is - thanks to Nuxeo Studio. I think Nuxeo Studio is a very powerful system that allows people to quickly customize the things that they need in Nuxeo. It helped me save a lot of time in developing business apps, which I am doing a lot currently. I just regret not having this kind of functionality in my previous experience. Also, as the product is open source, it allows us to dig deep into the code and explore, which I like.
Q: Being a software developer, how do you keep up with the new and changing technologies?
I always try to use and explore new technologies, and in my experience the best place to learn new technologies is in a startup environment. In the big industries, it is more difficult to learn new technologies because they mostly use former technologies for sustainability reasons. I think that Nuxeo is the right place for me to be in to keep up with new technologies. Its the best place to learn because Nuxeo is built with new technologies, such as Redis, mongoDB and ElasticSearch. I had never used any of these systems before- just used to read about them in the technical website . But now, I am very happy that I am getting a chance to work with the Dev team and use these technologies.
Q: You are moving to New York soon. Are you excited about it?
Yes, of course! Sometime back, my girlfriend and I were searching for new jobs and we weren’t sure where to go. We wanted to work somewhere in Australia, Canada or the United States but getting a visa isn’t easy in the US. So, I was almost sure that we would work in Australia with a working holiday visa.
It’s very amazing because we never imagined that we could work in New York City. We were very lucky because she found a job in a French company which has a subsidiary in New York and Nuxeo also has it’s office there. It’s a great thing that we both found jobs at the same time in the city.
So, I am now at the final stage of getting the visa and hopefully will be there in New York in 2 weeks!
Q: What do you like to do in your free time?
Maxime on a road trip in Corsica
I love to go swimming with the (Nuxeo) French Team during lunch. We are building a swim team to get ready for the next Olympics! (just kidding). I try to get as many colleagues to join as possible, and to make sure that they don’t forget, I send them a reminder every Wednesday and Friday before we leave. We swim for 30 mins (about 1 km) and it’s really relaxing. It’s a good break from sitting in front of the computers and staring at the screens for long.
I also love to dance Salsa and Rock. I have been dancing Salsa for the last 5 years and me and my girlfriend took lessons. We try our best to find good places to practice together. I am looking forward to moving to New York and explore new places for Salsa dancing with her.
Maxime sailing
I like to go on rides on my motorcycle. 2 years ago, I went on a 600 mile road trip on my motorcycle in Corsica, which is the most beautiful coastal area I have ever seen. We weren’t very lucky with the weather though. We were camping and it wasn’t fun to be in a tent when there was a storm raging outside it! It was a good trip overall, the bikes didn’t give us any trouble and we covered a lot of places in 2 weeks.
I love travelling too, and last year I went to canada for a month and covered all the places in the east coast. It was a very good trip and may be this is why I began to think of moving to Canada or The US.
Sailing is another thing that I love. I have 2 sailing licenses - one to sail near the coast and the other for sailing across the ocean. I have done a lot of sailing along the coast but didn’t get a chance to sail across oceans yet. Since I studied in Université de La Rochelle, near the sea, I had the chance to sail around La Rochelle every Thursday evening. I fell in love with the sea and may be someday I can own my own boat and travel around the world in it. For now, I hope to go sailing somewhere with the Nuxeo US Team once I get there!