A day in the life of Director of IT Doug Innocenti
What's it like to work at MoonPay? Here's a look into Director of IT Doug Innocenti’s experience.
By Doug Innocenti
About me
I’m Doug and I am the Director of Information Technology Services at MoonPay, residing in the United States.
My IT journey began in the financial services sector 29 years ago. Through these years, my career spanned various roles in IT, including positions in Engineering, Architecture and Senior Leadership, and the last six months with MoonPay have been the most thrilling.
When I am not working on building a world class IT experience for MoonPay, I like to travel. I have been spending the past few years traveling to some of the most incredible National Parks, where my cell phone does not work and I can reset my mind.
What does your typical day look like?
This is a humorous question because a typical day does not exist in my world. Each day is different, filled with new challenges or opportunities to come up with a new solution, resolve a larger issue, or deliver something to your business partners that helps them do better in their job.
The “typical” day starts with waking up before 7 AM and getting that first cup of coffee – the lifeblood for someone who works in IT. And that’s about where the typical day ends, because as soon as you look at your phone or your computer, there will be something that completely upends your day. These new priorities have you playing a game of tetris with the meetings on your calendar, moving them around so they all fit together.
From running between meetings, to talking with vendors, to sorting through objectives with my leadership team, the day is nonstop. Throughout all of this, Slack messages are going off with updates on projects, new requests, and messages between team members, all scattered across the three monitors on my desk (the standard designed for IT professionals).
Some might think this sounds like chaos but it's not. As you watch what’s going on you see the patterns emerging and those patterns become the next project or issue to resolve. This is what makes the role so great! The possibilities are endless.
What do you love about Information Technology?
The best thing is actually the worst thing, which is that IT is a 24x7 responsibility. The fact that your head must completely swivel at all times looking at all the different angles and facets of the decisions that need to be made across the entire organization, while extremely challenging, is also incredibly exciting.
To hold a position such as this means the company has entrusted you with the day-to-day systems and operations of the business. The decisions we make, whether it's ensuring daily tools such as email and Slack are configured properly, or that the hundreds of Zoom meetings work exactly as they should, takes a delicate symphony to ensure a single misplaced note doesn’t ruin the experience.
IT, in my opinion, is the circuitry that keeps all parts of the company moving in the right direction.
How and why did you end up joining MoonPay?
I decided to make the leap from corporate life to a startup, where I experienced a whole new side of IT. The move from an environment of extended planning and little action, to one full of speed and agile creativity, stretched my knowledge of systems and made me remember why I got into this space to begin with.
After two and half years, along with the stress from the environment and the impact of Covid, it was time to make a change. I was at a crossroads: do I return to the core of my prior professional career or do I look forward? The opportunity at MoonPay to build a team from the ground up was such an intriguing and exciting possibility that I just could not say no. And to enter a company that would allow me to merge both my financial services and technology services backgrounds into an industry-best operation was the icing on the cake! This, coupled with the chance to work with an inspiring team, was an opportunity I could not pass by.
What do you love about working at MoonPay?
Hands down, the best thing about working at MoonPay is the people. Every day my team and I face new opportunities to further hone our operations and expand the technology footprint of the organization. Who wouldn’t get excited about working on some of the most cutting edge technologies every day?
What makes the role even more exciting is the fact that we started with a blank slate. Before I arrived at MoonPay, there was no IT team and the team that I have constructed, along with the technological decisions we’ve made, is enabling MoonPay to grow and scale faster than it has in the past. To see something take shape and grow is an amazing feeling and makes me want to come to work every day. It’s this energy that I want to instill in my team.
What’s an exciting challenge you’ll face in your role over the next 6-12 months?
Determining how to further augment and build the systems to support the scale and growth of the entire company, while at the same time taking into account individual team needs and how they all fit together.
Making strategic decisions on which new technology to use and which legacy technology to sunset over the next 6-12 months will be fundamental to how we assess the company and its goals to grow.
Each day brings a new challenge, but with the stellar team that I have and the support of leadership, I don’t think there’s anything we can’t accomplish.
Find me on LinkedIn if you’re interested in joining MoonPay’s Information technology team or would like to collaborate on future projects.
Doug Innocenti
What roles are MoonPay hiring for right now?
MoonPay is currently hiring for open roles so be sure to regularly check our careers page. This is a wonderful opportunity to be part of the MoonPay team and create your own unique and exceptional experience!
