Peter Arbitter is Senior Vice President for Portfolio & Product Management for national business customers. He is looking for new team members to expand Software-Defined business models and all related activities throughout the sales, portfolio, delivery, and production supply chain. We spoke about what his work involves and his team's responsibilities.
Mr. Arbitter, please tell us a bit about your unit.
Peter Arbitter: The SD-X global business unit has end-to-end responsibility – from product development right through to sales and production – for our connectivity business. That includes conventional MPLS networks, but also focuses on new software-defined architectures, better known as SD-WAN, SD-LAN and SD-WLAN.
Which topics and projects will new employees be working on in your team?
Peter Arbitter: Our projects have a broad and diverse scope as we look at our business from sales through to product development and on to production or even throughout the complete life cycle – starting with the initial product idea right through to its launch and day-to-day support.
- The product development team works very closely with the sales team, our internal IT team and the production units as well as technology partners such as Cisco, Juniper, VMWare, Netcracker, and ServiceNow.
- Sales support involves supporting and enabling the sales units by way, for example, of webinars, podcasts, community support, and sales management. We are also directly involved in larger customer projects.
- Production-related projects focus, in the case of underlay services, on issues concerning our backbone as well as the international last mile.
Why should experts choose to join the SD-X global business unit? What makes your unit special?
Peter Arbitter: Because it is one of the top B2B topics for Telekom Deutschland and is being invested in massively. It also has a high level of attention from the Board of Management as a result. Employees really get the opportunity to shape the digital future using modern, innovative technologies with us. Not for the sake of doing so, but to add value in collaboration with our business customers.
What strengths and skills are you looking for in future employees?
Peter Arbitter: Technical expertise is important to us, which is why we are also looking for external additions to the team. But their mindset is even more important – a creative drive, an entrepreneurial way of thinking and acting combined with the ability to see and approach projects in a holistic way. These skills are vital in our team.
How do you onboard new recruits in your team?
Peter Arbitter: We have an onboarding plan and each new hire is assigned a buddy when they join. As we have already launched lots of projects, onboarding is done directly on the job rather than in a theoretical way.
Can you give us a personal insight into your team to finish up with? What would surprise someone about you as a boss or your team? What wouldn't they expect?
Peter Arbitter: Despite the fact that direct personal contact is or was hardly possible during the pandemic, we are still full of energy and like to have a good time. We use the digital and virtual tools we have available to foster team collaboration. We are planning our first off-site meeting and a barbecue event soon. With us, it's results that count rather than hierarchy. The team has been surprised in the past when I've turned up to the office on a motorcycle and walked into the meeting wearing a Harley shirt. Thankfully, I'll be able to that more often again soon!
Have we sparked your interest?
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