Meet Danilo Paje, our Chief Information Officer and discover what makes our IT team tick
• 2 min read
Our IT team includes a team of programmers, analysts and general IT support staff, headed by our Chief Information Officer, Danilo Paje. We spoke to Danilo who told us all about the challenges, opportunities and why passion for technology is key.
What is your background, and how did you get into tech?
Back in the dark ages I graduated with a Bachelor degree in Computer Engineering (laughs). When I graduated, I was very briefly a high school teacher teaching Chemistry and Physics. I lasted a month! Those teachers deserve a medal.
Teaching was not for me, so I looked for other opportunities. I already had a passion for computers, especially development. I worked in Saudi Arabia where I developed payroll systems and networked computers in hotels. This progressed to working as a developer for Saudi banks, which led to opportunities working in a range of IT roles in Australia, including at AGI. The rest, as they say, is history.
What does an average day in the IT team look like?
An average day in the IT team can be quite diverse. There is always the BAU ‘business as usual’ tasks to take care of; making sure all inhouse applications are up and running and well-maintained. We provide daily IT support to users at AGI – logins, emails, everything they need to make sure they can do their jobs properly. A large part of our work is dedicated to enhancements to our applications. Our users are always making suggested enhancements to our applications and platforms which we work to implement wherever possible. Finally, we’re also busy creating a number of web applications which are all being developed in house.
What is your team currently working on?
The team have a number of exciting projects in the pipeline which we are busy preparing for, where we are working with various partners to create bespoke web applications. And we are always busy with our maintenance work, right now we are working on transitioning to shared mailboxes which is a big piece of work that requires changes to all our inhouse desktop and web applications.
What is the most challenging aspect of being part of the IT team?
One of the most challenging aspects for our team is keeping abreast of new technology. We feel AGI are leading the way on this front; however, we never take this for granted and are always looking to learn and improve.
We are continuously upskilling; we subscribe to professional development resources and with my guidance, the team also conducts ongoing training and research to assist with their roles. We are always seeking areas to improve on, web design being one of them. We have recently partnered with design UX/UI specialists to improve our skills in this area.
What advice would you have for someone who would like to work on the IT team?
You must be willing to constantly learn and have a tremendous passion for technology. This is non-negotiable. IT is a service – an indispensable one and businesses cannot operate without it, so deliverables are important. You need to be focussed on delivery, you need to be flexible, work hard to source solutions for various stakeholders and importantly always be willing to learn and adapt.
Thankfully, learning is quite fun and being able to help the team with their needs is super rewarding.