Team Spotlight: MPL or Message Protection Lab — protecting customers 24/7

We have launched the Meet the Griffins Series two years ago to shine the light on our talents that make Axway so unique.

Better together is an undeniable part of our company’s culture where collaboration, collective inventiveness, and helping each other is a way of life.

So, we not only want to present our great Griffins which are examples of commitment, achievement, and work ethic, but also the teams that make the better together even more resonating.

We are happy to introduce our very first Team Spotlight and present to you the MPL or Message Protection Lab based in our Sofia office. Buckle up and be ready for the ride.

The team: A diverse and unique combination of education, technical expertise, and hobbies

We have heard about the MPL team, so we met with Diana, the manager of the team, to understand the uniqueness of the team. We were simply dazzled.

“We have some very young and some very experienced engineers, but they are all very talented and competent. And it’s a treasure to have this extraordinary melting pot co-existing, co-working, and co-creating together.“

The team is impressive and very eclectic in regard to their interests and extra work activities. One thing is for sure: there is always something new to learn while discussing with each other.

For example, Yuliya is in charge of the technical aspect of our job and manages any urgencies the team may have. She will soon finish his Ph.D. in Building, Securing, and Improving MANETs.

The other technical guru is Radoslav, a computer engineer with a passion for computer games and Anime. Radoslav even learned some Japanese to be more in the phase of his passion.

He now has a younger “soulmate” on the team, Kaloyan, an Electrotechnical Engineer with a great interest in new technologies and Anime.

Yuliyan is an engineer with a degree in Japanese studies. He is also interested in notaphily, collecting old and precious banknotes.

Mariyana, another member of our team has a degree in Mass Communications. She used to be an English teacher, but is now a successful engineer who is keen on photography.

Mariya has a degree in Chinese studies. In her spare time, she loves running and visiting different mountains and has already climbed about 10+ 4000m peaks.

Another member of the team, Georgi, is a former football player with a degree in Informatics. We have an Aviation technics and technology engineer, Stefan, and another one — Martin, with a Master’s degree in Automation, Information, and Control Engineering.

They are both very interested in sports, mainly football, playing and watching. Peter, an expert in Spanish and Portuguese languages, used to play basketball and is now training for a marathon.

Even the youngest member of our team — Petar, is dealing with studying Computer Science, being part of different charity events, and playing musical instruments.

The origin of the team

The team was born when one of Axway’s solutions, MailGate, was created. Axway MailGate SC provides multiple tiers of security that can be used individually, or in combination, to block threats at the DMZ and within the enterprise network, and secure inbound and outbound email traffic at the content and network levels.

The team is responsible for developing and releasing anti-spam filters to the customers and works on shifts to produce the finest anti-spam filters for our customers. The team ensures that all recent spam attacks are under control, and nothing stands in the way of the production process.

“We are proud to say that our anti-spam protection is one of the best as we have one of the top results in official tests.”

Collaboration never stops

The team’s mission is to make sure that our customers are protected and safe from any attack. To make this possible, the MPL team works closely with the MailGate R&D Team and provides input and ideas for future enhancements. The team works closely with the support team to be able to fix any customer anti-spam-related issue.

“The most specific part of our work is that we need to be fast and accurate. Anti-spam filters must be up to date with the latest spam attacks, so we need to work 24/7 producing filters and making sure our processes are not interrupted.”

During the initial months of the pandemic, the team kept close and “met” online for some fun catch-up meetings and a nice time together despite the lockdown.

The team’s tradition is to have interesting and (sometimes) challenging team-building sessions. The last one was a rafting event that gave the team the chance to work as a team and rely on each other (outside the office) and also spent a beautiful day out together.

Did you say languages?

There are many people from different countries in the different Axway offices, but there is no other team of that size including people speaking Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Russian, and even some Italian.

“We are very proud of the great professionals that are part of our team. Another very interesting fact is that we are probably the team with the most internal movements in the Sofia office. Because of the specifics of our work and all the various knowledge and skills that need to be collected, many engineers from the MPL team were transferred to other teams and positions. All of them being very successful in their new roles. Last but not least, I’d like to say how proud I am to have 4 engineers with 15+ years of experience in the company – their knowledge is a treasure for our small team.”

Thank you, Diana, and the entire MPL team for your dedication to protect our customers and be part of such a unique team.