Catrina

Executive Director/Vice President
Post Execution SecDB Engineering

FICC and Equities, London

“We are entrusted to own the decisions, from creating the project vision to choosing the technology stack.”

Joined GS

2016

Education

Polytechnic University of Bucharest
Computer Science

Interests

Rock Climbing

My interest in math and science began early – when I was about 10 years old I experimented with “bending water” with static electricity in my parents’ garage! I later majored in Computer Science at Polytechnic University of Bucharest, and graduated with an MSc, specializing in microprocessor programming. Computer Science and engineering have allowed me to apply theoretical math concepts and logic to solve practical problems, which I greatly enjoy. 

Joining Goldman Sachs in 2016 was a shift in my career direction, as I was previously a software engineer in the airline industry. My transition was made easy by my team, which has been highly supportive. I now feel comfortable with my business knowledge and grasp of finance terms, as well.

I’m currently working on a project as part of an Agile team of developers. Agile teams have a specific structure, which allows them see the creation of a product from preliminary design all the way to testing and execution. Our team’s goal is to design enhancements to our Trade Execution and Control Model, in order to improve practices and workflows for our trading and sales desks. We are entrusted to own the decisions, from creating the project vision to choosing the technology stack. It’s very empowering.

I love the sense of accomplishment when I improve an existing process. There is so much satisfaction in taking a practical problem and creating a solution, by first decomposing the problem into pieces, then developing solutions for each piece and finally, translating the solutions into code.

Communication, technical writing and public speaking are important. You will be asked to explain why your projects are worthwhile, or to provide rationale for why your solution is the best choice given certain requirements. I advise recruits and new hires to practice communication skills, but it’s perfectly fine to continue to improve on the job. Goldman Sachs has plenty of resources to practice these skills – for example, I am in a club where we work on public speaking.

Outside the office, I spend most of my time rock climbing. The sport has taught me to pursue life with ambition and push myself beyond the edge of comfort, in order to reach my emotional, physical and mental limits. Rock climbing strengthens my self-confidence and allows me to spend more time in remote and beautiful places.