Spotlight: Nataliya Naydenova, Solutions Architect

Nataliya (Nat) Naydenova started with MentorMate six and a half years ago. Originally joining the team as a web backend developer, she always liked working with various technologies. She liked coding the solution, but what she truly loved was actually talking with clients, and trying to define what the actual objectives are, together with them. Naturally, she started shifting towards a Business Analyst role. Somewhere along the way, she got introduced to the MentorMate solutions team. With solutions, she realized that she could not only continue working with different technologies but could also put her newly-built skills around requirements gathering to use. She was able to start drafting the solutions that she’d previously only been tasked with developing.

Nat’s role as a solutions architect involves listening to people who have an idea of what they want, then translating it to people who have the knowledge of how to build it. She loves the dynamics of it all — meeting new clients every day, supporting interesting ideas and projects, working on multiple things in multiple areas,  and utilizing all kinds of technologies.

Outside of MentorMate, Nat likes anything outdoors. She’s a huge fan of trekking and hiking. It doesn’t matter if it’s winter or summer; when the weekend comes, off she goes. Recently, Nat’s also been hooked on climbing and kayaking and uses every opportunity to practice. These new hobbies make it even harder to decide what to do on the weekends though. She also loves any and all animals but has a huge soft spot for cats. She has a cat of her own but also fosters kittens from time to time.