Employee Spotlight: Joshua Pichugin

If you're looking for a career in DevOps, or just looking to know more about our team here at Publisher Collective, you've come to the right place.

In this months spotlight, I'm catching up with Josh Pichugin, our Lead DevOps Engineer.

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Tell me, what does a working day look like for you here, at Publisher Collective?

My day usually starts the same way, checking Slack to see if I’ve missed any DMs overnight, then scanning the alerting channels for anything urgent, and pulling up some dashboards to see how our infrastructure performed while I was asleep. That early check often sets the tone for the day.

From there it moves into meetings: a sync with the AdStack team, one with the Core Services team, and then I lead the Systems team standup, or “daily”, depending on who you ask! After that, I get into Jira and work through my tasks. I’m usually juggling a few big-ticket items while fielding smaller requests and side quests around them.

My role is a fairly unique one. As Senior Cloud and Security Admin / DevOps, I like to think of myself as the oil of the company, keeping the machine running well so everyone can do their best work. No two days look the same: some tasks are cybersecurity-related, some are about managing our cloud platforms like Jira and Slack, and others are pure DevOps, supporting the dev team with infrastructure, making sure our tech keeps running, and creating the conditions for innovation to happen.

Do you have a favourite part of your job?

The variety and the reach. I interact with every department across the company, one moment I’m helping someone with onboarding access or sorting out an email group workflow, and the next I’m updating Jenkins, one of the most critical systems in the dev team’s arsenal, the thing that builds and deploys the technology that goes out to our publishers. It’s a genuinely mixed bag, and I love that about it.

How has your career path evolved?

Definitely a journey, over about 20 years! I started out in IT phone support, then worked my way through Junior Sysadmin, Senior Sysadmin, IT Coordinator, and beyond. Every step reinforced the one skill I think matters above all else: problem solving. As for ad tech, I’d genuinely never even heard of it before I applied for the job at Snigel, now Publisher Collective. Sometimes the best paths are the ones you didn’t plan.

Is there anything, or anyone that inspires you? 

I should probably say a celebrity or a world leader, but I’m too much of a “noticer”, I see that we’re all equal, and trying to do our best. So honestly? Apart from Jesus, who is my ultimate inspiration, the person who inspires me every single day is my wife. She’s an amazing mother with one of the sharpest problem-solving minds I’ve ever encountered. She’s been an incredible partner in everything for 17 years this year, and she amazes me constantly.

Is there a skill that you think is essential to have as a leader?

Problem solving, without question. I’ve always maintained that I don’t know everything, or how to do everything, but give me time and I’ll solve any problem put in front of me. That confidence comes partly from years of experience, and partly from growing up devouring The Hardy Boys and The Famous Five, I genuinely think reading crime and mystery fiction as a teenager taught me to think systematically and stay calm in uncertainty. For a leader, modelling that mindset, staying curious, not panicking, breaking things down, matters more than having all the answers upfront.

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone considering a career in your field?

Look for the shortcuts. Look for the easiest solution. Look for the path most trodden. You do not need to reinvent the wheel, in fact, 99.9% of every problem or task you’ll face in this career has already been solved by someone else. Your job is to find it. Be brilliant at hunting. Learn to search well, learn to read documentation, learn to recognise patterns from other solutions. That skill will take you further than almost anything else.

What are the biggest challenges in keeping systems secure and running smoothly across the business?

Communication. Keeping your finger on the pulse, knowing the health of everything and everyone. It’s not just about the technology; it’s about being connected enough to know when something is quietly going wrong before it becomes a crisis. That’s the hardest part.

How do you balance being reactive to any issues that arise, with proactive improvements and innovation?

Nobody gets this perfect, and I think accepting that is actually step one. The key for me is understanding that not everything is life or death. About 80% of things have enough flexibility, or “forgiveness”, as I call it, that they don’t need to be done instantly, or even exactly on time. The skill is finding a rhythm. Keep a few big tasks moving in the background, fill in the smaller things around them, and don’t drop all the spinning plates trying to juggle everything at once. Prioritisation is everything.

Do you have a personal accomplishment that you're most proud of? 

My family, without a doubt. I have three children, and just over two years ago we set off as a family from Australia to Kraków, Poland, on an adventure for a completely different life. Logistically it was enormous, but it’s one of the greatest things we’ve ever done. I get to do a job I love at Publisher Collective, and then go home to my family and live an incredible adventure in Europe. That’s the accomplishment I’m most proud of.

What does your chill-time look like? 

Honestly? Two very different things. The first is just movie nights with my family, the couch, my wife and kids, nachos or popcorn. It sounds simple because it is, and that’s exactly why I love it. The second is European sauna culture, which I’ve become completely obsessed with since moving to Poland. Getting absolutely cooked in the steam room and sauna, then finishing in a jacuzzi, it’s the ultimate reset. I had no idea what I was missing.

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Thanks to Josh for getting involved in our spotlight! 

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