As a remote team, Zapiet prides its culture on an environment of many talented remote team members from different backgrounds and skills to help clients on the most advanced store pickup + delivery tools available to Shopify merchants worldwide. Our team is located in cities around the world such as Quito, Lisbon, London, Montreal, Singapore, and more.

Meet Emili

Emili Maciel is the Lead Designer and Head of Marketing here at Zapiet. Emili works hard to make sure our designs and branding are on point as Lead Designer and ensure that Zapiet is moving smoothly as Head of Marketing. We chat with Emili to discuss her role, what she loves about Zapiet, and her proudest achievement in her career.

Q: What is your role at Zapiet? And how long have you been here?

I’m the proud Lead Designer and Head of Marketing. My journey in Zapiet was a true surprise. I started as a freelancer helping with rebranding and establishing the company identity across all the products and platforms. It was a great moment to be part of the team even if it was just as a freelancer. At that moment the company was growing and taking more and more days out of my agenda and I ended up becoming a full time member of the team and taking care of other aspects of the business, such as marketing and finally into strategic development. It was a super exciting time for me to be able to combine two of my passions, supply chain systems with design. I never thought I would find a job where I could combine both disciplines.

Q: What do you love most about working at Zapiet?

Great question, but very easy to answer! I totally love the constant learning process with new pieces of technology, there is always a new feature to be developed, designed and marketed. Everyday we see different types of business selling all the different kinds of products and services, some of them very unique from furniture made of pieces of old aircrafts to cookies named for famous politicians like Barack Obama cookies. There is so much creativity in the world of our merchants and it is a pleasant place to have the opportunity to watch all types of business coming alive.

As my position is fully remote, it is a wonderful opportunity to be constantly traveling, within the three years I have been working at Zapiet I have been to so many countries that I have never been to before, and it’s the best privilege. One week I’m in Portugal and if at the end of my shift I decide to go to England for example I can. I used to say that my office is where I have good internet and great coffee!

Q: What’s some of the coolest experiences you’ve had while working here at Zapiet?

The best experiences are always when we go visit our merchants. They are always surprised how much we care about the solutions we offer, and how important their feedback is for us. Some of them think we’ll never visit them, so don’t doubt us, at some point we can pop up at your store!

Q: What is your proudest moment in work or your greatest achievement in your career and why?

My proudest moment was definitely during the pandemic crisis and how well we manage to scale our team across the all the departments. It required a lot of dedication and late nights for all of us at Zapiet, but now that the big hit is gone, I’m feeling fantastic about all the decisions we made and how fast we managed to implement new procedures that were needed at the right time.
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One of the biggest challenges in my career was when I went to get a new degree in Design in another continent. After a degree in Management and an MBA in Supply Chain, and several years in the logistic industry, I stepped back to have a break from my comfortable position in an international company. After years working with technology and logistics, I felt I needed to know more about design and grow my technical skills on it. I was always passionate about the creative world of fashion interior and graphic design and felt it was the right time, and now years after this huge journey, I can combine my skills and give more value to all the work I do, due to the different areas I have worked previously.

Q: If you could be any character from any book or movie, who would you be?

I would love to be Rupert the bear, he’s always on amazing adventures around the world, and has so many friends from different cultures. I kind of try to copy him in real life, he's an extremely curious bear so I quite identify myself with. If you don’t know the Rupert the bear cartoon, you should totally watch it. I recommend watching before you go to bed just in case you end up dreaming with his adventures!

Q: Who would you most like to swap places with for the day?

I would love to swap places with Beatrix Potter (writer and illustrator of Peter Rabbit and Friends) if it was possible to go back in time. During the time she was publishing her first book around 1902, and realised she could be so powerful, at the time just men had the power of decision. And I love everything about that time the fashion, architecture and all that was being invented during that period, and the legacy she left for the world.

Not many people know she was the pioneer in introducing kids books as a gift and helped found the National Trust that left the Lake District in England intact. She bought a property there and that beautiful landscapes inspired her so much she decided to buy all the land around her farm, and when she died she left everything for a trust organization and is prohibited to sell. Thanks to Beatrix a big part of the Lake district has been intact since the 1900's.

Q: If you could invite three people to dinner (dead or alive), who would be at the table and why?

I would invite an Egyptian architect, a Victorian fashion designer and Alberto Santos-Dumont who invented the airplane and made a lot of inventions related to flying. I would invite them to join me for a very nice afternoon tea including not just English delights but Portuguese and Brazilian treats too, and we’ll chat about things that happened during their time and I would make tons of questions, really lots of questions!

Wow that would be an amazing afternoon tea session - count us in (if you find a time machine)! We learned so much from our chat with Emili. If you are interested in working with us at Zapiet, we’re always happy to hear from you - whether we’re currently hiring or not. Feel free to contact us at careers@zapiet.com with your CV and a few sentences about why you think you would be a good fit for our remote company culture.