Highly ambitious, a bit impulsive, and impressively multilingual – that’s Aneliya Evtimova in a nutshell. Originally from Bulgaria, she moved to Amsterdam in 2011 to pursue her master's in Business Administration. The plan was only to stay for a year, but she’s still there today. Aneliya has been working at Albert Heijn since 2018 and took on the role of Agile Lead for the Cluster of teams known today as Marketing & Customer (under the nickname MILC). “Every day I strive to make a positive impact on the teams and people I work with. After a session with me, things should be better than they were before.”
Aneliya traveled quite a distance – both literally and figuratively – to get to where she is today. After completing her bachelor's degree in her hometown of Sofia, she chose to do her master’s in Amsterdam. "I was looking for an English-taught master's program in a European city that was affordable and naturally felt like a good fit. Amsterdam ticked all the boxes. I’d never been to the city before, but I was very excited. I’m still happy and grateful that I made that choice back then.”
After finishing her master's, she decided she wasn’t ready to leave the city yet. “That year had been amazing, and I’d grown so much as a person. I wanted to see what else life in Amsterdam could offer me. I got a position as a junior consultant at a major Dutch bank, where I interned in the innovation center.”
It was a great step in an emerging career, but unfortunately not one that paid very well. "As I hadn’t worked during my master's year, I was getting very low on cash. And the internship salary only covered the rent for my room. What to do? Stacking shelves at Albert Heijn seemed like the best option. I got on my bike and rode to dozens of Albert Heijn stores in Amsterdam, asking if they had a job for me. They were quite surprised: a 25-year-old Bulgarian with a master’s degree, working at a bank, looking for a job as a store associate? But I was persistent and eventually found a manager who was willing to give me a chance. My career at the store didn’t last long, though – it was over in just three weeks. When my manager at the bank found out I was working at Albert Heijn to make ends meet, he immediately offered me a raise. Still, I often joke that my career at Albert Heijn didn’t start in 2018, but actually back in 2012."
The internship at the bank turned into a full-time job, which later led to a role within a start-up. Aneliya found herself in a new world – one where ideas and opportunities flowed abundantly. "I loved the start-up scene. There was so much to learn and endless room to experiment. Programming, web analytics, online marketing, AI – I explored all the latest fields, trends, and technologies that were booming at the time. Moreover, I got the opportunity to take on a Scrum Master role. After a few years in the start-up world, I started looking for more stability. When a friend mentioned an opening for a Scrum Master position at Albert Heijn, it was an easy decision: I applied immediately."
A steep learning curve
The organization looked very different when Aneliya first joined six years ago. “Today, our department is very international, but at the time, I was one of the first associates from outside the Netherlands. I started as a Scrum Master for the teams developing the AH App – at that stage, there were three teams involved, totaling around 30 people. The department as a whole was made up of about 15 teams. Now, our department is home to 60+ teams, organized into various clusters, each containing multiple teams. We've experienced such incredible growth over the years. That's typical of Albert Heijn – there's always so much going on, and we're constantly evolving. It might sound like a cliché, but the expression 'never a dull moment' certainly applies here. In the past few years, I've learned a great deal – and I still learn a lot every day."
“Ultimately, I believe that my main tasks as an Agile Lead are to make sure that everyone enjoys their work, that we're creating valuable software with tangible benefits for our customers, and that we maintain our Agile way of working throughout the department. Since I took on the role, I’ve implemented several structures and processes to support these objectives. In fact, we’ve completely overhauled the way the department was organized back in 2018. Initially, the customer technology platform of AH Tech was divided into separate teams for mobile, web, and logistics. We restructured significantly and created teams organized around domain-driven design, which means that now, one team is responsible for building and maintaining a group of specific features for both the website and the app. I’ve also focused a lot on facilitating one-on-one interactions, building alignment within the teams, and ensuring smooth communication across the department. It’s amazing to see these efforts paying off. The teams in our cluster collaborate seamlessly, forming a community that's strong in terms of both expertise and social connection. Plus, people know how to reach me when they need to."
It's safe to say that Aneliya has played a significant role in transforming the organization into what it is today. And her influence reaches far beyond her own cluster. For example, she spearheaded the creation of the Power BI dashboards featuring team performance data, which can be rolled up to cluster level and replicated and used by different departments. “I facilitate workshops both for my own cluster and for numerous other teams throughout the organization. One of the reasons I enjoy my role so much is because I have the opportunity to make an impact in so many areas of the business.
"My work is definitely a passion, but I have many more. One of them is going to the gym and attending classes. My favorite is bodypump, which I’ve been doing for about eight years now and really enjoy. It’s such a great workout – in just an hour, you get your entire body moving. I do it at a gym with a fun group, which definitely adds to the experience. For me, bodypump is almost like meditation – I go on autopilot, and it clears my mind. It’s often during these workouts that I come up with my best ideas and solutions. Many work-related problems have been solved during bodypump classes.”
Name: Aneliya Evtimova (1987)
Started working at Albert Heijn: July 2018
Studied: MSc Entrepreneurship, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (2012)
Living with: My partner, Frank. We met in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our first date was a walk through Vondelpark – how cliché?!
Hobbies: Bodypump and gaming
Wake me up in the middle of the night for: A while ago, you could wake me up for a party any night. But nowadays I’d rather you just let me sleep
Favorite holiday destination: Thailand. Frank and I traveled there last year. It was our first long-distance trip together and I absolutely loved it
Life-changing event: Moving to the Netherlands and landing a job at Albert Heijn
Biggest source of inspiration: My mother. She gave me a very international upbringing and always encouraged me to be ambitious. Plus, she’s also a very warm and loving person .
Best advice I’ve ever received: “Count to 10”. It’s a very useful tip for impulsive people like me. I do my best to follow it, and luckily I’ve been able to get past five more often recently
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