16 December 2025
Varrlyn has an international workforce, and along with the chance to launch careers in consulting, often offers an opportunity for young professionals to relocate to the Netherlands. Nompumelelo Phiri and Mahdi Matout reflect on their first year since joining from South Africa and Lebanon respectively.
Since graduating from the American University of Beirut with a degree in computer science, Mahdi Matout has held a number of roles working as a software engineer in Lebanon. But in December 2024, his experience with Murex opened a new door, in Utrecht, in the Netherlands.
“My core domain expertise is on the technical and operations engineering side of the Murex platform,” he explains. “Drawing on my background as a former Murex Software Engineer, I focus on providing a seamless, efficient, and robust environment for end-users to develop, test, and use the Murex platform with their configuration. My work spans critical components, from helping create Murex environments on the client’s cloud service and handling complex security and access controls to supporting core business processes, such as an inhouse solution for risk reporting.”
Murex is a financial software platform for trading, treasury management, risk management, and post-trade operations. When Nompumelelo Phiri transitioned from a career in the utilities sector into the capital markets sector six years ago, as a Murex analyst, the new path also led her to a new life in the Netherlands from February 2025.
“I focus on the back office domain,” Phiri notes. “This includes and is not limited to post-trade operations, collateral processing, and integration.”
Landing in the Netherlands
“Professionally, the transition to working for Varrlyn in the Netherlands was smooth, due to the familiarity of the type of work we do,” says Phiri. “Personally though, it was a lot to juggle, from driving on the other side of the road, to using Google Translate for all the mail we receive.”
Matout has also found the initial transition a challenge – especially amid the country’s housing shortage, with finding a place to stay during the crisis requiring both resilience, and good fortune. But once he found somewhere where he felt settled and happy, “despite the logistical hurdles, I quickly developed an affection for the country’s nature and the genuinely welcoming Dutch people and neighbors, which instantly made the country feel like home.”
Varrlyn was extremely helpful in the process, he recalls. Especially since those logistical challenges went much further than simply finding a house. When he accepted the role, Lebanon was experiencing “significant conflict, which meant government institutions were not functioning, and foreign consulates were largely closed, including the Dutch Embassy”.
He adds, “Despite these obstacles, Varrlyn’s persistence was crucial. They proactively guided me through obtaining my visa from a neighboring country, which allowed me to leave and safely arrive in the Netherlands. They also provided a necessary relocation allowance to help me settle in quickly.”
Phiri has also enjoyed the support offered by her new employer. While she initially felt the move was difficult on a personal level, Varrlyn was “instrumental in making sure that our documentation was on point, on time”.
“They booked appointments for us in advance to try and ease the admin of moving across the country. This was helpful. To this day, whenever we’re unsure of the requirements of whatever we’re about to venture in, they lend an ear and offer advice and support as much as possible. The firm provides a budget for personal development, which allows us the opportunity to advance our skills.”
The firm’s commitment continues beyond relocation. Working to ensure its staff are always prepared for the future of FinTech, it regularly hosts training and workshops focused on adapting to the latest technologies. For instance, Matout and Phiri recently had a session on how to efficiently integrate AI chatbots into their daily operations – while Varrlyn also organises team events, lunches, and other ways to help them feel connected and supported on a personal level.
Project in banking
Both Phiri and Matout are currently working for a large bank in the Netherlands. They say it is a rewarding project, as the financial sector serves as “the building block for any successful society and economy”. Working within a large institution therefore allows them both to contribute to “stability and progress on a significant scale”.
“This is amplified in the Netherlands,” says Matout. “It is a major European financial hub. My specific project and role are critical because they connect that high-level objective with technical reality. As an Operations Engineer, my purpose is to ensure the Murex platform is highly available and resilient for the bank’s day-to-day operations – spanning trading, risk, and treasury. This role means I, as part of a larger team, am directly responsible for the operational backbone that allows the bank to function reliably and fulfill its essential role in the economy.”
“The sector is also attractive in that it offers a lot of room for growth,” adds Phiri. “I enjoy the fact that I can offer my expertise to multiple projects that are sometimes running in parallel. The ability to translate a theoretical requirement into a reality is exhilarating.”
Having been part of the project for almost a year, they have both had chance to see their impact first-hand, too. Matout is particularly proud on his work bridging operational stability with strategic financial optimisation – playing key roles on a daily basis, including maintaining the critical in-house risk reporting solution to ensure both its stability and the validity of its data. But his most significant technical impact was the optimization of the bank’s Murex cloud setup.
He remembers, “By analysing and strategically modifying how we manage and store objects within the cloud infrastructure supporting Murex, I was able to deliver a recurring annual saving of approximately €150,000 on the total cloud bill for the Murex Project.”
“Furthermore, I am leading the strategic push to migrate the bank’s Murex cloud infrastructure to Infrastructure as Code. This initiative is vital for the future, as it will dramatically enhance the platform’s scalability, stability, and reduce deployment time for all subsequent Murex changes.”
Elsewhere, Phiri notes, “I got to work on a project that improves the system’s performance by ensuring that the Murex application works efficiently. Being trusted with the configuration build of something so important to the daily activities of the Operations team was such a confidence booster. The support I received throughout the project was massive and incredibly appreciated.”