UW Engineering - An insight into a forever changing ecosystem

Considering the current state of affairs we are facing in the UK and across the world due to COVID-19, we here at UW wanted to shed a little light and positivity into what is going on behind the scenes through the eyes of some of our talented engineers. As a department we have recently shared articles talking about the big changes across engineering, product and marketing, so to add to that we asked two of our engineers to provide insight into what it’s like working for UW, the type of work you can expect to get your hands stuck into as a UW Engineer, and of course, their personal desert island trio wish list, which I believe we can all relate to right about now!

Johan Brandhorst-Satzkorn - Partner Team & Community Speaker

What do you like most about working for UW?

The personal liberty and trust that comes with remote work. I can put in the hours when I want to in the day and if I want to go for a run with my wife at lunch I can! The leadership team trusts the employees to put in the work, and you no longer have to worry about your boss looking over your shoulder when you open a YouTube video. For me I think that makes me more productive because I can work when I'm the most productive rather than during a set number of hours when I'm in the office. 

"I can work when I'm the most productive rather than during a set number of hours when I'm in the office"

What is the most exciting thing you are currently working on?

I recently had the opportunity to explore using knative on our internal kubernetes deployment, which is really cutting edge tech. We intersperse our day to day work with these more experimental investigations that teach you a lot and can sometimes lead to really beneficial changes for the business. It's also super fun to learn about new things!

Desert Island Trio - 1 book, 1 film, 1 luxury item

Book: Twenty thousand leagues under the sea - Jules Verne. A pioneer as a hard sci-fi author, this is such a cool story with lots of cool engineering theory in it, and a big mystery. Who is the elusive Captain Nemo and what happened to him to make him this curious character?

Film: Cloud Atlas. I haven't read the book, but I really enjoyed the different timelines in this film and how all the characters reappear throughout history. It doesn't hurt that it has one of the best soundtracks ever made.

Luxury Item: My laptop so I can keep hacking on open source when I'm marooned on the desert island. I hope there's WiFi!

Francesco Renzi - Customer Incentives Team & Community Speaker

What do you like most about working for UW?

I would say trust and the freedom that comes with it are what stand out the most (among many other things). It’s really empowering, it allows me to focus on what really matters and to be honest it makes me want to do more and more to give back to it. Freedom ranges from design/technology choices to being able to work remotely at will, which really helps with peace of mind for someone whose family lives in another country.

"It’s really empowering, it allows me to focus on what really matters and to be honest it makes me want to do more and more to give back to it"

What is the most exciting thing you are currently working on?

I’m currently experimenting with just-in-time projections, which is quite an interesting challenge. We’re an “event-based” company and in Customer Incentives team we need to get different masks of our customer base based on different criteria, but don’t want to replay all our events (many, many events) every time we add a new criteria into the mix, so we’re now moving towards projections done at runtime (stay tuned for a blog post?).

Desert Island Trio - 1 book, 1 film, 1 luxury item

Book: Cloud Atlas. Six great stories told at once, a couple of dystopian futures, investigative journalism and music composition (which translated to the amazing soundtrack of the movie) and a very romantic take on life beyond death with your loved ones.

Film: The Departed. This is just a masterpiece that still keeps me on the edge of my seat even after having watched it omit number due to shame times.

Luxury Item: I’m afraid it has to be my laptop, there’s just too many things I could do with it (however I’d definitely try to smuggle my guitar to the island too).

“We’re extremely fortunate that UW is a financially resilient business, supplying services that everyone needs”

As our CEO, Andrew Lindsay, clearly put in a statement earlier this week, “We’re extremely fortunate that UW is a financially resilient business, supplying services that everyone needs”. We are lucky to be in a position where as a business we can react and adapt to an ever changing environment, ensuring our business can proceed as per usual to give our employees and customers peace of mind. That being said, if you find yourself wanting to explore a new career path within our world of technology, we’re set up and ready to hire so please feel free to reach out and we will give you the tools, knowledge and guidance needed to create your own success. As a wise man once said “Your focus determines your reality.” – Qui-Gon Jinn.