2.5 quintillion bytes of data are being generated daily so it’s safe to say, data is at the heart of many business's success! Data in its raw state is messy and usually difficult to use. My role as a Data Engineer at Kubrick Group is to handle this huge volume of data. Kubrick train graduates in data skills and deploy them at corporations. I have been deployed at Sainbury's Digital, Tech and Data. I create data pipelines that manipulate, move and store data so it can be used by an analyst or stakeholder to gain business insights.

Practically, this looks like using software and writing code (such as SQL) to ‘query’ a database. A query is just a way of requesting particular information from a database such as knowing ‘the number of 5^th years who bought a Fab ticket in the month of May 2022’. Currently, I am querying our (Sainsburys) central database to extract the dataset we need. Basic analytics are then applied to the data such as comparing the effect of product in-store location on sales volume. This all occurs in an automated pipeline and the results are communicated to store managers via an app.

What’s the best thing about what you’re doing now?

Seeing the result of a huge, automated data pipeline is quite satisfying as it saves people so much time. There are many interacting parts in this ‘digital system’ and its amazing what code can do. When things break down, it can be interesting playing detective and finding the root of the problem and fixing it.

What got you interested in data?

I became interest in AI during my final year project with Professor Castellani. AI requires huge amounts of data to be trained on to be effective, leading me down the path of a Data Engineer. He also had an interesting module about Intelligent Algorithms and how it's used in many disciplines to optimise processes. There is huge growth in the data sphere and many problems are being solved by analysing Big Data!

How has your career developed since graduating?

I've learnt quite an array of software, coding languages and methodologies while at Kubrick. I've also learnt how business's utilise data for commercial benefit.

What skills you learned from degree or time at university would you say you use most in your job?

• Mechanical engineering taught me how to solve problems and translate a problem or requirement into a tangible technical solution
• Strong math skills can be handy when you are analysing data and it’s good to have that background to fall back on.
• Learning how to code and applying it to mechanical engineering data was invaluable. Computers aren't everyone's cup of tea but they are solving problems in almost every technical domain.
• Digital Bootcamps put on by B-Enterprising helped me think outside the box and more like an Entrepreneur rather than being excessively technical.