What do you do at Beacon?
I started my journey into the wonderful world of data science seven years ago, as I took my second Master’s degree in Operations Research in Amsterdam. After completing my studies, I have worked as a Data Scientist for KLM, where I developed tools for optimising airline operations. In those years I had the opportunity to learn about the many facets of this field, from understanding complex processes, to managing clients and the pivotal importance of designing agile and efficient workflows to develop quickly and strategically.
It was then that I began to dream about working for a tech startup, as I realised both the business and cultural value generated by enterprises that put technology and intelligence first.
Four months ago I joined Beacon as a Data Science Manager where I lead a team of scientists. As we are growing quickly and so is the scope of our work, our primary focus is currently on improving operational processes by applying cutting edge Machine Learning and optimisation techniques.
Tell us about one of your recent projects:
One of the projects that I have recently worked on with my team has been building an AI application, which assists our freight operators to scale and manage freight across large portfolios of customers. It has been a lot of fun to deepen my knowledge and make use of Natural Language Processing techniques but I have also been greatly gratified by this project as I could work on it from inception to production and see the actual improvement that was brought to the company.
An aspect of the project that I particularly appreciated has been seeing how software engineers, data scientists, operation and design teams have collaborated bringing their own expertise and learning from each other to create something solid and useful for the business. In fact, not only our tool has freed operators from the tedious task of going through long email chains and attached documents but it also helps them provide higher quality customer service.
Why Beacon?
Above all I was attracted to Beacon because I completely agree with the core philosophy of the company, which is to allow developers to put solutions in place fast in order to maximize the speed of learning and development. We strive for excellence in every area of the business, from operations, to product, client satisfaction and company culture. And we know that at the heart of excellent results there are excellent people, who have at Beacon the perfect environment to unleash their full potential.
I completely buy into this idea as it has always been my personal conviction that collective success is achieved by trusting people and allowing them to show their value through the good work they do.