A day in the life of a Solutions Engineer

Natasha, a Solutions Engineer, shares some insights into her working day.

Discover the day-to-day life of a Solutions Engineer at Liberty IT through the lens of Natasha. With a career spanning over a decade at Liberty, Natasha's story highlights the growth opportunities and diverse challenges in the tech sector of the insurance industry. Here, she offers an insight into her role, revealing how our team members blend technology skills with collaboration and innovation.

What's your position now and how long have you been in it?

I've been with Liberty IT since 2012, starting as a scholar, returning for my placement year and then joining as a graduate. Over the years, I've worked my way up through various roles, taking advantage of Liberty's self-nominated promotion and internal postings processes. For the last two years, I was a Principal Software Engineer in the Incubator team, and I've just recently been promoted to Solutions Engineer. 

What's your morning routine?

My day usually begins at 8:30 am and I have the opportunity to take a compressed day off every second Friday, which is great for work-life balance. To start my day, I take about 30 minutes to catch up on messages I may have missed while our US colleagues were online the previous evening. After that, I prioritise my top three tasks for the day.

Tell us more about your role and the technologies you work with.

My job is quite diverse as I take on the roles of a technical lead, coach, mentor and software engineer. Building strong relationships with my colleagues is something I highly value and collaborating with partner teams is crucial to ensure comprehensive testing and seamless implementation of solutions.

I support my team across different projects, working with data scientists to bring their machine-learning models to production. I also work on developing and refining architectural patterns that align with our strategic priorities; lately I've been focusing on batch model inference. 

On a daily basis, I work with various technologies such as Python, AWS and MLOps, and observability tools like Splunk and Datadog. Additionally, I dedicate time to education, to help me stay up-to-date with the latest tools and technologies.

Currently, I'm exploring Airflow, an MLOps tool that efficiently manages scheduling and orchestrating workflows for data processing pipelines, which is vital for my team's work. I also actively participate in agile ceremonies like stand-ups and sprint planning.

What skills are most important in your working day?

Clear communication and collaboration skills are absolutely essential in my role. Building strong relationships and trust with my team is crucial. I make it a priority to share my knowledge and delegate tasks to avoid being a single point of failure and to provide growth opportunities for my team members.

If you ever see me in a meeting, you'll most likely find me scribbling away in my notebook. Taking notes is vital as you simply can't remember everything. To stay organised, I rely on the Todoist app which helps me stay focused on my daily tasks and track progress. This comes in handy during my quarterly check-ins.

What do you enjoy most about your working day?

One of the aspects I enjoy the most about my job is collaborating and partnering with teams across Liberty. I also work closely with data scientists and partner teams to ensure our goals are aligned. What really excites me is the varied nature of my work, which allows me to contribute beyond.

Are you involved in any other activities? 

As a member of Liberty IT Women in Tech (WIT), I contribute to WIT initiatives, including writing blog posts and recording podcasts.

I co-run a monthly MLOps knowledge-sharing session within our Incubator team, where attendees can exchange learnings, discuss challenges, and promote the reuse of solutions. I also lead High Performance Engineering initiatives within the team, driving improvements in our focus areas.

I'm proud to have supported the recent promotions of two team members during the last self-nominated promotion round and to have played a role in recruiting talented individuals to join Liberty IT. 

Tech innovation at Liberty 

Natasha's role as a Solutions Engineer exemplifies the dynamic and evolving tech landscape at Liberty IT. Her experience showcases our commitment to professional growth and technological innovation in insurance. 

Whether you're a budding tech enthusiast or an experienced professional, we invite you to explore career opportunities with us, where every day is a step towards transforming the future of tech in insurance.