I didn’t mean to get into engineering, I started out as a chemist and did a PhD in cheminformatics, applying machine learning and statistics techniques to predict human drug metabolism. As part of my PhD, I had to learn programming, so I taught myself how to code from watching YouTube videos and I’ve never looked back. On top of my PhD research, I have created an software application which enables a user to investigate the stability a drug candidate structure of interest. If undesirable properties are detected, the application is also capable of suggesting strategies to improve the drug candidate’s profile.
Programming turned out to be what I enjoyed the most, so much so that I decided to pursue a career in software engineering. I went to work as a backend Java developer for Alfa , an asset finance software provider which also offer consulting services.
I moved from Alfa to Starling Bank in 2018 as a software engineer. My role initially consisted of integrating the bank’s backend application with other financial services providers to offer customers a better banking experience. I have since moved onto a data science/ data engineering role, using analytics to help the organisation understand our customers better, to better inform business decisions and with the aim to improve customer’s financial health.
