Ed has been working in technology since 1992, and following some network engineering became a full time software engineer in 1998. He has worked in numerous investment banks and also some smaller businesses in the UK, Germany and France. The last 7 years have seen a focus on GIS data processing. Ed loves trail running – his longest race being 168km.

What does day-to-day life in your role look like?

“Every day is a curve ball” is an expression a colleague came up with. My motto here is “Never bored”. Every day is juggling numerous concurrent changes with my fellow team members, planning, executing and deploying them.

What would you say is the most interesting aspect of your role?

The work I enjoy the most by far is research, where we can discover new value buried within our data and bring it to our customers.

What was your path to joining Vortexa?

I had previously worked at the same oil-major as our CEO.  My impact in that role was obviously noticed as  I was lucky that when he was setting Vortexa up I was approached, and given the opportunity to join on day one and see the company grow.

What kind of qualities does a person need to have to succeed at Vortexa?

Passion, drive, curiosity, openness, talent. We are all striving to make the bigger machine succeed and grow. We are never ever just doing a task. It is not just work.

What do you like about the culture?

I’ve worked for years in Europe and I simply love how cosmopolitan, how diverse the company is in every respect, more than anywhere I have worked before. I would even say the environment is caring, everyone wants every individual to succeed not just in their role but in a personal capacity too.

What are the first three things you do on a Monday morning?

A trail run in some forests – it really clears my head. After a team standup meeting, there is often data that has been prepared over the weekend to deploy. Definitely coffee.

Who do you collaborate most with in the company?

A hard one to answer, as I’ve always been so closely involved with others, although I collaborate often with those in the wider Signal Processing and Enrichment Team (SPET) and the Predictions and Market Modelling Team (PMMT). 

On occasion, I will also turn my hand to blog writing and produce assets for the marketing team to feature! My most recent pieces included The Curious Case of the Sorted Array and Why failing is important – if you want to succeed! 

What energises you most about working as Lead Geospatial Engineer at Vortexa?

Having spent so long working in finance, it is refreshing to see a real physical problem domain, not just financial documents flying around and pricing models, but real vessels and cargoes at sea and problems to solve, in what to date has been an inefficient market. I love visualising the data to give hints where human and machine learning can work best together.