Since when are you with Friendsurance?

I have been working at Friendsurance since December 2020. It is less than a year but it seems to me I have been working for the company for several years. This is largely due to several reasons. First of all I got an incredibly warm welcome. Secondly, I joined the company at a time when a lot of changes have been happening or going to happen. And now I take part in a lot of these activities.

Where do you currently work – in the office, at home office, or somewhere else? 

Most of the time I work in the office and stay at home only on Friday. At home I have absolutely the same set of the office chair and the desk as I have in the office. So it is definitely not a matter of comfort. The main reason is that in the office I can fully concentrate on work. Also recently Friendsurance hired another data engineer and I need to onboard her. We decided that It would be much easier and more effective to do it in the office sitting next to each other.

What is your responsibility at Friendsurance? What is the most interesting part of your job?

Friendsurance is a data-driven company where I am a Data Engineer in the Data team. I am responsible for providing the data from different data systems and data sources to end-users. It means data acquisition, delivery, transformations and storing to our data repositories.

Apart from that I discussed with our Head of Data how I can utilize my professional background. The thing is I have more than 14 years of experience in Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing. I definitely want to use it for the company. As a result of our discussion I am in charge of several technical solutions in the Data area and a member of the Architecture guild in the company. I think currently it is the most interesting part of my job.

What was the biggest challenge you have solved in your job so far?

Maybe the most challenging task I am working on is changing my mindset. Suddenly I realized that here with Friendsurance I can not only be a part of any processes in the company but also lead or be an initiator of some of them. This is possible mostly thanks to the team and my direct manager.

What do you like the most about working at Friendsurance?

The atmosphere. This term is pretty wide so I would like to highlight such aspects as support from different people, their mindset and strong desire to change our future in a positive way. Since my first days in the company I have been getting support. Our “People&organisation” department assisted me with relocation, all the first-day stuff and is also supporting me in the present. The team helped me with onboarding and still helps me when I have questions. The most important thing is that I can fully rely on them.

How did you find your way to the Insurtech space?

When I was looking for a job I was thinking about the area where data could play a crucial role. In my opinion fintech and insurtech are one of them. Also in these areas all the use cases of data are concentrated. I mean machine learning, predictive analytics, analysis and so on. And Data Engineering is a kind of a cornerstone.

What do you believe are the most exciting innovations and impactful technologies in the Insurtech space?

During the existence of insurance a huge amount of data has been collected. At the present time we are able not only to collect it but also benefit from it. And it is mostly possible with using Big Data technologies. For example Machine and Deep learning, big data analytics, artificial intelligence and so on.

From your perspective what are the greatest strengths of Friendsurance as a tech company?

I would highlight such things as cooperation with a number of biggest banks and insurance companies in Germany. As for me it means they also believe in digitalization and in the partnership with Friendsurance. The company is quite innovative as well as agile and strives to bring more value to the customers using modern technologies.

Do you use advanced architectures in the Friendsurance tech team?

For sure, yes. IT is one of the most dynamic areas. To have the same pace as a constantly changing data-driven world Friendsurance is using well-designed architectures and modern technologies. The amount of data is growing day by day therefore we use cloud solutions for acquiring, transferring and storing the data. Also we are moving towards stream data processing and using cloud data platforms as a single solution.

How do you prepare yourself for an AI-centric world?

Personally, I have not prepared anyhow. The thing is AI got inside into a lot of aspects of our life. And did it invisible and transparently. As for me it is an excellent indicator of the fact that it does work. Sometimes we cannot even imagine that we are dealing with AI. It would be great to bring the same to Insurtech.

What would be your dream celebration of successfully delivering a product with your team?

I think it would be very interesting to go on a trip. It could be hiking, skiing or something else. We would spend some time together out of the office. Recently our team did almost the same thing and we realized that it really helps to get to know each other better.

What is your favourite emoticon on the team messenger Slack?

Just a smile 🙂

Learn more about the Friendsurance Tech Team!