At the time of writing this article, Mark Dyer was a Project Manager.
What was your background before joining Audacia?
I've been working at Audacia for seven years, having joined the company in July 2015. Prior to joining Audacia, I was studying Computer Science at Hull University. As part of my degree, I completed a year in industry, where I worked on systems for a public sector organisation.
This initial experience really prepared me for the transition into the working world and gave me the confidence to apply for a job at Audacia.
When interviewing at Audacia, my first impressions were that it seemed like a really interesting place to work, with friendly people. My interview was led by two senior staff members who worked with me through a logical challenge, as well as some other, more general questions about the role and the company.
What projects have you worked on?
One of my first projects was working with a nationwide house builder on an integration platform that would facilitate the company’s data migration strategy. The company was trying to go live with two new platforms and a lot of the complexity in this project came from how we would get data out of their old system and into the new systems. We were dealing with critically sensitive financial data, so security was a key priority for the project.
My experience gained from that project has been instrumental in my subsequent work on various projects. During my time at Audacia I have worked across a number of industries, that includes healthcare, recruitment, manufacturing, automotive and construction.
From delivering an end-to-end repair management system for a leading automotive repair organisation, to a range of large-scale projects that include an applicant tracking platform and a global patient study management portal.
I believe that my experience working in diverse sectors allows me to bring a unique perspective to new projects, where I can apply the knowledge from previous experiences to solve problems and meet project goals.
The variety of industries that you’re exposed to is something that makes working at Audacia very exciting. Working in different sectors requires adapting to new environments, technologies, and stakeholders, and this has really helped me develop new skills and competencies as a project manager.
How have you progressed in your career?
I worked on the aforementioned project with a housebuilder for a while and, with the experience I gained from this project, made the transition to leading my first project. This project was still within the construction and housebuilding sector, working on the integration of a 3D modelling application.
Audacia was very supportive during my progression and provided guidance and visibility over the responsibilities that were required with each role.
This transition from being a developer to leading a project brought with it more responsibilities in terms of keeping track of all of the requirements across a team.
As I became more comfortable handling these responsibilities, I then transitioned into a sole Project Manager position. This meant that I had, again, greater responsibility over how the project was being run and how work was being allocated, rather than being scheduled to do development only.
My progression at Audacia has been really stable, working in-line with my interests and experience, and supported by senior staff at all times.
What is the favourite part of your role?
Ultimately I think that the best part of both development and managing projects is problem solving. There's a million ways to do something, but finding the best approach and agreeing on that approach is a really interesting part of my work at Audacia.
Managing a project allows you to guide the decision-making process more and more across a wider scope and to see other team members learn and make decisions for themselves.
I also enjoy how, through my position, I've gained a really intimate understanding of the different sectors that Audacia work with as a company. For example, working with one of the country's leading home builders was really beneficial for getting an understanding of sales processes in the construction industry.
I knew the workflow for buying a house before I bought a house myself, which is quite a unique position to be in, but really valuable knowledge to have.
What have the teams been like on projects?
Project teams can vary according to the requirements of the project itself. The combination of roles is flexible and, therefore, you're always working with new people.
In my role, I try to use my own technical background to support people in different ways. Whether this is explaining certain technical concepts or ways of working or just providing visibility over the desired outcomes of the project.
Part of the role as a Project Manager is bringing together a team of different people with different backgrounds to take on technical challenges, which is something I love being a part of on all the software development projects I work on.
What do you like about the culture at Audacia?
Audacia has always always been very supportive, and have provided open channels of communication for technical help.
Everyone is willing to go the extra mile, especially to get things like projects over the line. I've always experienced that everyone involved in a project, both from the clients that we work with through to the developers and the testers, wants the best for the project. So everyone's of the same mindset.
What do you enjoy about working at Audacia?
The exposure to different projects across various industries is something that I find really great and actually quite rare. In a lot of development jobs I don't think you get that opportunity.
Compared to a software development company who only specialises in one area or industry, Audacia works with a number of leading organisations across different sectors. With each project you work on you gain more knowledge about a different industry, which I find to be really interesting.
This feels especially true as the company has grown and taken on more projects. Audacia is an open environment where people can share their interests and get involved in different things across projects.
For example, I've had a lot of experience working in house building and construction because I expressed my interest in this sector, which has then allowed me to take on new responsibilities within this area.
Again, with the company growing and taking on more business, there's more opportunities to work in different sectors and industries.
What advice would you give to someone who is starting a career with Audacia?
Don't be afraid of getting involved in things would be my main piece of advice. When you're starting a career in tech it can be really useful to learn from people's example and pick up on what those more experienced team members are doing around you.
As you become more acquainted with the process of a software development project, it's also about learning what part of the process you enjoy. Today at Audacia there are different career progression routes and new opportunities for those joining the company.
It's genuinely been very exciting working with Audacia. It also helps a lot that our senior management are so approachable. It's just a matter of dropping someone a message, and they'll usually reply pretty quickly.
Audacia is a leading software development company based in the UK, with headquarters in Leeds. Find out more about what it's like to work here and our current open vacancies on our careers site.
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