Blog

Leading at the front-end: In conversation with Staff Engineer Ed Watts

By Team Engine

Firstly, tell us a little bit about you and how you became a Frontend Engineer

I’ve been with Starling Bank and now Engine now for 5 and a half years, and currently lead the ‘Portals’ (all things JavaScript and TypeScript) discipline in Engine. I’ve previously worked on implementing live-chat, voice calls and cheque imaging functionality within our Management Portal.

I was lucky enough to ‘fall into’ front-end engineering as a career, I’ve always been keen to tinker around with things and when I was younger I used to create webpages for friends’ bands in notepad. I then didn’t really do a lot with code for quite some time, and I didn’t go to university, but in a previous job I started doing some technical consultancy and there was a need for some proof-of-concept web applications and I threw myself into it and just started learning again. From there my interests grew and moved into the engineering department to lead on an application I’d developed a proof of concept for previously, then I decided to apply for Starling and you could say the rest is history.

What does a typical day look like as a Frontend Engineer at Engine?

It’s quite varied, most mornings I will often catch up with my team, to see what we’re all working on and whether we need help with anything. My time is mostly spread between planning, code review, technical reviews and coding, but I don’t really have a ‘set’ routine for a given day.

Tell us the most exciting thing about being a Frontend Engineer at Engine

I’d like to think my answer to this question applies to ‘Engineering’ at Engine in general, for me it’s the freedom we are afforded to deliver in a manner that suits us, it’s understood that we all may work in different ways, and essentially its down to us as individuals and in our teams to decide how we will achieve a given goal. I’ve also been fortunate to work on a wide range of projects in my time, across languages and platforms and it’s encouraged to explore and expand your knowledge.

What would you like to tell anyone looking to join Engine as a Frontend Engineer?

Engine is a great environment to deliver and learn quickly. We’re a smaller, but growing team so the work on offer is quite varied across a few different applications, so hopefully no day is exactly the same as the last.

What is the one piece of advice / guidance you’d have given yourself on your first day as an Engineer?

Take a deep breath! As with any new role the first day and week will feel a bit overwhelming, but don’t panic, we have a great onboarding process and you’ll be delivering code in no time.