In our drive to be completely transparent, this is the first in a series of posts that take a look behind the scenes of a FinTech company (us!). We’re asking everyone in the team to share what a typical day might look like for them, and who better to start with than one of our software engineers, Diogo, who joined us through our graduate program back in 2018…

What does your job entail?

As a software engineer, my job is to solve problems and design solutions. Traditionally, we are depicted as having boring jobs, coding away all day, knowing everything about technology and lacking social skills, but this is far from the truth! We have a great team at Fluro, delivering solutions to customers and colleagues across the business, and having a visible impact, is very rewarding.

So what is my typical day?

I start my day by grabbing myself a cup of coffee and answering any emails or messages I may have. My first meeting of the day is usually the Stand-Up, this is where both the Software Engineers and Product Manager get together to discuss the progress and any blockers we may have delivering our solutions. It’s a really collaborative role so I'm in constant communication with the Product Manager and various other stakeholders.

As a member of the Attract team, part of my focus is on the customer journey. At Fluro, the customer journey is everything from requesting a quote to getting that quote or loan request paid out into the their bank account. This isn't as straightforward as it seems; it involves working with teams across the business, from Partnerships to Pricing and Credit Risk, from Credit Risk to Underwriting, from Underwriting to Legal & Compliance, and rounding it all off with Finance. Then, of course, there’s also our external partners to consider.

Not only do we focus on building good for the customer, but we want also to ensure our Underwriting team have an optimised workstream. We work on automating processes to make it easier for them to assess a loan application accurately and efficiently. We have also built tools to improve our auto-approval rates, so we can save underwriting time with loan applications that exhibit minimal risk (these don't require extra documentation checks).

Here at Fluro, not only do we design solutions we are proud to implement, we also get decide what we work on as a team. We typically do this by discussing what problems we have discovered while working on the codebase, or looking at reports from Analytics & Data Science, and deciding on what we should prioritise to ensure we are meeting our mission: build game-changing embedded lending technology that maximise access to fair credit.

Alongside traditional Sprint Retrospectives, Engineering Forums allow us to be honest about our thoughts on our codebase and our development processes, then work together to come up with solutions. This experimental autonomy with other engineers has led to huge improvements in our processes. We also have Lunch & Learns organised by alternating members of the team, where we get to teach each other about emerging or niche technology, design patterns, or a new solution and how it could be potentially implemented here at Fluro.

Best thing about the job?

Coding has been my passion since the age of thirteen, but the best thing about my job has to be the people and culture – Fluro is a really welcoming environment, and I get along with colleagues across all different teams in the business.

Favourite book / film / tv show / joke / flavour crisp / etc?

I mostly read non-fiction books, and usually on very niche topics. I have a particular interest in the fascist Portuguese Dictatorship (known as Estado Novo or ‘New State’, mostly ignored and accepted by the Western powers during World War II and the Cold War era and which my parents and grandparents both endured), as well as broader Lusophone history. I'm currently reading about the rebellious local government of the London Borough of Lambeth during the Thatcher years.

Apart from books, I love British comedy TV shows such as The IT Crowd, The Thick of It, Peep Show, and The Inbetweeners, as well as modern British TV series such as Sex Education. And, as I am a bit of a nerd, I am, of course, a Whovian.

My favourite crisp is, obviously, Walkers Prawn Cocktail – how more British can I get?

Something that people might not know about you?

Most people (at least in the office) know that, apart from being a Software Engineer, I am also elected to the London Borough of Lambeth as a Councillor for Oval, home to The Oval (the cricket ground), and the largest Lusophone community in the UK. But many might not know that I was born, raised, studied, and now elected to the same borough. I'm currently the youngest (and probably the youngest ever) in the Council Chamber (I’m 23, bringing the average age considerably down), and I'm the first Youth Mayor of Lambeth to go on to be elected as a Councillor.

Apart from politics, some might not know that I'm a keen vexillologist and a member of The Flag Institute in the UK. No one has yet been able to show me a flag that I don't know! Also a lover of emojis 👀 😊