A SCOTS consultancy has announced the appointment of a new head of engineering on their data science team.
Optima Partners have announced that software architect Andrew Donald will take the key role in their “expanding team”.
Andrew has worked in the field for two decades, and joins the Edinburgh-headquartered data practice led by chief data scientist Dr Chris Foley.
Andrew is already involved in recruiting more engineers to join the team, which is working closely with UK businesses in fields such as financial services, energy and pharmaceuticals.
Born in Dundee and raised south of the border, Andrew graduated in computer science from Edinburgh University and now lives with his family in the Edinburgh area.
Andrew said: “This is a very exciting time to be joining the team – it is already one of the best in the UK and it is building impressive capability and capacity.
“I have been involved with Optima for a number of years through one of our close partners, so I have seen it develop.
“There is a very strong, collegiate culture in the company and we have great relationships with our customers too.
“We are focused on helping them to make real-world use of evolving technology.”
Andrew will concentrate on decisioning systems for marketing operations in large consumer-facing businesses.
He added: “I have been building systems in the cloud since 2013, so I was an early adopter of cloud-based computing software delivery.
“We build systems that help our clients serve their customers better, and which create better environments for their staff.”
Optima’s data science and engineering team is based at the University of Edinburgh’s innovation hub for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence within the Bayes Centre.
Optima also has offices in London and Bristol, to support customers across the UK and internationally.
CEO and founder of Optima Partners, Alan Crawley, said: “We are delighted to welcome Andrew to his new role as Head of Engineering.
“We are very proud of Optima’s data science team which is expanding rapidly, bringing onboard new clients, engagements and team members.
“Andrew’s appointment will add to the strength of the team and ensure it has unparalleled breadth and depth of skills and experience.”
