A day in the life of…Katie – Senior Front-end Engineer at Torpedo.

Our digital team is packed with specialists. Want to know more about what it’s like working in Team Dev? One of our longest serving digital experts, Katie, gives us some insight.

What’s your role at Torpedo, and how long have you been here?

Senior Front-end Engineer and I’ve been here just over 10 years (I originally joined Torpedo as a Web Developer).

What exactly does your role entail? Can you run us through what you might get up today, for example?

I sit in both the Digital and UX teams with a view to overseeing the UI designs from a developer point of view, making sure they are fully accessible and buildable within the timelines set out for a project.

I also code up front end builds on projects, and build component libraries for projects that we deliver the design as code to clients.

What tools/resources/people do you depend on to get your job done?

From a code perspective, we utilise Bootstrap and GSAP libraries heavily for front end builds to enable us to be more creative with the animations and interactions on our sites. I work alongside the UI designers day-to-day to refine designs and work on ideas as they progress into the Digital team for building.

What do you love most about your job at Torpedo? What’s the highlight of your day?

Getting to be creative and, on projects where we have the scope, being adventurous with how we deliver content on the site using different techniques and effects.

And what do you find most challenging?

When the designs change after we’ve started building the designs out, something that would normally have a small impact if changed pre build can have a massive impact if changed after we’ve started building a site out.

Is there a particular piece of work/project that you’re really proud of?

A couple of sites I’ve worked on over the years – such as Autodesk BIM 360…have won awards – it’s always nice to have your effort recognised that way.

What did you see yourself doing when you were a kid?

After realising there was no career in being a female footballer I wanted to be a Forensic Scientist.

If you weren’t a digital specialist, what do you think you’d be?

A photographer. I love taking photos and have enjoyed getting involved with some of the Torpedo team’s recent photo challenges.

What made you choose this career path? How did you get to where you are today?

I studied engineering for 4 years at GCSE and A Level equivalent, as well as IT, so wanted to go into a career using those skills as it’s where my strengths lie.

I did a BSc Computing degree, which allowed me to study across all the different areas such as networks, infrastructure, hardware, programming languages for both software and websites, the higher level maths for logic etc.

Once I’d completed that I knew I wanted to specialise in websites, so spent the summer working in an agency getting real world experience, before going back to uni to do a MSc in Web Technologies.

Since then I’ve worked in agencies, and also spent 3 years as an in-house software developer.

During my time at Torpedo my role has changed a few times. The team has grown and we’ve been able to bring in more specialists. Initially when I joined as a Web Developer, I did everything from setting up servers, domains and hosting, databases and worked on both front end and back end code. But the larger team we have now means I can focus on the one area I enjoy most – front-end development.

When your OOO is on, what are you likely to be doing?

Travelling, whilst taking (lots of) photos, or attending football matches/gigs.

What’s your favourite memory of working at Torpedo to date?

Doing Tough Mudder, as it’s something I would never have done otherwise and was a big challenge, but also a great team experience as we had lots of people from across the whole business take part.

And finally, what’s the best piece of professional advice you’ve ever been given?

It doesn’t matter how well you can code if you can’t communicate.