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Kennismaken met Melika Sajadian, Data Engineer en Back-end Developer

11 januari 2022

In deze serie artikelen maken we kennis met de verschillende werkvelden waar Stantec actief in is, en leden van het team

Melika is sinds 2019 bij Stantec aan het werk als data engineer en back-end developer, werkend vanuit Delft. Van origine afkomstig uit Iran, is zij een van de internationale collega’s die werken vanuit Arnhem en Delft. Benieuwd wat back-end developer nou zo’n leuke baan maakt? 

Can you tell something about your background and what you do?

After I received my bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Tehran, I got accepted for a master program called Geomatics at TU Delft while studying for my master’s in GIS in Iran. That is when I came to the Netherlands. For my studies we did a lot of programming and I discovered that I really liked it, so I decided to pursue it further. Two weeks after I graduated, I started at Stantec as a back-end developer. Well, actually I am both a data engineer and a back-end developer, a large portion of my time goes into working with large amounts of data and the processing of it. One of the important products of Stantec is the soil risk map (Bodemrisicokaart). We gather data from different organizations such as municipalities, provinces and the government environmental services (Omgevingsdiensten) and even Stantec itself. Since we deal with data with various formats, we need to harmonize them into a format that fits into a database management system. Then we have a process in place in which we do calculations and analyses of soil contamination. The output of these processes are map layers and some complementary information. At the end, we make this information available for our internal soil advisors and external clients through various web applications. To handle this big process efficiently, we constantly build automations and integrate our processes.

Why Stantec?

I had another job offer when I graduated, but I decided to chose Stantec. First of all, because of the organization culture. The fact that Stantec is an environmental company, is very important for me. If I look to the role, I saw a lot of potential. Handling the large amount of data and then showing it to clients in a way that is efficient and meaningful to them, is something I really wanted to do. Besides that, you can only learn the dataset that Stantec uses in a professional environment. It is a very unique dataset and challenging. Next to the role, I like that I learn a lot at Stantec. The technologies change very quickly, so we need to be on top of the trends, and always consider how we can do things more effective or smarter. It’s a never-ending process of learning. Stantec offers me many opportunities to keep up to date with the latest developments. We learn a lot from each other, but we also get the opportunities to get trainings, both for soft skills and technical skills.

And at last: why should everyone want to do this work?

It is a very interesting job! It’s not only about the development of smart solutions, you can explore the potential of the data and processes and make it even better, smarter or more effective. There are many opportunities to think creatively, so I am constantly developing in this job. And there is room to take on new roles: I have a lot of ambitions, and I have recently been offered the opportunity to get involved in front-end development. 

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