Careers in IT

What’s Lead in Data at RWEST and which tasks and components does this exciting project include?

Data is a key asset for the company and we need to ensure we have the right tools and processes in place in order to derive optimal worth from it.

Playing an integral part of our business, the Lead in Data initiative does not only focus on creating a new Data & Analytics platform to make the sharing, searching, transforming and on-boarding of data simple and efficient, but also ensures we have the right organisational setup, governance and processes as well as the integration with pre-existing technology in place. We adopt an agile way of working, lead on best practice and think beyond, ensuring business value is at the heart of what we do.

In the meantime, we have started the production of a cloud-based platform on the basis of Dremio, Databricks, Alation and Tableau, which we are continuously developing and expanding. Python and AWS tools are the main tools used in this process.

What were the key motivations for launching the Lead in Data initiative?

Lead in Data is a result of brainstorming with IT professionals and business as well as support function professionals in order to identify and address deficits in our organisational set-up and IT landscape. Among other projects, our Lead in Data initiative represents the founding pillar of our expansion strategy. Data forms the basis of our core analytical activities, which ultimately support our trading strategies and daily decision-making. However, we have come from a situation where we are struggling to process data in an outdated and existing IT environment. Out of these difficulties in routinely dealing with new incoming data, we wanted to reach a state where we have a more seamless and faster way of accessing and handling content, as well as crunching and analysing data.

RWEST is already in the lead of energy trading, are we looking to ‘lead in data’, too?

From the external point of view, the name ‘Lead in Data’ certainly seems a bit exaggerated. While we don’t believe that we will be leading on the data front compared to other market players, our Lead in Data initiative supports our internal ambition to have a seamless approach to data, so that the start of new business activities isn’t delayed and we don’t experience further bottlenecks when we set up somewhere in a foreign market for a new commodity. It would be an extraordinary benefit to have a modernised IT landscape that no longer prevents us from marching on and expanding further.

Why is data so important for the core business of our company?

In markets as fundamentally driven as ours, trading and planning are practically synonymous. Keeping on top of what happens in the markets means to tap, process, model and report a wide array of incoming data. Especially in power trading, this involves tracking all the European power stations, their availability and hourly production data, power demand and economic indicators, weather forecasts, hydro data and fast-moving commodity prices. With the global integration of natural gas markets through LNG, we keep tapping ever more data on a global level, down to individual ships sailing. Managing the high volumes of data coming in is basically providing us the cockpit for understanding ideal generation patterns and translating these into trading ideas.

Where do you see the benefits of Lead in Data?

The huge volumes of data being generated in commodity markets require up-to-date infrastructure. With the Lead in Data initiative, RWEST is building up a very advanced technology stack, leveraging some of the most interesting technologies around such as cloud-powered massive-parallel-processing and allocated memory databases. This technological foundation enables us to develop advanced models at a strong pace and at the same time keep track of a myriad of indicators. For us, the advances of technology really allow us to have any relevant information available in seconds – the basis of a deep understanding of market developments.

Why should you join our team?

You will get the opportunity to play a key role in shaping and building the platform from the very beginning, influencing how it is built and the technical decisions we take. You will be part of a new and expanding multi-disciplinary team, focused on a new way of working for the company. You will work closely with the commercial analysts and traders to understand their problem statements and translate this into a design which you will be responsible for building. You will be working in a dynamic fast paced environment, where users needs and new business opportunities evolve rapidly.

What’s your contribution to achieve our goals?

We are looking for an enthusiastic, self-starting individual who is not afraid to get stuck in. We want someone who can take responsibility and ownership for their work, whilst also being a good communicator and user focused. The individual should be open, willing to speak up and offer challenge in a constructive way, whilst also having an appetite for a fast learning curve.