During October the UK recognises Black History Month, to showcase the continued achievements and contributions of Black people to the UK and around the world. During the month we have partnered with Black Tech Fest, Europe’s premier event celebrating inclusion and equality. Taking place online and in person in London, the festival welcomed over 5000 professionals across a two-day event. The first day ‘Colour Code’ was an interactive tech day dedicated to inspiring young people. The second ‘Belonging Summit’ was the flagship day and explored inclusion through the lens of product, people and culture.
We’re proud to have supported this event as part of our continued embed to embed diversity and inclusion within the workplace. We aim to do this by setting clear objectives, monitoring and reporting on equality within our organisation. Although we recognise there is always more work to be done, we know that diverse teams help inspire innovation and problem solving, as well as offer a variety of skills to meet changing needs.
What was your background prior to joining BAE Systems Digital Intelligence and what inspired you to pursue a career in tech?
Damini – “BAE Systems Digital Intelligence has been the only the company I’ve worked for after graduating. I studied Maths at university, initially thought I’d work in Finance, but I enjoyed studying Theoretical Physics. I went on to do a Masters in Applied Maths, which enabled me to study Data Science. In between my undergraduate and Masters Degrees, I did a summer internship at BAE Systems Digital Intelligence as a Software Engineer. I decided software engineering wasn’t for me as I like to be more customer facing. I’ve always wanted to do hands on technical work and previously enjoyed my internship, thought the company was great so came back as a Data Scientist.”
Mivy – “So my story’s longer. I’d previously worked for various consulting and systems integration companies prior to joining BAE Systems Digital Intelligence. What led me to a career in tech is that I actually learnt to code when I was 9 and did a Computer Science and Maths degree, - I’ve never considered a career in anything else, except briefly flirting with the idea of becoming a professional athlete! I was attracted to problem solving and the pace of changing technology and enjoy Maths. So coding really lends itself to that with the logic and algorithm side. I started coding - showing my age now on my Sinclair ZX81. I learnt through computer magazines and then wrote a code to do my repetitive maths homework. My Dad printed out my code to show to my teacher who so impressed that I got given a book token. It shows the power of nurturing kids from a young age. I loved Maths so much, I even used to give my teddies a maths lesson!
What was the journey like into your respective roles with BAE Systems Digital Intelligence?
Damini – “I started off working in central government, spent my first year working with HMRC on an entity resolution project – helping our customers migrate data from disparate systems into a single strategic system. It was very hands on coding and that’s where I got my technical depth of experience. After that, I moved into Defence and fell in love with the purpose that working in Defence gives you and seeing the difference you make to end user’s lives. I moved into the new Defence AI Centre, which started in June 2022. It helps Defence and the wider MOD to use AI technologies at scale – so trying to take prototypes and innovation over the line into production.
Mivy – “So again, my story’s longer, I’ve been with the company 17 years now. I started as a Technical Consultant. The company has changed a lot and I’ve moved through different project roles in an advisory capacity and now I’m Digital Transformation Director. I do less coding and see myself more as someone who does ‘technical swanning around!”
What attracted you to speaking at Black Tech Fest and what topic area did you choose to cover?
Damini – “Well, Mivy kind of signed me up to it but I am a Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) champion in the data and digital community. I’m passionate about D&I and in the Defence AI Centre, we’re trying to build a community within the organisation. We spotted an opportunity at Black Tech Fest to talk about what BAE Systems Digital Intelligence is like as a tech company and our D&I initiatives. My presentation initially was around what we do as a company. I then gave a case study example of a data science experiment on anomaly detection. AI is huge at the moment and necessarily taught in Maths degrees, well it wasn’t a module I could study when I was at university but times may have changed. I explained what AI is and how it can be applied in your career. I finished with our D&I initiatives and routes into working here.”
Mivy – “I’m really glad that we’re now supporting different events to attract more diverse set of recruits as that’s been long overdue in the tech industry. I was really impressed with the event itself and not to blow my own trumpet, thought it was good to have someone senior go, so it shows that we take diversity seriously. I talked about some leadership traits for the age of digital and agile. I touched on artificial intelligence from an ethics point of view rather than technical – why it’s essential to have diverse teams working on building AI solutions. I’m a bit of an evangelist on this as the focus can be too much on technical rather than softer skills and leadership and it was great to talk to the audience attending and answer their questions.”
How did you find the event and what were your key highlights?
Mivy – “I listened to some of the other speakers and was impressed by their technical knowledge and confidence. The number of big organisations that had representation there shows how well the event itself has done at reaching out to industry. We had a constant stream of people speaking to us, enjoyed the busy atmosphere.”
Damini – “I definitely agree, not much more I can add to that. There was so much representation from major consultancies and seeing us alongside them. I got asked about D&I and I didn’t sugar coat it, I’m the only person on my project who isn’t a white male - it is what it is but there’s a number of initiatives we’re doing to improve diversity, particularly at the graduate level.
What would your advice be to someone thinking of starting or switching to a career in tech?
Mivy – “Just do it! There’s so many different careers in tech and you can change once you’re in it. We’ve very good here at helping people navigate their journey. You don’t always know what you can excel at, try something and carve out something that suits your strengths and interests because tech is an industry that never stands still.”
Damini – “To just add to that, it’s useful to know what you don’t like and that’s really important knowledge to figure out for yourself. Knowing that you can shape your role and at BAE Systems Digital Intelligence, you’re given a lot of flexibility to allow that. For example, I know I don’t have to be a Data Scientist forever, you can easily switch and there’s people to support you with that.”