Hello! I’m Raj, I live in London, England and I have two children with my wife. I am a Customer Engineer at Devoteam in the Google Cloud Business Unit and I have really enjoyed working at Devoteam since I started in March 2023.
For the past seven years in my career, I have been using Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to develop and deploy innovative, cost-optimised solutions for organisations across the globe, as well as consult businesses on how to enhance their GCP environment.
The Day in the Life of a Customer Engineer
What does a typical day look like for you as a Customer Engineer at Devoteam?
Honestly, everyday varies completely – which is not a bad thing! My ‘typical day’ depends on whether I am involved in delivering project work for a client, supporting existing clients in technical reviews or providing advice to new customers on their GCP environment.
Could you share some examples of real-life projects that you have worked on as a Customer Engineer?
Of course! Over the past 2 years working at Devoteam, I have been extremely fortunate to help our clients tackle challenges and address their requirements by using Google Cloud Platform.
As a Customer Engineer, I’ve delivered impactful solutions across diverse cloud and data landscapes. My experience includes leading the development of core Java and cloud components within Collibra, focusing on integrating Vertex AI and building robust analytics ingestion pipelines using BigQuery and Pub/Sub, including GCP infrastructure provisioning via Terraform.
I’ve also architected and led implementation of a custom HR system to Google Workspace synchronisation solution using Cloud Functions written in python and Cloud Tasks to handle time bound Cloud Function invocation queues, ensuring scalability, resilience and efficiency.
Furthermore, I’ve worked alongside Carrefour, in a team that designed and deployed a GKE Autopilot cluster with a comprehensive CI/CD pipeline, which provided enhanced operational agility and streamlined application deployments.
As part of delivering these projects, I leveraged my past software & cloud engineering experiences and cloud technologies to solve complex business challenges and drive tangible results.
How do you collaborate with other teams or departments within Devoteam?
Majority of the time, I work remotely and engage with team members that are also based in the UK, but also located across the EMEA region, so effective collaboration is key to delivering successful projects for our clients.
Within the UK, we have a Customer Engineering catch up twice a week, which is a great forum to discuss our account plans, review project opportunities we’re actively working on with the Account Executives, and request support if we need it.
I work closely with the EMEA Research Project team who are responsible for sharing upcoming projects that are aligned with my skills and capabilities. For any project, a ‘Google Space’ is created, which makes it easy to collaborate and share updates with team members that are involved in the project.
Although I work remotely, it does not feel like there is any distance between myself and my team members due to our strong team ethic, but also the rich suite of collaboration tools we have access to.
What advice would you give to someone aspiring to become a Customer Engineer at Devoteam or in general?
My advice is to begin your career working in a product team, rather than immediately jumping into consultancy. In a Product team, you have a viable opportunity to hone in on your skills, find your speciality and become a subject-matter expert (SME), whilst obtaining deep industry knowledge.
Once you have found your speciality, then I suggest moving into consultancy where you can really apply your expertise and build on your existing skillset.
What is the best thing about your job?
A fulfilling aspect of my role involves interacting with Devoteam’s customers. I enjoy getting to know the individuals working at the organisation and also understanding their organisational use cases. I love being able to create innovative solutions that are based on their business’s use case and aim to make it cost-optimised and scalable for their unique needs.
Can you describe a (or your current) project that you have worked on as a Customer Engineer, and the steps you took to complete it?
Working as a Software and Cloud Engineer in a project with Collibra, I collaborated alongside Collibra’s Innovation team to develop the core components that enable seamless integration with Google Cloud’s Vertex AI. A key focus was designing and implementing a robust analytics ingestion pipeline, leveraging BigQuery and Pub/Sub for high-volume data processing. This involved architecting and deploying Infrastructure as Code (IaC) for all necessary GCP resources, ensuring scalability, reliability, and maintainability. This project required deep expertise in Java development, GCP, Cloud Architecture, and Data engineering, ultimately enabling Collibra’s internal team to effectively utilise Vertex AI and GCP capabilities for advanced data analytics.
The steps taken to complete the project were:
- Requirements Gathering & Design: Understanding the client’s needs for Vertex AI integration and designing the overall architecture with the customers Innovations team.
- Core Component Development (Java): Writing the core application library that would be used to interact with Vertex AI APIs and manage data flow for data ingestion pipeline.
- Data Pipeline Implementation (BigQuery & Pub/Sub): Configuring Pub/Sub topics and subscriptions for data ingestion, as well as creating BigQuery tables and data transformation processes.
- IaC Configuration (GCP): Writing and deploying Terraform or similar IaC configurations to provision and manage GCP resources like BigQuery datasets and Pub/Sub topics.
- Testing & Deployment: Implementing unit and integration tests for core Java components and deploying the solution to a production environment.
- Monitoring & Optimation: Setting up monitoring tools to track performance and identify areas for optimisation.
What are the most challenging aspects of your job as a Customer Engineer, and how do you overcome them?
One of the biggest challenges in my role as a Customer Engineer is identifying opportunities that not only drive efficiency and scalability for the client, but also stay within their budget.
To tackle this, I take a step back to assess the situation and strategise on how I can balance these priorities effectively. Finding that sweet spot between cost and value is key to overcoming this challenge.
What is your greatest moment as a Devoteamer?
I would say my greatest moment is from working on a project with Collibra, which was the first AI project I ever worked on. The project involved Java development & customer consultation, however I was able to provide a solution for their data ingestion pipeline which tracks and analyses their requests. This solution was actually outside of their project scope, but the customer liked it and requested for the solution to be implemented. This was quite a proud moment for me and I am happy it resulted in greater customer satisfaction.
How would you describe your Tribe team? How do you move together?
I am a part of the Infrastructure & App Modernisation tribe team. We stay connected through monthly tribe calls, which allow us to exchange ideas, share knowledge and discuss experiences related to different aspects of our projects. There is also a tribe space that helps us collaborate on-the-go and seek prompt support when required.
How would you describe the Devoteam Team?
Working at Devoteam is incredibly rewarding. Devoteam’s company culture is characterised by inclusivity, seamless collaboration, and the stimulating presence of intellectually sharp subject matter experts.
How do you set the pace in your job?
Maintaining a well-organised calendar is key!
I log time spent on project work and keep track of meetings here. My calendar is completely visible to my team, so everyone can see what I am working on, which helps align on priorities. I also block off Friday afternoons in my calendar for learning, if I’m not involved in any project work. Whether it’s earning a new certification, recertifying, or learning about a new solution such as Agentspace, I ensure I make time for it.
Go Big: what does it mean to you?
To me, ‘Go Big’ means pursuing whatever you do without limitations, providing innovative and ambitious solutions to our customers. Doing something extraordinary, rather than settling for mediocre outcomes.
Thank you Raj for your honest and thoughtful responses!