Believe

Iman Akabi is Lead Data Engineer at Believe, where she manages a data engineering team responsible for ingesting, treating, storing and exposing data for internal users and external users. She loves the complexity and variety of Believe’s different use cases.A passion for tech and musicThree years ago, I graduated as a data engineer from INSA Rennes, a French engineering school. Since then I’ve worked as a consultant, where my main job was to build and run data platforms for my clients. I was fortunate to work in a variety of industries, ranging from insurance to communications, and to work with various tech stacks and cloud technologies. Over those three years I gradually took on more responsibilities — from data engineer, to coaching trainee, to tech lead.A year ago I worked for Believe as a consultant and fell in love with the company. Believe allowed me to combine my two greatest passions, tech and music, so naturally when they offered me a job I had to take it. I really liked the idea of joining a fast-growing company with a very strong digital culture and a presence in more than 50 countries.&nbsp;Complex challenges and agile methodologiesAt first I joined Believe as tech lead of the data platform. It’s full cloud, with a large panel of business use cases like collecting daily audiences, the royalties paid to artists, tracking the rank of Believe artists within playlists, etc. We have really interesting and exciting technological challenges in data. For example, we have really high volume. Every day we have to ingest several hundreds of millions of data points. And we have very complex data preparation rules.&nbsp;Even before I joined the company and was working with Believe as a consultant, I saw they really respected good development practices, going through all the necessary stages — unit testing, automated deployment, Gitflow, code review, documentation etc. And we work in agile methodology, which I really believe in. I was a scrum master before, and this method really helps everyone prioritize, focus and collaborate across teams.A comprehensive tech stackIn the data engineering team, our job is to ingest, treat, store and expose data for internal users and external users, like artists and labels. I love the tech stack that we use — it’s actually a big part of why I joined the company. We use Python, we do our heavy computing using Spark Scala but we also use AWS services (Lambda, Step Functions, Batch, etc). The most important tool we have is the Data Warehouse, which is where we store our data. For that we use Snowflake.&nbsp; A big part of my job is to define the technical framework of new business use cases. So whenever a new project comes with a new business use case, my team and I take care of the technical framework.&nbsp;Of course, we also work closely together with the rest of the tech teams. There is the content engineering team, which provides music to the 150+ streaming platforms. There is the finops engineering team, which computes the 50.000+ monthly royalties’ statements&nbsp; to pay artists. There is the infrastructure team, which is responsible for our cloud and on premise infrastructure. And finally, there is the security team, which secures the integrity and compliance of Believe’s information system. Eventually, we also work together with the product team, which helps us understand the digital needs of the non-tech teams at Believe.&nbsp;Learning &amp; developmentPart of my job is also to help our newcomers become more autonomous, especially from the tech point of view. I usually take an inventory of their skills when they arrive and then set up the right workshops to train them in their goals. We do a lot of pair-coding, especially with the junior engineers, to help them fully master our code. And as a tech lead, I try to stay really available for questions and share best practices.Believe also offers a lot of support for tech leads such as myself. Every six month I have a check in with my managers to discuss my career progress and goals. H.R. is also present during those meetings, which shows that the company really takes it seriously. We also have access to an online platform, called Believe Academy, which offers workshops and training sessions in technical management. And whenever I can’t solve something on my own, I feel a hundred percent comfortable asking for help. The company culture at Believe is very respectful and everyone is always willing to help.&nbsp;

“At Believe, I get to combine my two greatest passions — tech and music”

Iman AKABI