Career Stories: Richard Neilsen

At Vicinity, if you’ve used a Tableau dashboard, explored foot traffic trends or heard about our AI Policy Assistant, you’ve likely seen the impact of Richard Neilsen’s work. His path to Analytics Platform Engineer hasn’t been linear – starting his career as a high school maths teacher before upskilling and pivoting to this new path. Richard shares the highlights and some surprising similarities across both roles.

How long have you been at Vicinity?

Four years ago, I joined the Data Science team as an Associate Data Scientist, eventually upgraded to Data Scientist, and last year moved into the new Data & AI Enablement team as Analytics Platform Engineer, with the unfortunate acronym, APE.

You’ve had an unconventional career moving, from maths teacher to platform engineer. Can you walk us through that journey and what prompted the move?

I studied maths mostly because I found it interesting, rather than having specific career plans related to maths. I did high school tutoring while I was at university, which I really enjoyed, so once I graduated, went back to get my teaching qualification.

In a stroke of luck and good timing, after I graduated, my mentor teacher at the school I first did placement at, reached out about a role, and a few days later I officially became a high school maths teacher.

I was at that school for seven years and really enjoyed it. I loved working with the students and being in the classroom. What I didn’t enjoy were the additional tasks outside teaching, with ever-growing admin tasks and other pointless activity. Those extra responsibilities took time away from what teachers are there to do and didn’t really make the most of their skills or the value they bring to students. I decided to resign at the end of 2019 (dodged a bullet with not doing the virtual classroom/homeschooling thing during the pandemic!) although kept doing online tutoring while I reset and worked out my next move.

What made you land on data science and what led you to Vicinity?

I looked at my interests and started chatting to my network, hearing from people across industries working in data science and software development. Unsure which path I wanted to take, and faced with plenty of spare time in lockdown, I completed relevant courses to upskill myself in both data and software development to build the skills I’d need for those roles.

I had another stroke of luck – when a friend of mine said they were looking to hire a new person in the Data Science team at Vicinity, so I applied for the Associate Data Scientist role and was fortunate enough to be successful.

What does a typical day look like in your role?

It’s quite variable, and my focus shifts from month to month.  Sometimes it’s developing Tableau dashboards for the business to use, or the Tableau Pulse project (a system that provides simple graphs for centre teams and others that show trends in foot traffic, sales, etc), or at the moment my focus is on building an AI policy assistant. I’ve also worked on other projects such as our EV charging network. It’s generally about figuring out how to make use of the data that comes in, and transform it into something we can share back with the business so they can make data-led decisions, but the specifics change a lot from one project to the next.

What skills or qualities from your time as a teacher show up in your work today?

A big part of what we do as the Data team at Vicinity, is helping the rest of the business and giving them data-based tools that add meaning and drive how they make decisions. I got into teaching because I really enjoy figuring out how to break down complex concepts for people. The starting point is always, here’s what this person knows or understands, and here’s what they need to know, then working out the pathway to get them from A to B is a kind of fun puzzle. So that skill that I honed teaching concepts like calculus to year 11 and 12 kids, very much applies in my role today, working out how to make data accessible and meaningful for business users.

I’m also dusting off my teaching skills to run the upcoming Tableau training sessions – as part of the Data team’s perpetual quest to promote data-led decision making at Vicinity!

Is there a memorable project you've worked on or something you're particularly proud of?

Very recently the AI policy assistant has been a great experience, as I’ve been learning to use a new platform while building an agent in that platform. It’s a unique (and at times frustrating) process but it’s the best way to learn. I’m really happy with how it’s coming together and think the end product will really add value for people. There’s been a lot of learning about best practices, and then getting to implement those and see the value of the product in real time, has been a really valuable and rewarding learning experience.

What’s the best thing about working at Vicinity?

The Data team is a great group to work with, everyone is very skilled and driven. We’ve got a good sense of shared purpose and the work is exciting. We’ve got good managers above us, who back us and support us in doing our work, and it’s just great group to work with and for.

What's your advice to team members wanting to develop their career at Vicinity?

We’re a big organisation of people doing so many varied things, so it’s hard to give advice that would work in every role.. but breaking it down, I’d say identify what you need to know next (the next skill that would be useful to you) and try to find ways to apply it. Don’t just do some course to get the certification, use it to solve a problem; the best way to learn is by applying your learning.

And put your hand up for things that will require you to develop new skills. Throw yourself into a project you don’t fully understand, you will learn so much along the way.

What might surprise people about what you do?

Just how much work is involved in the process of getting new data into our system and presented to users! I’m still routinely surprised by how complex things turn out to be even when they seemed like they would be simple at the outset (the EV charger dashboards were a classic example of this). Vicinity has so many interconnected systems, platforms, and workflows; navigating it can be a real maze. But when it finally clicks into place, and our business users can see the results presented in a useful and accessible way, it makes the puzzle worth solving.

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Inspired by Richard's career change? See which roles match your skills on our Careers page.