Salik graduated from the Queen’s University Belfast and joined Jaguar Land Rover 4 years ago, as a graduate. He loves working in our Manchester office and is fully committed to develop his careers here, to drive business excellence as well as delivering greater products to our customers.
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Q: What position did you start in and what is your position now? Please describe your current responsibilities.
I was very lucky to have done many placements in various areas during my two-year graduate programme, it enabled me to explore and better understand our business. My home team was responsible for the Infotainment systems and I supported the Software Over the Air (SOTA) project during my time there; I was also part of the Product Launch team that built the New Range Rover. In addition, I gained invaluable experiences in both Manchester DDC (Digital Delivery Centre) and Shannon office in Ireland during my rotation.
I am currently a Site Reliability Engineer. My responsibilities include working with Google Cloud Platform provider to host Jaguar Land Rover in-house apps and closely managing each release to ensure there is no delay. My experiences and knowledge also enabled me to identify improvement opportunities, as well as recommending / developing solutions to drive business excellence. I worked on automating a process that rotates Vault Access Tokens in GitLab overnight. These tokens are used to access the Vault where we store sensitive information. As a result, the automation delivered tangible business benefits by removing manual intervention and ensuring better security.
Q: Are you involved in any other projects / networks? If so, please describe what they are and what your contributions are.
I am currently working on the Pivotal project which predominantly focuses on developing a customer-facing subscription app for new vehicle sales. The project allows our customers to lease Jaguar Land Rover vehicles for a minimum of 6 months period, at a fixed cost. As a part of the subscription, customers also have the opportunity to change to a new vehicle every 6 months. In addition, this project also simplifies the customer onboarding process which includes customer background checks, traditionally can be time consuming.
Q: What do you like about working here?
The culture here in Manchester DDC is very appealing to me. People here are very friendly and always so helpful. Everyone is doing their part to contribute towards a positive working environment so that we can deliver greater products to our customers.
Q: What are your career aspirations? Do you feel that you get the necessary support from your management / department to help achieve your learning & development goal?
I aspire to be a leader one day. I have a clear vision that can have positive impact on our business and our people. I have always had the great support from my management to achieve my goals.
Q: Describe your team / department, and what makes it stand out from our competition?
People in my team all eager to design / develop greater products. Everyone is really driven and fully committed. We also know how to have a laugh and will never miss an opportunity to organise social events. I believe the willingness to constantly drive business excellence makes us stand out from the competition.
Q: Tell us some interesting facts about yourself.
- Hobbies: Football – I never miss a chance to play or watch a game. Best experience was to watch Lionel Messi in Camp Nou Barcelona.
- Achievement: I left home at 17 to move to a different continent alone to start my adult life. Being the only child and experiencing the world at that age, starting university, meeting new people, was a big achievement.
- Very First Car: A ford fiesta, in red. Not as fast but holds a special place in my heart.
Q: What hints and tips can you share with the potential candidates who are going through the application / interview process? Be confident in who you are. Don’t be shy to express yourself and your ideas. Be honest.
