I joined Luminance in 2019 after completing my degree in Mechatronics and Robotics from Leeds University. I always wanted to go into a fast-growth tech scale-up, so when I saw the opportunity to work for a company at the forefront of the AI sector, I jumped at the chance.

I actually started as a backend engineer where, for several months, I focused on building out Luminance’s internal systems. This included our internal CRM, the goldmine where we store all of our leads, the website, customer portal and support helpdesk, before moving into my current role as a team lead within the Development team, where I work on building and testing our core AI-powered products. This is what a typical day looks like for me.

8:30am

I’m based out of our Cambridge office three days a week, so today I arrive a little before 9am so that I can check all of our various systems are running correctly before the rest of the team arrive. Once I’m confident that everything is running as it should be, I grab a cup of coffee and sit down with our other Dev leads to discuss where the focus should be for the day ahead and allocate people accordingly.

9am

I dial into a Zoom call with my colleagues in the Product Specialists and Support team in London for our daily catch up. This gives us the opportunity to touch base on any issues or support tickets that have been flagged during the night. We operate a 24/7 Support desk to cater for our global customer base which now includes over 400 organisations across 60 countries, so we often wake up to different updates and queries from our customers and prospects in the APAC region or from colleagues in the US who are working on an ongoing Proof of Value – this is our free trial of Luminance’s technology.

10:30am

The rest of my morning is spent working on a brand new release of our Diligence platform. This is our flagship product that we launched into the market back in 2016, so we have a huge global customer base using the technology on a daily basis today. Working on a release like this this involves an element of coding which I really enjoy, so today I’m spending some time writing and implementing new features into the code base, before the team will compile a set of builds and conduct QA testing to ensure everything is working correctly ahead of the release being rolled out to customers worldwide.

12:30pm

Lunchtime. It’s Monday, so today the whole team gets free lunch in the office! We also get free pastries for breakfast on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. After so long at home during the pandemic, everyone is happy to be back in three days a week, made even better by the fact that we just moved into a brand new office in both Cambridge and London, where I try and spend a day every other week.

2pm

After lunch I spend some time reviewing CVs that we’ve received for the Software Developer role. We’re currently hiring into all of our technical roles, so we’re constantly on the lookout for new talent in our Cambridge office. One of the great things about Luminance is that we don’t always believe in hiring people with years’ worth of experience. We hire bright graduates who are eager to work at the cutting-edge of AI, so the office is filled with young and ambitious recruits.

3pm

The rest of my afternoon is spent focusing on our latest product, Luminance Corporate. After several months in development, Corporate, which uses our core AI engine to actually draft documents and take a first pass review of an organisation’s incoming contracts, is now fully launched and we’re already seeing great traction amongst prospects. Developing and launching a brand new product means the whole team needs to be working faster. The team has been working on builds for new features almost every other day, so it’s brilliant to see all of our hard work finally pay off with Corporate flying off the shelves.

It also gives me the opportunity to work with our CEO, Eleanor, and lots of different people within the organisation. They are on the ground talking to our customers and prospects every day, so it’s always good to hear what GCs and lawyers are saying about the product so we can constantly work to better it. Today, I’m focused on building a brand new feature within Corporate’s Workflow Editor which will allow users to see a full audit trail of their entire contract lifecycle, from version one to counterparty editing and final.

6pm

There’s quite a few of us in the office today, so while some head off to go bouldering after work, for most of the team it’s off to the pub for a drink!