Customer focus, passion to stay ahead of the curve, working with great teams makes Tesco a Great Place To Work

Customer focus, passion to stay ahead of the curve, working with great teams makes Tesco a Great Place To Work

Priyadarsanie Ramasubramanian

Head of Engineering - Tesco Technology

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Customer focus, passion to stay ahead of the curve, working with great teams makes Tesco a Great Place To Work

July 22, 2020 2646 Views

Hello. I am Priyadarsanie Ramasubramanian, Head of Software Development at Tesco.

My journey with Tesco started in September 2007. The last twelve years have been nothing short of amazing – building great teams, working across various technologies, creating great products to help customers, and being able to balance work and home life.

The type of work I do

My work is quite exciting since it involves ensuring that all customers get the products they need when they walk into a Tesco Store or shop online. We influence product availability through advanced forecasting and ordering. This is challenging since it needs to be done whilst keeping waste to a minimum and optimal stock holding. This in turn keeps our operational costs under control and helps the bottom line. The more we save, the more benefits we can pass on to our customers!

Work is fun since we are building better capabilities on newer platforms. This involves a lot of learning since we are transforming our forecasting intelligence to better algorithms on big data platforms. We crunch a large volume of history, react to recent trends, events, promotions and convert the resulting demand into the right kind of orders for the supplier and store.

There are a few more greenfield and brownfield implementation projects that I’ve had an opportunity to work on at Tesco. Job fulfilment comes with working on these kind of projects, by building high performing and scalable teams that are globally distributed – particularly across India, UK, Central Europe, and Asia.

A typical day

There is no typical day. Each day has something different to look forward to. I stay connected with my team to check if they need help especially in the current challenging scenario with COVID-19. My contribution differs according to the stage of a product or initiative. For example, we are currently exploring an initiative related to ordering that touches the E2E supply chain including distribution and transport. This entails strategy discussions, shaping the vision, brainstorming, and debating on product features and working with the teams to architect the right platform.

For a forecasting initiative that is work in progress, it is more about reviewing progress, checking on the help the teams need, shaping the release plan, measuring benefits, changing direction when needed, and resolving critical impediments across teams.

I also help with organisation initiatives such as hiring, setting up capability, helping upskill colleagues and diversity related projects. We organise a few initiatives to help our female colleagues aspire for more and have a successful career.

Why Tesco Technology

With evolving technology and consumer behavior changes, retailers need to be tech savvy and stay ahead of the curve. Tesco being a leading retailer means that we need to quickly react and whatever we develop, is developed at scale in multiple countries, which makes Tesco technology THE place to be.

One of my team’s current ambitions is to reduce our forecast errors. This means, they need to explore large volumes of data. The team recently won an award at the NASSCOM GCC Summit for Innovation – something I am really proud of.

Tesco’s focus on people and values is great. Colleagues and teams always come first. I have experienced two instances when I had to take a career break of three months to focus on family commitments. The framework, policies and managers enabled me to do this with ease. While I am accountable for technology operations 24×7, I have enough flexibility to take care of my family which makes Tesco Technology a great place to work. There is also focus on individual growth. Learning opportunities at Tesco are a priority and you can really shape your own career here.

My personal time

I have two sons with who I spend a lot of my personal time. I love reading, particularly fiction. I also read to improve my finance knowledge and like to keep myself updated. Walking in the mornings keep me active and energised for the day.