Meet Applications Specialist Nigel Wild

Nigel Wild, Applications Specialist at Global Graphics Software

Meet Nigel Wild, an appplications specialist and responsible for workflow in our SmartDFE™. Nigel joined us in 2022.

How did your career path lead you to Global Graphics Software?

I started life as an electronics engineer working for Misomex, servicing and installing CAD, Laser Stepper, and Step & Repeat machines. As the technology moved, so did I; Graphoprint was where I found my passion for workflow whilst working in the platemaking department, helping to introduce their first digital platemaking workflow.

Having enjoyed frontline technology, I was drawn to Artwork Systems (AWS, who have many developers now working at HYBRID Software) and seized an opportunity to join them as an application specialist. At AWS I supported their PCC pageflow system which evolved into Nexus.

More recently and over the past few years, I have been involved with a multinational packaging specialist Brand Imaging Solutions, a brand management and reprographic trade shop, working with brands such as Coca Cola, Del Monte, Weetabix, Vimto and Hallmark specializing in workflow automation.

What do you enjoy most about your role at Global Graphics Software ?

Demonstrations and presentations to people. I love demonstrating how our software simplifies routine and challenging operations, reducing common pain points for their companies, saving them a lot of time. I have to say especially after COVID, I enjoy the interaction with my colleagues, discussing new ideas between different teams with such a large group – it is amazing how solutions evolve and are implemented throughout our software product range.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Being Manchester born and bred, I have followed Manchester City Football Club since 1978.

What are two ‘hybrid’ qualities about you?

This is a hard one to answer. I suppose, having worked in the printing industry in most areas, from printing, prepress, supplying services, hardware, and software solutions, I have had the honor to meet so many talented people. With everyone I meet I am always learning new stuff allowing me to constantly evaluate new and existing methods and processes. This sets me in good stead for my current role as an applications specialist as this is a true hybrid role between sales and technical.

If you’re interested in joining Global Graphics Software visit our web page to find the latest vacancies: www.globalgraphics.com/careers

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Calling all software developers!

The UK Careers Fair

Looking for a new role as a software developer? We’ll be attending the Cambridge Careers Fair on Friday, 4th March. Come and meet our team and find out more about what Global Graphics Software has to offer and two roles we currently have available:

Software Development Team Lead (C#)

SmartDFE Software Developer in Test

If you’re a graduate, perfect! We’re also looking for recent mathematics or computer science graduates or those who have a year or two of real software development experience to join our graduate program.

Whilst primarily aimed at graduates, we are also keen to hear from candidates without a degree who have strong demonstrable skills in software development. We’re also interested in giving opportunities to veterans and service leavers. 

Our graduate program will kick-start your career as a software engineer and give you valuable skills and insights into our industry.  

We’re looking forward to seeing you at the careers fair next week. In the meantime, read about what our software developers get up to here at Global Graphics Software:

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Meet Software Test Engineer Lavanya Sarikonda

Meet Lavanya, one of our software test engineers. Lavanya joined our print team in 2014.

What is your background?

I was born in India and moved to the UK in 2007. I am from an electronics and communications engineering background and my love towards artificial intelligence, mathematics, automation and electronics has helped me progress academically and pursue an MSc and a PhD.

I enjoyed singing back in India, performing at various shows since childhood and finally managed to sing in a professional capacity for a couple of albums in our regional language. I now enjoy working with my boys making pet electronic projects in the spare time.

What were you doing before and how did you come to work at Global Graphics Software?

I worked as a senior integration engineer for Vix Technology Limited in Cambridge for seven years before joining Global Graphics in 2014. Although I had no experience of the printing industry, I had a great interest and curiosity in it, and I felt there would be a lot to learn with Global Graphics’ technology and software.

What is the best thing about working at Global Graphics Software?

I have never had a boring day in the past eight years; there is no limitation on how much I can learn and grow personally and professionally here at Global Graphics. I have been given opportunities to enhance my skills, knowledge and capabilities throughout my past eight years with the industry’s most experienced and helpful colleagues. I also love the Cambourne-based office and its location – it’s great and peaceful for my lunch time walks.

What has been your career path since joining the company?

I joined the print team, working in automation, and I have since developed skills in color management.

What is the most exciting thing about your work?

I love the fact that I can explore and learn any area, and you are welcomed to do so. I always got great support from my colleagues and my line managers, which makes it exciting to move forward.

What keeps you here?

There’s always more to learn here and my colleagues are very experienced and helpful. I also always get the support I need to do my continuous professional development.

If you’re interested in joining Global Graphics Software visit our web page to find the latest vacancies: www.globalgraphics.com/careers

A passion for software development

If you’re a recent mathematics or computer science graduate, or have a year or two of real software development experience, then we want to hear from you. Contact us: graduateprogram@globalgraphics.com

 Henry Sanderson, Software Engineer at Global Graphics Software

Meet Henry Sanderson, software engineer at Global Graphics Software. Henry joined us in 2019 on our graduate scheme.

What is your background?

My programming journey started at A-level where I first took an interest in the subject, never having had a formal opportunity to study it before. I followed the path all the way through to graduating with a first-class degree in Computer Games from the University of Essex.

What was the graduate  scheme selection day like?

The day was built around a specific task, which was both fun and challenging. There were some surprises, but they were integral to the experience so they could see how we’d react, which was interesting to say the least. For example, we were working in groups, but we weren’t given much in the way of source control, to see how we’d cope merging our work together at the end. It was a cool way to introduce some chaos.

Tell us a bit about your Global Graphics Graduate Program experience

The scheme is separated into three sections where each is spent in a different discipline of QA, Support, and Development, each lasting about four months. There’s also an initial period where you’re taught the basics and get to integrate with the company for a bit. You learn quite a few tricks that’ll be useful too, one of which being how to use ReSharper to speed up your overall pace of working. I initially thought I’d only be interested in development, but I was enlightened to the other two disciplines in a way that I enjoyed. I was involved in meaningful projects the whole way, so there’s no feeling of apathy since everything you do is useful to the company.

For QA, we were tasked to investigate a new way of implementing UI testing that would be competitive to the current choice, and the result of that was a successful integration of a new UI testing library that was significantly cheaper and didn’t require juggling licenses between PCs.

What has been your experience since graduating the program?

I graduated the program feeling pretty good about my progress made during my time here. I entered this company with very little C++ knowledge and below-average C# knowledge, and on graduation I felt that I was a lot more competent at both, as well as skills beyond just knowing languages: using source control, exploring the parts of IDEs that I took for granted while studying at university and using programs that I’d never even heard of before joining. I’ve definitely grown as a person too. I’m now a developer on the Direct™ product team, which has been a rigorous trial by fire by diving head-first into a C++ codebase. I am certainly happy with where I am in the company now and want to continue to develop myself as a member of the team.

How would you describe the support you received from your mentorship team?

The support I received was instrumental in my development here. It was hugely effective, with just the right amount of assistance given so that it neither felt like handholding nor isolating.

What’s the best thing about working at Global Graphics Software?

The flexibility is amazing. The workday isn’t a fixed block of time, it’s whatever you want it to be (within reason). The ethos is basically “as long as the work gets done, and you turn up to meetings, work however long you want”, which is a boon to someone like me who has trouble getting out of bed promptly.

What is the environment like?

The office in Cambourne has a roomy atmosphere with lots of natural light, with a well-stocked kitchen to handle our metabolic needs. There’s also a huge expanse of green space outside the office too, which is perfect for going for mind-clearing walks.

What is the most exciting thing about your work?

I’m in it for the knowledge gained, since in under two years I feel like my skills have increased greatly. Every task I pick up offers the chance to enrich my understanding somewhere.

How have you found working remotely?

Before the pandemic, I very rarely worked from home, but now having done it consecutively every day since early March, I’m very much used to it and don’t think I could return to normal. The company has really embraced working from home and have implemented the systems required to make it work well, to the point that I don’t really feel disadvantaged from the situation imposed on me.

Have you taken part in any of the social events?

I’m a fan of the board game nights that were picking up steam shortly before lockdown, as well as the Shed meetups.

What advice would you give this year’s graduates?

As long as you have the enthusiasm to learn and grow, and can go with the flow, there’s nothing to really worry about. ‘Don’t suffer in silence’ is the mantra to grow here. Ask questions when you get stuck or if you need something explained.

If you’re interested in joining the Global Graphics Software Graduate Program visit our web page to find out more:
https://www.globalgraphics.com/company/careers/graduate-program

Ben Gilbert

Ben Gilbert, Principal Software Engineer

We chatted to Ben Gilbert, principal engineer, about his work at Global Graphics Software:

How did you come to work at Global Graphics Software?

I joined Global Graphics Software following a ten-year career in the Royal Air Force. I had always been interested in computers and programming so I decided to make this my career upon leaving the service.

What has been your career path since joining Global Graphics Software?

I joined as a technical support engineer, providing first line support to our gDoc Application Platform (GAP) SDK customers. I also started developing sample code and automated test harnesses for the GAP team to use.

I then moved into a software development engineer in test role, where I became responsible for all test automation within the applications team across all products.

I became a full-time software developer on the applications team and worked on our GAP SDK as well as a short time working on our gDoc Core (now Mako) SDK.

I then moved to the Technical Services team, as a senior software engineer, where I was involved in many customer-driven projects – working directly with our customers’ engineering teams.

My current role as a principal engineer is to architect solutions for our customers and be responsible for design, implementation and delivery against tight deadlines.

Most recently, I have been working on our ScreenPro™ Direct solution. This began as a single customer project, with the goal of driving print data to hardware in real-time. It has now matured into a product being used by multiple customers.

How long have you worked here?

Five years.

What is the environment like?

Relaxed and informal. We are trusted to perform our work to the best of our ability, so there is little micro-management.

What is the most exciting thing about your work?

Helping our customers solve real-world problems and helping them ship their products faster. It’s a good feeling knowing that our customers are running code from Global Graphics Software, that is allowing them to achieve their vision and business goals.

What keeps you here?

The people I work with day to day, plus the freedom to make decisions (and learn from mistakes). Career progression is very good. If you make it known where you want to go, Global Graphics Software will try it’s best to get you there.

 

If you’re interested in joining Global Graphics Software visit our web page to find the latest vacancies: www.globalgraphics.com/careers

Matt Gosnell

Matt Gosnell, IT Director at Global Graphics Software

Here, Matt Gosnell, IT Director, tells us about life at Global Graphics Software:

What is your background?

I started my career in IT because my mother said I needed to get a job! I studied photographic and digital media at Anglia Ruskin University but had always had an interest in computers. As a child, my best friend’s dad was a computer engineer and playing games in the early 90’s was my childhood. By my late teens, I was building my own computers and was more interested in gaming and the digital side of my degree than being in the darkroom.

My first job in IT was at Bassingbourn Village College – I was the onsite technician who helped diagnose a variety of IT problems. It was a great start and I learnt a lot ‘on the job’. After a couple of years I moved on to an IT support company, where I would visit all kinds of companies for onsite assistance. Every day brought a new problem to solve. It was hard work but again I learnt a lot. In 2009 the excitement of a new environment each day wore off and I decided to make a jump to an internal IT department where I could make a difference long term, that’s when I joined Global Graphics Software.

What’s been your career path since joining Global Graphics Software?

I started working at a junior level in a team of four. After two years, I was promoted to manage the team. We were a much bigger company then and it was back in an era where you had to go to IT to get stuff done – it was a very busy department. I’ve since grown with the company, taking on more responsibility over the years and have been IT director for almost three years now.

Today, the company is very different; instead of having a single company to look after we also have our sister companies – so it’s a challenging environment. My goal is to try and achieve more consistency in IT among all the businesses.

What’s the best thing about working at Global Graphics Software?

For me the best thing about working here is that I’ve been given the opportunity to grow. I’ve always worked hard and strived to better myself and Global Graphics has encouraged me to do that. I’ve been on a fair few IT training courses over the years. Nowadays I try to go on a course once a year to keep my skills sharp.

What is the environment like?

It’s very friendly and has a flat management structure, i.e. we all sit amongst each other, whether management or not.

What is the most exciting thing about your work?

For me the most exciting thing is being at the forefront of IT technology. I have to keep abreast of technological change and how this can benefit the businesses that I represent.

Are there any big projects you’ve been involved with?

I’ve been involved in many big projects mainly because IT tends to be at the heart of the business. For example, we’ve moved offices, both in the UK and abroad, developed cloud and disaster recovery solutions, as well as integrated purchased business into the Global Graphics Group.

Do you take part in any social activities?

I’ve been part of the Global Graphics cycling group. We did quite a few London to Cambridge cycle rides. I also enjoy taking part in The Shed, a creative environment where we are free to work on projects to learn new skills. I am an active lead in my own project and am currently building a temperature-controlled fan array using an Ardunio Uno. As a result I’m learning all about electronics!

What keeps you here?

My job has changed so much over the last ten years and this has meant I’ve never had time to get bored. I’ve been given more responsibility and the opportunity to progress, and of course IT has changed so much, it has kept me on my toes. I’m given plenty of support, but I’m also trusted to make decisions on my own.

I have the freedom to develop as I’ve still got a lot to learn about directing a business in its goals. As the company grows my role grows – I have more to manage. My aim is to continue to grow. I’m in control of where we’re going and that’s a positive for me.

 

If you’re interested in joining Global Graphics Software visit our web page to find the latest vacancies: www.globalgraphics.com/careers

Lesley Whitfield

Lesley Whitfield, software developer at Global Graphics Software

We chatted to Lesley Whitfield, software developer in our Wilmslow office, about her work at Global Graphics Software:

What is your background?

I was always interested in maths and science then discovered engineering at university, eventually ending up with an Open University degree in maths and electronics.

How did you come to work at Global Graphics Software?

I was looking for a new challenge after working on a smaller product.  Although I was also offered the opportunity at the time to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond, I chose the more technically interesting job at Global Graphics Software.

What were you doing before?

A whole range of jobs from stress analysis in the aerospace sector, instrument safety, embedded software for smart meters, to software for direct mail.  Before joining Global Graphics Software 18 years ago I tended to move on to something new every couple of years.

What’s the best thing about working at Global Graphics Software?

Working in a highly motivated and skilled team that is serious about doing the best possible job.

What has been your career path since joining Global Graphics Software?

I joined as a software developer helping out with our color management technology including some of the more mathematical aspects. Later I wrote the color interpretation code for XPS (one of the Page Description Languages we support), then was lucky enough to join the PCL team from the start. This allowed me to play a significant part in interpreting the specification and designing the way the PDL code interacts with our underlying core technology, which in turn was very useful when I was part of the team trying to speed it up. I have swapped back and forth between a couple of teams, tending to specialize in one or two main areas but helping out where required including, unusually, a stint as developer in support. The last six months I have been excited to work on our Harlequin VariData solution where it is possible to make a very big difference to performance and hence the customer experience.

What is the environment like? 

Hardworking, friendly and helpful. Ideas are discussed on their merits so everyone has a chance to contribute. Developers have a good relationship with QA who take an active part in our scrums, and also with support. Working hours are fairly flexible and evenings and weekends are respected. The office can be a little quiet sometimes, but everyone is willing to discuss technical issues and most people are up for a chat in the kitchen. We are small enough to get to know people across the company. There are various social events throughout the year.

What is the most exciting thing about your work?

Probably knowing that the software I’m writing today will soon be allowing huge presses all over the world to operate accurately and at high speed.

What projects have you been involved with?

The most exciting project I was involved with was when we had six months to make our embedded RIP go three times faster across a wide range of jobs.  This was incredibly challenging but as a team we were determined to do it, and thanks to our ingenuity and diverse skill set we succeeded!

Have you taken advantage of any of the company benefits?

Yes, I am a keen sailor and volunteer as sea staff with Ocean Youth Trust Scotland. I normally do at least a week each year and put my paid charity day towards that (http://oytscotland.org.uk/).

In addition, I always take up the opportunity of a week’s unpaid leave in addition to my paid holiday.

Global Graphics Software has also supported me over the years in achieving my personal goals. I have been studying Japanese as a hobby with Manchester University since 2015, and last year I was able to spend two months working in our Tokyo office which greatly benefited my Japanese. I just got my final exam results and am very pleased to say I passed!

What keeps you here?

Working here gives me an opportunity to work on the type of problems that I enjoy solving, with friendly colleagues who are highly motivated to do a great job. I feel my work is appreciated and relied on. Recently Global Graphics Software has been getting into a variety of new areas such as multi-level screening and inkjet technologies, and that can only mean more opportunities in the future.

 

If you’re interested in joining Global Graphics Software visit our web page to find the latest vacancies: www.globalgraphics.com/careers