The Tech Star Award

Tech Star Award

Is there someone who’s come up with a really innovative project in your company? Or an idea to change the way you work. Tell us about it, nominate them.

Entry Criteria

Criteria for the Tech Star Award category:

– Nominee works in a developer/engineer/getting hands on with code/other technical role
– Nominee works for a tech business/in a tech role

Successful nominations should detail but not be limited to the following:

– What makes the nominee a Tech Star
– What the nominee does above & beyond their day job
– Examples of what the nominee has worked on
– Anything else notable that the judges might be interested in

2019 Winner

Aleks Pawlik

A technical star in our eyes and having watched her technical evolution through Soak – we had numerous requests from colleagues to put Aleks forward for the DevelopHer awards. Aleks is someone whose inquisitive and detail oriented mindset has evolved across several technical roles within Soak Digital and currently sits as a valued and essential member of Client Services in a Technical Project Manager role. From Content Pop to Project Analytics, Quality & Testing her vast skill set and collaborative nature makes her a knowledge source for many of the teams. Her natural inclination to work collaboratively – Aleks always goes above and beyond to support internal training and projects outside of her remit. For example, it is hugely important to any technical role to keep up to date with industry best practices; ensuring that knowledge is shared within the teams and applied to client projects – Aleks has always done so and embedded that practise into Soaks project process. Starting her journey with us in 2017 in content pop she is, internally, the author of all Soak CMS training and guides, including SEO best practices for set up. She regularly delivered off site training for clients and internal training for the wider team. A technical mind with the ability to communicate face to face with clients shows her multifaceted abilities and why her role is so valued. Later, making a natural move into testing, Aleks worked closely within the technical teams and with the technical steering committee to agree Soaks testing standards and the process of handover from development to CS. Owning the testing process, she ensured that all projects were tested in accordance with success criteria – as set down by herself and based on industry best practice, and expanding the knowledge within the wider team by training and supporting the PM team with the testing best process. Her work on testing and QA procedure has been fully embedded into Soak’s project lifecycle and tangibly improved the quality of service we deliver. Soaks Technical Director says: ‘Aleks has an in-depth understanding of the complexities of analytics, and methods of implementation based on requirements and nature of an application. She has a particular talent for testing – not only uncovering and recording obscure issues, but also in managing the entire testing process ensuring issues are uncovered, fixed and do not regress’ As a champion of unlocking the greater power of data, her in-depth knowledge of Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager and website tracking software (e.g. Hotjar) sees her creating custom tracking implementation, providing bespoke reporting for clients using Google Data studio to inspire smarter business solutions. For the last year Aleks has, as a Technical Project Manager, led on local and globally recognised clients such as Saft Batteries, Redbull and Thrive and demonstrates her capabilities as Project Lead on long life projects. Her recent accolades include but are not limited to: Agile and Tech Strategy lead on large scale intranet solution for international client Providing high level Drupal configuration and on-the-ground support for clients Project lead on bespoke 18 month Laravel build, created from the ground up I’ve worked extremely closely with Aleks for the last 2 years delivering various complex technical solutions both Agile and Waterfall. Throughout this time she has always led from the front, working closely to liaise with all parties involved in particular around areas of technical fulfilment. I found her insight & strategic thinking was critical in the delivery of the finished products we have today and I am delighted to continue to work closely with her in the future.’

2019 Finalist

Rachel Cooke

2019 Finalist

Abigail Jackson