Employee spotlight: Caitlin Casar

Hometown:  Winston-Salem, NC   Office Location:  Chicago  Start Date:  June 2021  Job title: Senior Data Engineer 

Describe your role.

I’m a senior data engineer in Merchandising Analytics and Operations at 84.51˚. My team enables optimization science, which includes models that optimize for the prices of products on the shelves at Kroger stores. We build ETL pipelines that produce data for the models, using tools like Apache Airflow and Azure Data Factory.     We also build REST APIs that orchestrate jobs to run the models in Kubernetes. A big part of my role is not only building these processes, but also monitoring and supporting them to make sure we meet service level agreements for our customers. Our customers include category managers at Kroger and data science teams at 84.51˚. 

How long have you worked in engineering and what inspired you to pursue this field?

I’ve worked in engineering for a year and a half now. I started as a data scientist at 84.51˚ in the Development Program. Data science at 84.51˚ can be broadly divided into three types of roles: technical, statistical learning, and consulting. I knew I wanted to be in a more technical role because I love problem solving with code and working with lots of different technologies.     During my project rotation, I had an opportunity to work on a REST API running in Kubernetes, all of which I was completely inexperienced with. An 84.51° engineer named Chris Wones guided me through the work which I ended up really loving. I really enjoyed learning about where our data comes from and all the processes that happen behind the scenes to deliver that data to stakeholders.   I also gained a huge appreciation for the power of Kubernetes. After wrapping up that project, I was offered the option to switch from data science to engineering which I happily did!

“I felt very supported and set up for success during my internship, so it was a no-brainer for me to accept the full-time role.”

What interested you in joining 84.51°?

Before I joined 84.51˚, I was in a PhD program doing a lot of computational biology and statistics. I knew I wanted to pivot into industry after finishing up grad school, and data science seemed like a natural transition for someone with my skillset.     I joined several data science organizations at my school, went to data science conferences, and went to data science workshops at every opportunity. I met a data scientist from 84.51˚ named Mark Fruin while at a concert with a mutual friend. He told me how great the company was and encouraged me to apply for the data science internship.     I completed the internship the summer before I graduated and was offered a full-time role after graduation. My internship experience gave me a great first impression of life at 84.51˚. Everyone at the company was really friendly and welcoming, and the training programs are really thorough. Even though I didn’t have experience with cloud computing or working with distributed data, I was able to pick up those skills really quickly. I felt very supported and set up for success during my internship, so it was a no-brainer for me to accept the full-time role. 

What has been the most memorable experience or favorite project you’ve worked on?

We have an annual hackathon at 84.51˚ called Alpha Spark that’s open to all roles at the company, including engineering, product, and data science. There has been a big push over the last year to move toward composable architecture at 84.51˚.     We formed a team to build out an API to orchestrate jobs using any Docker image in Kubernetes. We had a lot of fun working on it and put together goofy presentations to demo it. We scripted a whole video inspired by Always Sunny in Philadelphia about people from our team using the API. The API is now going to be an integral component of several products in Merchandising at 84.51˚. It was cool to work on something so valuable and fun!   

What’s your favorite part about working at 84.51°? Do you have a favorite benefit or perk that is offered?

There’s a lot of perks offered at 84.51˚, one of which is five weeks paid vacation. Everyone starts with this amount of paid time off. It gives me plenty of time to take fun trips and see my family throughout the year. On top of this we get paid holidays and health and wellness days.  

Since I became an engineer, my growth in the field has been exponential thanks to 84.51° providing plenty of growth opportunities.”

We also get off work at 2 p.m. every last Friday of the month. We have the option to work remotely or come into the office if we want. We work in a really beautiful building downtown with a 2.5 acre footprint – it has a huge rooftop with a walking track, basketball courts, and meadow. There are nice restaurants in the lobby plus tons of free snacks and drinks in our kitchen. I typically work from home, but I’ll come to the office for fun events or if my manager visits the Chicago office. I really appreciate the amount of free time I have outside of work, and I never feel pressured to work evenings or weekends. Work-life balance at 84.51˚ is outstanding.  

What advice would you give to those who are considering working in the engineering industry?

If you’re considering working in the engineering industry, I think it’s really important to consider the company where you want to work. For example, here are some things I would think about: 

• What technology stack will you be working in, and are those skills that you value?  

• How will you gain skills in new areas? Are there skilled engineers that can mentor you?  

• Does that company send engineers to conferences, or host knowledge sharing events like lunch-and-learns?  

• What is the career progression at that company? What is the retention for engineers at that company? 

Since I became an engineer, my growth in the field has been exponential thanks to 84.51˚ providing plenty of growth opportunities. We have regular internal and external knowledge sharing meetings, hackathons, and funding for everyone to go to conferences they’re interested in.     I was paired with two different mentors when I joined my first team to help me acclimate to engineering as well as help me network in my new field. I have also mentored other engineers and summer co-ops. I have access to training on whatever technology I want to learn about at 84.51˚ and I’m encouraged to leverage new technology wherever applicable.     I talk to my manager one-on-one every other week so I can get continuous feedback and stay on a path that will progress my career. After 10 months in engineering, I was promoted to senior engineer. My manager gives me concrete suggestions for ways I can reach my next promotion.     I want to be a lead on my team, and the path is laid out clearly for me to grow into that role. I’ve networked with a lot of people at the company over a short period of time, and I’m blown away at how many engineers have been here for over ten years. That level of retention speaks to how well people are taken care of at 84.51˚.  

What do you like to do in your free time outside of work hours?

Outside of work I like to lift weights at the gym. Our office has a really nice gym with personal trainers, and I go see my trainer three times a week. She’s teaching me Olympic weightlifting styles which is really fun! Aside from that, I’m working on creating my own video game in Unity. I’m creating my own pixel art for the game which has been a cool skill to learn.  There’s tons of stuff to do around Chicago, so I’m always getting into something fun like concerts, farmers markets, or hanging out on the beach!