Meet Harry, Head of Engineering

Tell us a little bit about you

I’m Harry, I’m the Lead Developer at Picnic. I joined in 2018 as a Junior Developer and helped build our first creative formats.

I had a roundabout way of getting into software development. I studied politics and business at university. I then worked in various roles in sales and marketing for a few years. I had tinkered with code for several side projects whilst at university, but the turning point came when working in a marketing job for a startup. I helped put together some new websites, and really enjoyed the whole process of working with developers and creating things. I joined a coding Bootcamp shortly afterwards, and the rest is history.

Describe your role at Picnic

As the lead developer, I wear a few different hats. Principally my job is managing the engineering team. I mentor and guide some of the other team members, I also help to define our technology strategy, and it goes without saying, I help build some cool software.

What excites you most about your job?

So many things.

• Onboarding more developers and growing the Engineering team’s capabilities is really exciting.
• Building our self-serve ad creation platform has been a hugely rewarding process. We are constantly adding new features and performance updates, so it’s exciting to see the platform evolve.
• Working with such an awesome group of people is also such a great motivation!

What are your passions outside of work?

I’m really into sports and keeping fit. I acquired a love of cycling in London over lockdown 1.0.0 back in 2020, and it has snowballed.

I’m also a keen skier. I trained as a ski instructor whilst living out in New Zealand, and I’ve been lucky enough to go heli-skiing a few times. Sadly, there are precious few opportunities to ski in London. Fingers crossed that travelling to the Alps is back on the cards in 2022.

Finally, tell us a fun fact about you that people may not know.

I’ve played Joseph in two primary school nativity plays in two years...my theatrical career really peaked before I turned 8.

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