By Kathryn McKenna, Editor Sync NI
Paul Hill is the Managing Director and VP of Engineering at DailyPay Northern Ireland, the innovative New York-based global financial technology company that enables employees to access their pay ahead of pay day.
With its current recruitment drive in Belfast in full swing as we enter the New Year, the DailyPay Belfast team are on track to deliver their current onboarding targets, which included a £24million investment with £1.1million support from Invest NI.
Reflecting on the successes of 2024, Paul praises the tremendous work of the DailyPay Northern Ireland team, which saw over 60 new roles onboarded last year and a further 50 to 60 jobs planned for 2025, which is set to primarily include engineering roles as well as others, with two new recruitment specialists joining the talent team recently.
The promising career opportunities come as no surprise as DailyPay Northern Ireland continues to make waves in the fintech sector since becoming a strategic part of DailyPay’s global mission in 2021. In the same year that DailyPay relocated its global headquarters to 55 Water Street in New York City, the company chose Northern Ireland for its first expansion outside the United States, with the Belfast office officially opening its doors in 2023.
Having launched the Belfast office for a company where he worked previously as Site Lead and Director of Software Engineering until 2019, when Paul was subsequently approached by Chief Technology Officer at DailyPay, David Dyar, in late 2020 and offered the opportunity to do it all again and launch DailyPay’s Northern Ireland office in Belfast, Paul reveals the decision was a “no brainer.” Particularly when David outlined the company’s compelling mission.
Paul explains to Sync NI: “DailyPay’s company mission is extremely compelling. At DailyPay we make money in a way that allows us to also give people help in their financial life. To me, those are two great combinations. It's something you can make money with, but you are helping people at the same time.
“When I was first shown the business plan it was very exciting. When people talk about successful startups having a hockey stick growth, that was the reality for DailyPay.”
READ MORE: Paul Hill - What makes a quality Software Engineer and why AI cannot replace talented people
DailyPay offers a practical solution for employees to manage their finances more effectively during challenging economic times by allowing employees immediate access to their earned wages before the traditional payday. This can be crucial for managing unexpected expenses, avoiding late fees, and reducing reliance on high-interest payday loans.
With the rising costs of essential goods and services, having the flexibility to access funds when needed also helps individuals better manage their budgets and financial obligations and leads to reduced financial stress leading to improved mental well-being and productivity at work. It also ends the vicious cycle of employees taking on additional debt, such as credit cards and payday loans.
Paul explains: “DailyPay offers a reasonable, extremely cost effective answer to a payday loan that you would potentially have to pay a staggering amount of interest on. Instead, we have our product, which we have built our technology around to allow you to gain access to your wages as soon as you have earned them.”
Looking ahead to technological developments in 2025, Paul expects to see the continued adaption of AI being utilised and integrated further throughout companies, cutting down on repetitive tasks and allowing team members to upskill. Paul is optimistic AI will continue to help decrease costs and improve capabilities throughout DailyPay as an entire organisation, not just in Northern Ireland. “We'll continue to grow in other areas, but I think the primary approach is going to remain software engineering and product development,” he explains.
Whilst 2025 looks set to hold even more exciting advancements for machine learning and the advancement of large language models, Paul believes it will never wholly replace humans as it lacks the intuition and necessary emotion to take leaps of faith when necessary. However, as a software engineer Paul finds the topic fascinating, revealing they have witnessed the tremendous benefits of AI, with employees actively encouraged to employ its use whether it’s writing an email, reformatting information or within their software engineering role.
“As a software engineer, I find data science and machine learning absolutely fascinating in its ability to augment our effectiveness and our efficiency to help us move faster and build better solutions. Where it makes us faster, when you want to get a product out to market first, AI tools will help us do that. We encourage its use across our teams.”
Looking to the future, Paul feels we have just scratched the surface when it comes to AI, with limitless possibilities of what is yet to come. Meanwhile, moving everything onto the Cloud services looks set to help further accelerate innovation with key positives including time effectiveness and the ability to deliver more value at a more advanced pace. “The Cloud services make a lot of business sense from a financial perspective as well as from a speed to market perspective,” Paul explains.
READ MORE: DailyPay announces international expansion into the United Kingdom
In the midst of the current shortage of technologists and software engineers, DailyPay continues to commit a lot of work in local communities and schools to encourage people to enter the tech field and study STEM subjects, including a popular placement programme, which this year saw over 300 applicants apply to the nine available roles.
One potential stumbling block when it comes to in-office innovation and collaboration is the rise of fully-remote employment opportunities driven by the current skills shortage. Paul emphasises that by keeping job opportunities local, it allows for a blend of in-office time which is vital for collaboration.
“From a collaborative perspective, you cannot beat being in a room full of your team with a whiteboard drawing out ideas. That opportunity to collaborate, interact and socialise in-person is unparalleled in a way which online video conferencing is unable to outperform. Therefore, we aim to recruit candidates locally to allow for that in-office collaboration.”
Whilst tech skills are high in Northern Ireland, there is a severe shortage of DevOps engineers and Site Reliability Engineers locally, leading Paul to encourage anyone considering a career in the tech sector to pursue a career in this pathway.
Keen to highlight career pathways do not need to follow the same trajectory, Paul explains some of the most talented individuals he has worked with possess an innate ability to problem-solve and have worked their way up to their position and are not necessarily university degree-educated. It is all part of the inclusive environment at DailyPay Northern Ireland, which places the utmost importance on diversity of thought, equality and inclusion in the workplace.
Paul concludes: “Some of the most talented people I have worked with do not have a university degree but they possess an innate ability to solve problems by looking at something and coming up with an idea and trying it out. There are also equally highly-skilled individuals out there with software engineering or degrees in computer science. We welcome all career pathways at DailyPay and have lots of exciting opportunities available.”
To find out more about DailyPay, including job opportunities, Thought Leadership articles, interviews and Tech Trailblazers, visit: syncni.com/company/dailypay.
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