Tech Trailblazers

Tech Trailblazers: Lynsey O’Neill

  • Name: Lynsey O’Neill

    Role: Technical Capabilities Manager (TCM), Liberty IT

    What does your typical day look like?

    Like most roles, there is no typical day. However a TCM is a role that focuses on people and therefore you never know what a day might involve!

    Most days are made up of several coaching conversations around areas such as career development and aspirations and feedback, as well as direction around technical capability growth – for both the team and the individual. In addition, I also partner with other Leadership roles within our teams and to continue to drive the organizational technical strategy, people plans and organization initiatives – it’s always busy, but I love it!

    What are you currently working on?

    Working with the TCM group within Liberty IT (LIT), I am currently working on how we apply our 2020 strategy and priorities technically throughout the organization.

    We work to make sure we have the right teams and capabilities to position us for what’s around the corner.   

    I’m also completing an AI training course which is giving me more knowledge on what AI realistically can and can’t do and deeper knowledge on machine learning and data science – a very relevant area in the Insurtech world!

    What inspired you to join this company in particular?

    I joined LIT as an Intern back in 2001 and returned as a grad working in various engineer and leadership roles since. LIT has always had a great reputation in the local IT industry and I wanted to join a company that I knew would support my career from day one.

    The company has grown a lot from my Intern year, but at its heart, remains a highly technical organization who is willing to continuously invest in their people.

    Did you always want to work in this industry (tech)?

    No not always – I studied Computing with Linguistics and Spanish as my degree. I considered a career as a translator at one stage due to my passion for languages and I really love to travel. However, something told me to go with IT and I never looked back.

    What’s your favourite part about your work?

    I love the culture of LIT – it’s a thriving, innovative, technical organization that encourages its people to never stop learning!

    What would you say to other people considering a job in this industry (tech)?

    Do it! Technology plays a massive part in every single person’s lives and it’s exciting to be part of an industry that is moving so quickly and changing how we work and live.

    How do you see technology impacting on our lives?

    Technology impacts our lives on a daily basis and is now transforming our homes through things like temperature and lighting controls, security, robots and virtual assistants.

    It’s also having a massive impact on industries such as medicine, from earlier diagnosis of illness and progress in potential cures, through trained machine learning models that run off years of data collection. Even everyday health care technology such as online GPs and wearable technology to monitor health is now the norm.

    For LIT and our parent company, Liberty Mutual Insurance, it is changing the world of Insurance. Personalization and data is huge – collecting the right data from IoTs such as activity trackers, trackers in cars monitoring how you drive and telematics are all helping to offer tailored user coverage and pricing. AI in general is becoming a big disruptor in the industry which has been really exciting to see.

    What do you consider to be the most important tech innovation or development in recent years?

    It would be hard to pick one thing, but I believe Serverless technology is huge – the ability to spin up an application within minutes with scalability, flexibility and quicker time to release and all at a reduced cost is a game changer. That is having a huge impact on the engineer’s world within our organisation.

    What tech gadget could you not live without?

    Cliched – but probably my phone! Who can be without it??!

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