In her first year as a Data Engineer at EDF, Clementine “Cici” Whitcomb led the development of a cutting-edge data-platform within the Wholesale Market Services (WMS) department, crucial for Britain’s net zero journey and the future of energy usage across the nation. The platform reduced data preparation time by 70%, enabling EDF’s analysts to focus on value-adding tasks.
Simultaneously, Whitcomb pioneered EDF’s data and technology LinkedIn page, amassing 1,187 followers, and fostering diversity in recruitment. As a volunteer for Code Your Future, she provided refugees with digital skills training through mentorship and classroom support. Witcomb has emerged as a prominent speaker early in her career, inspiring women in data and tech and amplifying her impact across events.
Development in all forms
After completing EDF’s internal data and technology graduate scheme, Whitcomb assumed her first permanent role as a Data Engineer, where she has been leading the development of a brand-new data platform for the WMS business. Data forms the foundation of this work, powering advanced analytics and opening doors to ML and AI capabilities, helping to drive forward Britain’s journey towards net zero.
Traditionally, analysts in WMS have worked with data in disparate legacy platforms, meaning they spent over 80% of their time searching for and cleaning data, limiting the time available to build valuable data products. Over the last year, Whitcomb has led the development of a cutting-edge data platform which has resulted in data preparation time being reduced to just 20%. The new platform pairs cloud technology with new data engineering patterns enabling faster data access, significant improvements in data quality and unlocking innovative data solutions.
Martin Aylward, Head of Data and Tech, EDF: “Cici has been instrumental in the transformation of EDF’s WMS business into a modern data led organisation. Her delivery of value-adding use cases and her leadership in enabling the whole business to derive value from data have been fundamental to this project – she really is exceptional!”
Alongside her day job, Whitcomb took the lead in developing and driving the success of EDF’s data and technology LinkedIn page. Through this platform, EDF has established a consistent and powerful presence in the data community. Publishing over 103 posts, the page has achieved over 160,000 page impressions and grown from 0 to 1,187 engaged followers.
The LinkedIn page has provided an organic and highly diverse pipeline of applicants for new job roles. It has significantly reduced the cost of recruitment by removing the reliance on using recruitment agencies and has increased the diversity within EDF’s talent pool.
Whitcomb has consistently demonstrated a strong commitment to sharing her skills to empower others with particular emphasis on supporting underrepresented groups in breaking into data and tech careers. Since early 2022, Whitcomb has volunteered with Code Your Future, an organisation providing training in data and digital skills to refugees and underrepresented communities. Whitcomb has provided training, mentorship, and guidance to more than 200 students to support them to become job ready.
During her time at Code Your Future, Whitcomb helped establish a new cloud skills group, bringing a cutting-edge skillset to the students within the organisation. As part of this initiative, Whitcomb worked with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to host a full-day event featuring free workshops and talks focused on cloud technology. This event enabled over 70 students to develop new skills. Whitcomb is currently working with Snowflake Data Cloud to host another event later this year.
Whitcomb has worked hard over the last two years to improve her confidence and become a sought-after public speaker in the data community. Having at first found the idea of public speaking daunting, Whitcomb sought mentorship and opportunities to break out of her comfort zone. She first stepped onto the stage to deliver a talk on how to communicate technical concepts to non-technical audiences at an EDF & AWS hosted Women in Technology event and has spoken at a Let’s talk Data and AI meetup hosted by MeshAI about her WMS work.
In the past six months, Whitcomb has spoken for five events and podcasts. Later this year, Whitcomb will be co-hosting a Women in Technology event and moderating a panel of data experts. Through public speaking, Whitcomb has not only overcome personal barriers to grow her career but also has become a strong role model for other women in the world of data.
EDF are part of the DataIQ membership programme – the trusted global collaboration and intelligence platform for data leaders. Find out more here: https://www.dataiq.global/membership
