We’ve had an exciting summer at DG Cities, as we’ve been lucky enough to welcome some truly exceptional new members to the team. One of our most recent starters is Nitika Raja, who joins us as a Project Manager. Nitika brings invaluable experience and insights to the company with her background in both consulting and civil engineering (not to mention she’s a keen baker, too). We’ll let Nitika take over from here, so read on to learn more about her background and what she’ll be working on in the months to come.

I have arrived at DG Cities via an education in civil engineering and a corporate career in consulting. A common thread across these experiences is a fascination with innovative technology and a passion for purpose-driven projects.

During my Civil Engineering degree I completed research projects in natural flood management and renewable energy, and for my final year design project I designed a sustainable, disaster-resilient house for a low-income household in St Lucia (it’s a shame I didn’t get to go on a site visit!). When deciding on what career to pursue, I was keen to continue working on varied projects in a fast-paced environment, exploring different technologies and focusing on the benefits they can deliver to the end user. This led me to joining a Big 4 company in a Technology Consultant role. Here I worked on digital transformation projects where I applied lean and agile methodologies to deliver digital products and services - including websites, apps, data catalogues and application forms – to clients, using a human-centred design approach. Outside of client projects I got involved in growing the company’s sustainability practice. I led circular economy workshops where I trained more than 100 practitioners on circular design strategies that they could apply to client engagements. As part of business development, I conducted market scans to explore opportunities for partnerships and prepared proposals to win sustainability contracts. Spending more time on climate-focused work, I reassessed what I wanted to be doing day-to-day and decided that I wanted to combine my digital transformation experience with my interest in pioneering technology to combat the climate crisis. The DG Cities Project Manager role offered just this. I was excited by both the role and the company; I shared the DG Cities approach of putting people first and viewing technology as an enabler, rather than a solution. I was impressed by DG Cities’ collaborative, multi-disciplinary team, the amazing projects and the opportunity to work directly with citizens, local authorities and expert partners to transform cities.

My first few weeks on the job have been nothing short of interesting. I was lucky to spend my first day in the office, meeting some of the team in person and having lunch together (in the sun!) which felt like such a novelty after spending the past 18 months sat in front of a laptop, confined to the four walls of my home. Another highlight of my first week was riding in an autonomous vehicle (AV) at the Endeavour trials. It was fascinating to learn about the ins and outs of the technology from the virtual reality headset experience and from speaking to the Oxbotica team who have been developing the vehicles. I enjoyed chatting to passengers and hearing their thoughts on the AV experience and what they imagine the future of AVs might look like. In the coming weeks I will be project managing the IoT programme, starting off by preparing business cases and eventually delivering pilots and exploring how we can scale these outside of the borough. I will also be taking a lead on DRisk, promoting the project across the UK and collecting feedback from a diverse group of users.  

I have received a warm welcome from the team and am enjoying getting to know everyone. As well as learning about the different roles at DG Cities and how they interact, it’s been great hearing about everyone’s interests outside of work. A general theme I’ve picked up on is that our team is sporty - with a mix of runners, hockey players and cyclists - and quite a few baking enthusiasts, too (naturally I have already suggested a bake-off now that we’ve started to return to the office). I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in person again - possibly doing some group exercise together, but definitely catching up over homemade treats!