Jim Peoples

Responsibilities

I started at Vela in the Support team, then became a Senior Application Support Analyst before moving into a management role in the last year. As my roles have changed within the business, naturally so have my responsibilities. Every day is different; and a large part of my day involves problem solving. I help clients with troubleshooting across our market data and execution products and services. Our clients are quite engaging and interesting people to work with and I enjoy helping them get the job done.

I also work on longer term projects as Vela is always looking to provide the very best solutions for our clients. Software upgrades, migrations, latency improvements – these are just some of the projects that I get to work on and they are great learning experiences.

Daily life

I have always worked in the Client Services team, interacting with clients, but my new role also involves me providing guidance to both the US and EMEA teams internally too.

Each morning starts with a handover call from the APAC office in Manila, and each day ends with a handover call to the team in the US. This is a great way to stay in touch, check in and share problems as well as solutions.

I will also familiarise myself at the beginning of each day with the status of the ‘hot’ issues and stay in contact with the Application Support Team throughout my shift, as we are both in constant client communication. We work together to resolve issues and I keep them up to speed on any Exchange-Driven Changes (EDCs) as well as assisting on projects where I can help.

Working environment

I have worked at Vela for over five years and am surrounded by a great bunch of people. I love the fact that every day brings a new challenge and I am able to work with people internally from all over the globe, including the UK, US and Manila. I have learnt how to build good rapports but have also gained an understanding of different cultures along the way. During my time at Vela, I’ve had the opportunity to visit clients and I can’t wait for the day when we’re able to travel again.

The relaxed culture at Vela is a great fit for me as we’re encouraged to take on responsibility without feeling restricted. I work with some very talented people and being able to share different experiences and solutions with each other is really rewarding for me.

While our in-person social gatherings are off the agenda at the moment, we still know how to have a good time. We’ve enjoyed the occasional virtual “Isolation Quiz” where we compete in teams and find out who really knows their trivia. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to when it’s safe to get back to the City, walk around Belfast, and enjoy being amongst my team once again.