Get to know EDP

An interview with EDP about what it’s like to be a part of their team.

What problem are you currently solving and which projects are you using to accomplish this?

EDP is an energy utility company, present in 14 countries, with 10M customers in electricity and around 12k employees working with us. Our operations cover the entire energy value chain, from generation, to distribution and retail.

We are undergoing a period of intense and fascinating transformation that we usually call “the 3D challenges” — decarbonization (how do we generate cleaner energy and contribute to the electrification of economy?), digitalization (how do we go from an industrial to a digital utility?) and decentralization (what new services can we create to the end-customer that is now the center of the business?).

What do you do that makes your product exciting and unique?

What is most exciting right now in EDP is the revolutionary shift from an industrial utility company into a digital utility. This transformation is reflected in the entire value chain, since the generation of energy (where we can now make better decisions with the intelligence that comes from big data and analytics, store more and more energy with smaller batteries and be less and less dependent on fossil fuels), to the distribution (where the grids are now smarter and thus creating smarter cities) and ending in the retail (where the new downstream completely changed the paradigm with emerging prosumers and EDP created re:dy, an IoT-based revolutionary smart home device).

What specific technologies are your tech employees working on?

Offshore Wind Generation

Renwable energy

Smart homes

Electrical Mobility

Storage

Smartgrids

Languages:

• Python
• R
• Java
• C++
• Matlab

Tell us about the type of tech projects that your company has developed.

Cloud, Data Scientist, AI, Machine Learning, IoT, UX/UI on the Energy Sector

What kind of talent are you looking for?

We are looking for people with initiative that deliver results with excellence, anticipate change in a global and multicultural environment and are driven by sustainability and innovation. Future thinking, human influence, design philosophy or training mentality are also some of the “skills of the future” we want to hire and promote in our people.

Which skills are essential for those specific tech positions you are looking to fill — who is the “ideal” candidate to fill these positions?

We are looking for people with initiative that deliver results with excellence, anticipate change in a global and multicultural environment and are driven by sustainability and innovation. Future thinking, human influence, design philosophy or training mentality are also some of the “skills of the future” we want to hire and promote in our people.

Can you describe the work environment at your company?

The work environment at EDP can be described as familiar, innovative and getting more and more diverse.

Although the company has around 12k employees and is present now in 14 countries, it has a strong Portuguese identity that reflects on the way people relate to each other: in an empathic and collaborative way.

Innovation is one of the strategic priorities of the company and the work environment is meant to be innovative through the workspaces that stimulate teamwork, networking, co-creation and intersection between business units.

Finally, diversity and inclusion is an important pillar that lead us to have now around 42 nationalities working within the Group and about 24% of women (a number that we want to increase but is already higher than the sector average — 21%).

What growth opportunities do you offer to your employees to test and showcase their skills? Is there anything in place for training?

We believe that the growth of our employees is in their hands! There are people development programs that are available for everyone, such as:

• EDP University: a corporate university that allows every employee to choose what they want to learn, through a wide range of training topics and global development programs (designed to specific target groups, such as young talent, new leaders, leadership, pre-retirement), in order to reach their development goals;
• Global mobility program: we believe that mobility is the main tool to promote our people development and every vacancy in the company is, by principle, firstly published internally for the employees;
• New projects and challenges appearing in the fast-changing environment of the energy sector (mainly related to the digital transformation of the business) that are a great opportunity for learning and development of new skills in few or unexplored areas. One of them (EDP X) lead recently to the creation of DGU (Digital Global Unit), designed to boost a new digital paradigm based on agile methodologies and new ways of working.

Prove that you’re “The One”. What would attract candidates to work for you?

Besides all the exciting things already discussed, working at EDP gives you:

• The possibility to contribute every day to a worldwide renewable energy leader that reinvests in society through sustainable projects and social / cultural causes.
• The opportunity to actively participate in our transformation into a digital utility that fosters innovation and co-creation.
• The chance to be part of new generation of a more diverse and agile workforce with new ways of working that will strengthen our future results.

We are also proud to have high results in our climate study when compared to the best performing countries in the market: 75% engagement and 71% enablement; around 85% of our employees would recommend it to a friend looking for a job; the most valued dimensions are social responsibility (88%), diversity (84%) and quality/customer focus (83%).

What’s your opinion about Lisbon’s growing tech scene? How is it influencing the environment at your company?

Lisbon is becoming a creative and tech startup hub and is very attractive to anyone who wants to start a business. The cost of living is considered cheaper than in most other capitals in Western Europe, English is well disseminated and the weather and sunlight make it a preference among many European youngsters. Such conditions have turned Lisbon into the perfect place to establish startups as fixed costs are lower and many talents are available. From developers to UX experts, all the way to designers, Portugal is full of an ambitious multilingual and highly qualified youth. The enormous number of foreign companies using Lisbon, besides other cities, as a more suitable and affordable way to assemble their digital platforms shows how this city is growing in a tech scene and demonstrating a competitive advantage based on knowledge and innovation. As so, the Lisbon scene has also attracted several foreign early stage investors and key yearly tech events such as the Web Summit and GoYouth conference. On top of that, the city is filled with accelerators and incubators that run incredibly high-quality programs to help local entrepreneurs grow products from an idea to a first prototype.

Concerning EDP, we live in the age of innovation in the energy sector. Renewable power has been growing significantly over the last decade and EDP has been a leader of this clean energy revolution. A brand-new energy world emerges, where service, comfort, mobility, sustainability and economy will be powered by a multitech approach supported in emerging IoT, Robotics & machine learning, Advanced analytics & Big data, AR/VR, Mobile, Social media, Drones, Blockchain and Digital platforms.

In your opinion, what is the future of tech careers?

As more companies undergo digital transformation, in-demand IT roles will include positions focused on a higher productivity and the development of automation enabled by advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics. Several in-demand roles are already present right now, such as full-stack developer, designers and data scientists, will continue to attract heavy growth in the coming few years. A lot of the jobs that exist today will probably be automated in the future, as robots and AI will be a more present reality. This will most likely increase demand for more interesting, creative, different and important new jobs! But remember, in the future, anything is possible.

Find them at Landing Festival Lisbon on the 28th-29th of June!