BGL Group, a digital distributor that owns insurance brands Beagle Street and comparethemarket.com, has made roots in London’s Silicon Roundabout with the opening of a new tech hub.
The Group’s new offices, in the White Collar Factory in Shoreditch, will be its first permanent London base and will house over 150 employees. BGL currently has offices in Peterborough, Sunderland, Wakefield and Paris.
The award-winning White Collar Factory development, a former industrial building, has been independently certified as having leading-edge digital infrastructure, and boasts a rooftop running track, roof terrace, flexible working spaces and a courtyard, cafés and restaurants, BGL said in a release.
Some of the BGL roles to be based at the new hub include full stack software engineers, big data engineers, data scientists specialising in real time data processing and machine learning implementation, and UX designers. The workspace will include a usability lab – an environment where users are studied interacting with applications – and a mobile device lab to automate the testing of applications across a suite of physical devices.
“For us it’s a priority to stay at the forefront of digital technology so that we can best support our customers with mobile apps and websites with a laser focus on user experience,” Matthew Donaldson, BGL Group’s CEO, said. “Basing ourselves at White Collar Factory, in the heart of London’s thriving tech industry, will allow our teams to work in an atmosphere of creativity, bouncing ideas off colleagues and professionals in the wider industry and continuing to break new ground in digital and data innovation.”
Donaldson added that he believes the tech-focused hub “will support us in attracting and retaining the best talent in digital, brand and data. We’ve equipped our teams with the latest technology and flexible working spaces to allow them to unleash their vision and imagination.”
The office will be led by Jon Mullen (pictured), associate director of product engineering, who brings years of experience in Agile-driven product delivery from previous roles at companies including NOWTV and Sky.
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