At Naimuri, our people are at the heart of everything we do. Through their expertise, dedication, and collaboration, we deliver mission-critical software that helps protect and improve the lives of British citizens.
To give you a behind-the-scenes look at the brilliant minds making this happen, we have a"A Day in the Life" series.
Matt Muirhead, one of our Software Engineers, shares how he tackles complex tech challenges, navigates the realities of remote teamwork, and why he chose to bring his talents to Naimuri.
The Fuel & the soundtrack
Every productive day starts with a ritual.
For Matt, that means embracing a little bit of the modern morning routine before diving into the code.
My non-negotiable morning ritual? Doom scrolling with a Lidl croissant.
Once fuelled, it’s time to set the focus. If Matt’s workday had a soundtrack, the very first track would be A Moment Apart by ODESZA (famous for featuring on the Forza Horizon 4 soundtrack).
"It takes me to winding country lanes," Matt says. "Just me and the open road in harmony, calm and no blockers. It’s the perfect mindset for taking on new challenges."
A Day in the Code: Matt's daily routine
At Naimuri, agility and communication are key to keeping projects on track. Matt’s day-to-day role is a blend of team collaboration, mentorship, and deep-focus technical work:
The morning kickoff: "We start with a stand-up, sharing updates across the team. From there, I review the backlog to ensure there’s plenty of clear work for the team to progress, creating new tasks based on our roadmap when needed."
Quality assurance: Before lunch, Matt focuses on completing code reviews, ensuring our standards remain incredibly high.
The afternoon flow: "My afternoons are spent helping solve blockers for the team and diving into my own development tickets."
Navigating the challenges of remote collaboration
While remote working offers brilliant flexibility, Matt is incredibly conscious of the human element of software engineering.
For him, the biggest challenge in the modern tech landscape is ensuring nobody gets left behind in a virtual environment.
"With the majority of people working remotely, keeping up with colleagues and enabling them when they get stuck is a challenge," Matt explains.
"Without physical office cues, I can’t easily observe body language to see if someone is struggling. I'm reliant on them telling me they have a problem. If team members aren't comfortable speaking up, it can slow down development.
The real challenge and my priority, is maintaining an environment where everyone feels psychologically safe and comfortable to speak up."
The Changing tech landscape: AI & staying ahead
The tech world moves fast, and the rise of Artificial Intelligence has already fundamentally changed how Matt works.
"I used to spend a lot of time searching through documentation or StackOverflow," Matt notes. "Now, feeding an error message into an AI tool helps point me in the right direction much faster, speeding up how we solve issues."
However, this rapid shift also brings crucial questions about the future of the industry. When asked what excites and scares him about AI, Matt highlights a vital point about the future talent pipeline:
"The advancements in AI run the risk of taking out the bottom rung of the ladder for junior software engineers, making it much harder for them to enter the industry. AI is only as smart as the data fed into it. If we aren't careful, we could face a shortage of engineers. As senior engineers retire, we need to ensure there is a new generation ready to correct the AI when it inevitably gets things wrong."
To keep his own skills sharp and stay ahead of these shifts, Matt curates a steady diet of daily tech insights, including:
tldr.tech for bite-sized daily updates.
Engineer-focused Substack newsletters like The Polymathic Engineer and The Pragmatic Engineer.
YouTube channels run by experienced senior developers, such as Coding Jesus, to continuously enhance his knowledge base.
Why Naimuri?
With so many directions a software engineering career can take, what drew Matt to Naimuri?
"I wanted to work somewhere where I could grow professionally and expand my skill set across different technology stacks," Matt says. "But most importantly, I wanted to work on projects that genuinely benefit the lives of British citizens."
Want to work alongside engineers like Matt on projects that make a real-world difference? Explore our current career opportunities on the Naimuri Careers Page.
