Happy Wednesday, everyone! Continuing our employee spotlight series on our Life at SimScale blog, we would like to introduce you to Jaka, our CAD Team Lead, who joined SimScale 6 years ago. We asked him what his biggest contribution at SimScale has been, what keeps him going, and what makes him proud to be a SimScaler!
- Name: Jaka Špeh
- From: Slovenia
- Position: CAD Team Lead
- Time at SimScale: 6 years
“Jaka is a pleasure to work with. He is versatile, team-oriented, an excellent communicator, and a precise software engineer at the same time. He brought our CAD software architecture to a great level, giving proper emphasis to both the computer-science aspects of computational geometry, as well as the more traditional geometrical ones.”
Mariano Barrios – VP Engineering
Jaka, what made you join the team?
I hadn’t heard of SimScale until the team first reached out to me. At that time, I was working on the CAD stack at MTU Aero Engines, and I wanted to stay in the CAD field. I joined SimScale because the product looked cool and futuristic – simulations and the cloud combined together.
What has been your biggest contribution at SimScale?
My biggest contribution as an individual programmer was building a big part of our Pedestrian Wind Comfort analysis type. Over the past four years, I have had the privilege to act as a team lead of a very talented and smart group of people – Elisabetta, Alex, Danijel and Valeriy. We – as a CAD team – achieved several things together.
For example, we now support associative updates of all CAD operations at SimScale. Recently, we have been putting a lot of work into merging “CAD mode” to Workbench. This will be our next big contribution. I’m excited to finally release it to our users.
“Jaka is super approachable, always open to chat and, while focused on the technical side, is understanding when personal matters come up, always handling them thoughtfully.”
Elisabetta Chimisso – CAD and Meshing Software Developer
What makes you proud to be a SimScaler?
There are two things I appreciate the most: the product and the people.
I like that we are simplifying how to simulate, and I like how we make simulations available to everyone. Because of that, I feel we are making a good contribution to the world. Building such a product in the cloud is technically not easy, and I like how we are making it possible.
I also like the group of people we work with – a dynamic mix of energetic, enthusiastic, and very smart people who make the work even more fun.
What has been your highlight working at SimScale so far?
There are several aspects I find rewarding. It is very satisfying to see when the feature or a bug fix is released to our users, especially if it was very challenging to make it work. As a lead and a technical program manager, I also really appreciate seeing multiple teams collaborate toward a bigger goal with a mindset of helping each other. And, of course, it is amazing to just have a great time with co-workers.
What are you looking forward to?
I am looking forward to seeing what the future brings to SimScale – how much we can grow the company and how users will embrace cloud-based simulations. I am eager for the great ideas, conversations, relationships, features and growth that we can achieve together as the CAD team. I am also looking forward to all the burgers, parties, gatherings, and Oktoberfests in Munich. And, of course, I am excited to bring features like a sketcher, mates, 3D constraints, and more to SimScale.
Thank you for all of your great contributions, Jaka! We are so excited to have you on the team!
Stay tuned for more insights into SimScale and see what the team has been up to on our @lifeatsimscale Instagram feed. Want to start your own SimScale story? Make sure to keep an eye on our careers page for possible openings!
