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Louis, Data Engineer at Safran

Human resources

Louis is a data engineer at Safran Helicopter Engines. This is one of the new job fields where Safran has been actively recruiting for the last few years to keep pace with the sector’s fast-growing digitization. But how exactly does one become a data engineer, and what does the job entail? Keep reading to discover this fascinating field, one that’s at the heart of modern industry.

3D loom : carbon fiber

You can’t take the yellow brick road…

In fact, there’s no specific training program to become a data engineer, you can reach it through several different paths. For instance, Louis graduated from EISTI (École Internationale des Sciences du Traitement de l'Information) in Pau, a college specialized in information processing, after earning his baccalaureate degree in the science track. Fascinated by computers and digital technology, he first focused on information system engineering, then specialized in cloud computing. As a complement to this technical training, he also earned a Master of Science in Management degree (entrepreneurship) at the Institut des Hautes Études Économiques et Commerciales (INSEEC) business school in Bordeaux.

Learning on the job

After two internships and a one-year work-study program as software engineer at Total while continuing his studies, Louis joined Safran Helicopter Engines’ IT division in the Customer Commitments department. For a year he helped define workscopes for digital projects, built prototypes and proposed innovative approaches, largely based on the world of startups. He was subsequently hired by Safran Analytics, but seconded to Safran Helicopter Engines’  Tarnos plant in southwest France, at the Data Center of Excellence in the IT department’s Digital Factory.

Towards predictive maintenance

Today, Louis is working on a project concerning helicopter engine flight data ingestion. This entails the collection, organization, decoding and storage of engine data. Once processed and analyzed in depth, the company uses this data to offer its customers predictive maintenance services. As Louis explains, he’s a sort of “go-between”: “I bring the data to the health monitoring teams so they can develop high value-added customer services by calling on data science.” Data engineers naturally work with data architects to organize and store the data for the targeted use. “Data is gold” says Louis with conviction. Now it’s up to Louis and his colleagues to capitalize on this data so Safran can anticipate customer requirements more precisely than ever.