Our People: Luke Kirby

In this Our People feature, we speak with Luke, Penspen’s Lead Front-End Software Development Engineer for THEIA. He tells us how growing up in Africa has inspired a career dedicated to tackling climate change, and the role of technology in that journey. 

“I’m Luke, and I’m the Lead Front-End Software Development Engineer for Penspen’s THEIA. 

“I’ve lived in eight different countries – South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Mauritius, Ireland, England, the United Arab Emirates, and Uganda – so I’ve always had an innate love for travelling the world, as you can see in the photos I’ve included here. These are from a recent trip to Utah and Arizona in the USA. Originally, I’m from South Africa – something that has had a big influence on why I chose to work in the energy sector. But more on that later! 

“I graduated from Newcastle University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering – and I was always an engineer through and through. In fact, at this point, I didn’t have the slightest idea about coding.  

“I worked as a Pipeline Integrity Engineer for around four years. It was definitely important work, but the day-to-day tasks themselves became incredibly repetitive. I couldn’t help but start to recognise patterns that could easily be automated – not just to make the lives of integrity engineers easier, but also to reduce the number of hours wasted on these tasks. I noticed assessments that took months, which could have taken a matter of weeks; data matching that took days, which could have taken minutes. 

“That’s why I made the decision to become a Software Developer. I wasn’t someone who had a massive background in coding – quite the opposite. But I knew that learning how to code would be worth the effort: I’d seen first-hand how automation had the power to revolutionise the pipeline industry. So, I went for it. And in truth, what surprised me was just how easy it was to learn.  

“That’s my advice to anyone who is thinking of learning how to code (and it goes for anyone, in any industry): go for it. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. 

“As the Lead Front-End Software Developer at THEIA, there’s so much satisfaction to be gained from seeing the repetitive tasks I used to spend hours on become automated, because you can clearly see the positive impact on the lives of the engineers.