SOFTWARE development firm Scott Logic hopes to boost its workforce to 100 by the end of the year as it continues to expand.
The company recently moved into larger premises in Newcastle and plans to increase its turnover from £5m to £7m this year. Scott Logic provides consultancy and software solutions, predominantly to the financial services sector worldwide.
However, it has recently found itself providing support to other sectors, including the oil and gas industry.
“That’s a slightly new vertical for us,” said managing director and founder Gary Scott. “The sector we’re working in most is the financial sector. We work in investment banking, as well as with retail banks, hedge funds, investment managers and stockbrokers.
“The market is slightly fragile at the moment due to the situation with the euro, and people are a bit nervous out there. But we can provide consultancy services at a time when people are not keen to take on permanent staff.”
Scott Logic launched in a Newcastle City Council incubator site in 2005, and now has offices in London, Edinburgh and Bristol. It recently moved from Charlotte Square into a new Newcastle base in St James’ Gate, and is looking for talented staff to boost its 85-strong workforce.
“We’re very much looking for talented people in the North East,” said Scott, who worked as an executive director at Lehman Brothers for more than a decade. “We’re looking generally for computer scientists of very high quality.”
The company’s strategy is to bring in talented software engineers who are able to develop solutions or provide advice to get firms such as banks and asset managers around a certain problem. It has a roster of clients in London, Tokyo, Copenhagen and New York. Scott Logic has also developed its own products to allow companies to handle and visualise data more efficiently. Visiblox enables firms to chart data in real time, and is used by the likes of GE, Ferrari and Deutsche Bank. Shinobi Controls also allows people to help users develop data-rich iPhone and iPad apps for business.
“Data visualisation is about helping a human brain to analyse large data sets so they can be used to make good decisions.
“Shinobi is quite exciting as mobiles are being used in industry more and more, and people want their data on the move now.”
Scott Logic is looking for programmers with strong problem-solving skills to join the team in Newcastle, which remains the centre of its operations.
“The most attractive thing about us is we have very smart guys working on hard problems,” said Scott. “We deliver their solutions very quickly.”
