Seequent Is Always On The Lookout For New Talent

Seequent is forecast to more than double its global employees in the three years to March 2021 – from 220 to 475.

It has dozens of live job openings, with the majority in its Christchurch headquarters which already boasts a headcount of more than 170 staff.

Fortunately, says Chief Revenue Officer Daniel Wallace, the vibrant city has “got what it takes” to attract people.

“We've got dozens of hires going on any point in time [and] I think Christchurch does have what it takes to attract that kind of talent here.”

Wallace himself was drawn to Christchurch after several years living abroad, including a period in Silicon Valley, and has been “really blown away by the tech ecosystem that exists inside Christchurch”.

He has found immense job satisfaction in his roles at Seequent, first as General Manager for the Civil and Environmental division and now as Chief Revenue Officer, helping to drive the company’s stellar growth on a day-to-day basis.

“I think Christchurch is an example of where you can have a really compelling career path and still have great work life balance. I also think that from a technology ecosystem standpoint, there's a lot going on here that is just fantastic to be a part of.”

Customers in over 100 countries use Seequent’s innovative software to support complex decision-making in relation to subsurface geoscience and engineering design challenges.

“We've got customers using our solutions to locate unexploded ordnance where there have been wars in the past, or to design where a million refugees should be located to because there's no potable water left where they are,” says Wallace.

“I just think that's incredible, particularly for a Christchurch-based company, to be able to contribute in that kind of way.”

Other examples of Seequent’s far-reaching applications include guarding against saltwater intrusion in California, analysing retreating Antarctica ice sheets as a predictor for global sea level rise and identifying geological hazards along a proposed new rail route being developed by Transport for London (TfL).

In 2020, Seequent was named by Microsoft as one of four technology partners it was working with globally to drive change in the quality and conservation of water.

In 2019, it was the Grand Prize Winner in the New Zealand Aerospace Challenge, developing a satellite-based remote sensing solution to monitor the water quality of lakes.

Seequent offers several different products, which Wallace says all share a few key elements – they are easy to use and result in “digestible” and “meaningful” insights.

“Historically, geoscience applications have been relatively challenging to use, whereas we've turned that on its head. We create technology solutions [for geoscientists] that solve really challenging problems and are also very elegant to use.”

Seequent’s products “give data a voice”, which helps clients tell compelling stories about – primarily – what is going on under the Earth’s surface, whether that be the location of water, mineral deposits, geothermal activity or ancient artefacts.

“We've seen customers use our solutions and projects in the last couple of years [in ways] that we wouldn't have imagined, say, five years ago,” says Wallace. The company has also seen the adoption of its cloud-based solutions “increase dramatically” since the arrival of Covid-19.

Aside from Christchurch, Seequent has offices in more than 15 other locations globally, including in Canada, where it recently acquired Canadian-based businesses Geoslope and Geosoft. It is currently hiring across a variety of commercial and software-related roles, at all levels of experience – from software developers and testers to product owners and industry managers and experts in sales, business systems and other professional services.

“Seequent was always designed to be a global company and as it grows, we've been increasing our global footprint to reflect that.

“We like to think that we're still a start-up that is going a hundred miles an hour, like an early start-up would.”

Rachel Zaborski, a Product Owner at Seequent, found herself moving across the world to Christchurch in 2020 after applying for a job as with Seequent in the United Kingdom.

“They looked at my CV and said, ‘We actually have a job which is better suited in New Zealand for you… if you want to come’. I obviously Googled, ‘Things to do in Christchurch’ and [the results] said there were tonnes of walks in the mountains, a beach, the Botanical Gardens and then I looked at the art scene, music scene, culture and sport and everything. I was like, ‘Yeah, I could see myself there’. The housing situation seemed pretty reasonable too,” she says.

“I'm really enjoying living here. It doesn't have a lot of the stresses of other big cities. It's like a giant city in miniature, you’ve got everything you need close by [and] the job fits my skill set quite well. I’ve got a background in geology and product ownership on the software side as well, so [it] marries both of those things really well. [I think] you need to have attractive companies in order to attract people. It's a mixture of the job and the city, definitely.” Seequent’s impressive growth in revenue was recognised in the annual Technology Investment Network (TIN) Report in 2020, which monitors the performance of New Zealand’s top 200 largest technology exporters.

Its revenue of $106 million ranked it 23rd on the TIN100 (rated 1 to 100 by revenue), up from 49th in 2019.

The company was also ranked third in the EY Ten Companies to Watch List behind established heavy hitters F&P Healthcare and Xero.