Meet the Leaders: Roeland Scheepens, Research Engineer, Eindhoven

This series will give you the opportunity to get to know some of the Leaders at UiPath. They are the ones who carry a lot of extra responsibilities on top of overseeing projects and processes. They make sure to hire the right people for their teams. They act like coaches and they support you to become the best version of yourself. 

We have 3 major development centers at UiPath based in Seattle, Bucharest and Bangalore and 4 smaller ones in Vienna, Lviv, Cluj-Napoca and Eindhoven. Although our teams take care of different parts of our automation platform, they all have the same goal: deliver the best automation product out there.

We have some talented colleagues in R&D. They are passionate, they are resourceful and they're willing to create something that’s never been created before. Meet Roeland Scheepens, Research Engineer, one of the leaders in our Eindhoven office. He's been part of ProcessGold since 2016, the company that UiPath acquired last year.

Tell us a bit about your career journey so far. How did you get to where you are today?

I graduated as a computer scientist at the Eindhoven University of Technology specialized in visualization. Following this, I decided to pursue a PhD in visualization at the same institute. At the end of 2015, I successfully defended my thesis and joined ProcessGold in January 2016. ProcessGold, then still called MagnaView, had originally started as a spin-off of my visualization group at the Eindhoven University of technology. I started working at ProcessGold shortly before its transition from a Business Intelligence/visualization company to a process mining company. During that period, I was largely responsible for developing process mining technology on the platform. Having studied and done my PhD at the Eindhoven University of technology, the main center of process mining research, I had already been exposed to and seen much process mining research up close.

What was it like to go from ProcessGold to UiPath?

Luckily, UiPath had a very similar culture with ProcessGold. Everybody pulls their weight and does their best to get the best possible product out there. The culture is very cooperative and friendly.

Tell us something about you. How long have you been with UiPath? What area of our product do you oversee?

I started working at ProcessGold in 2016 and joined UiPath in 2019 when ProcessGold was acquired to become what is now UiPath Process Mining. Currently, I am the team lead of the process mining technology team. We are an engineering team that is responsible for, as the name suggests, developing process mining technology and related visualization technology. Our goal is to bring advanced process mining technology into business. We are not afraid to get experimental and try new stuff. In that context, we also offer a wide range of technical graduation assignments.

What was one of the most important turning points of your career? What did you learn from that experience?

I cannot really speak of a single turning point, but it is all about continuously putting in the work, keeping up to date with the state of the art, and never forgetting about the big picture. The most important thing, though, is to find what you love doing. You spend a large part of your life at work, so you must find enjoyment and fulfilment in it.

How would you describe your team? Think of people, projects, mission, anything that somebody looking to join your team should know.

There is still a large gap between process mining technology in academia and process mining technology as it is deployed in business. The mission of my team could be described as bridging that gap, to investigate and find out new ways of using process mining technology in the business world such that it can have a real effect on real processes.

What's important for you when choosing a new employee? What would you advise candidates who want to interview for a job in your team?

What we are looking for in any candidate is strong technical skills and strong problem-solving skills. Someone who is curious and not afraid of a challenge. A strong interest and affinity for either visualization and/or process mining is a plus.  

This was Roeland! I'm glad we had the chance to share his thoughts on his team and their activity. Until our next episode, stay safe!