If Chicago was a kid in school, it would have an entire bookshelf full of science-fair trophies.
People like to think of Silicon Valley as the country’s tech hub and Boston as the pinnacle of research and scientific exploration — but Chicago can boast of quite a few “firsts” of its own.
Chicago was where the first open-heart surgery was performed by Daniel Hale Williams, who was also one of the first black physicians in the city.
The first river to ever be manually reversed, the Chicago River, is also high on the list of proud moments for the city. Considered the largest earth-moving project, reversing the flow of the Chicago River was nothing short of a feat in civil engineering. The result keeps Lake Michigan — part of the largest freshwater reserve on earth — from having sewage water dumped into it to this day.
Chicago was also the first place in the world to build a nuclear reactor. As labs around the United States raced to be key parts of The Manhattan Project, the University of Chicago leapt to the front when scientists successfully ran the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction chain.
In addition to these achievements, Chicago is considered to be the founding city of electronic finance technology. To honor that first, Built In spoke with a current Chicago fintech company about hiring plans and collaboration.
NinjaHoldings is a fintech company that empowers people overlooked by traditional financial institutions to take control of their finances via a full suite of digital banking and lending products.
Describe your company culture in one word.
“Collaborative.” We work together to move quickly, solve big problems, and drive the business forward.
One of my team's core responsibilities is managing the implementation of our business rules platform, which requires constant collaboration with other teams — from marketing to credit risk to engineering — to quickly adjust to changing business needs. Our collaborative culture allows us to move fast, try new ideas and strategies, and go where the data takes us.
“Our collaborative culture allows us to move fast, try new ideas and strategies, and go where the data takes us.”
How long have you been with the company, and what professional growth or development have you seen in that time?
I’ve been with NinjaHoldings for three years. I joined the company as a project manager on the Risk and Analytics team, and a little more than one year later I transitioned into a role managing a team of data analysts and data scientists.
Throughout my experience here I’ve had countless opportunities to face new challenges, from managing a team for the first time to expanding my role into new functional areas. These challenges have helped me immensely grow both my technical and leadership skills.
