Support is always there when needed

While Rasa hasn’t looked out a physical office space yet during the Covid-19 outbreak, we’ve already provided the company with a lot of information that will help the team once it can start looking for a space.

Sourcing talent to grow the team

Rasa’s plan is to grow the Edinburgh office into a dedicated research and development office, with a focus on machine-learning research. It will also have two frontend developers, who have been with Rasa for some time, and one machine-learning researcher. The company is likely to be looking for 3-5 additional machine-learning researchers to start this fall and winter.

'Remote-first' approach

As a distributed team, with staff in San Francisco, Berlin and Edinburgh, the company has invested a lot of energy into building good habits around remote work and communicating across time zones. This includes using asynchronous communication when possible and documenting decisions and conversations in the Slack platform.

“This has become even more important during the Covid-19 pandemic, as our team has shifted from being remote-friendly to what we’d term remote-first,” said Alan.

“Our remote-first approach includes making sure team members have an equal chance to be heard, regardless of whether they’re physically present in the office, and finding ways to connect across geographies. We expect the Edinburgh office to be a continuation of these practices.”

Edinburgh life and affordability

Rasa has two frontend engineers who are already based in Edinburgh. Both cite Edinburgh’s beauty and walkability, as well as its rich cultural offerings and affordability, compared to other tech hubs.