Being part of something great, without losing the human dimension
Read the interview with Pio Riccardo Dufour, Data Science Advisor of Engineering.
Looking at the professional path that has brought you here, what key element do you feel you have carried with you and that now guides your work?
Looking at my journey, the thing that has always defined me is curiosity: that constant desire to broaden my skills, both technical and personal.
At ENG I had the opportunity to work with very different technologies, moving from Business Intelligence to Data Management and on to the development of more complex AI solutions.
Moreover, my curiosity also took me beyond Italy: after studying Electronic Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano, I pursued Data Science applied to Marketing and Management in Scotland and France, learning new languages and absorbing new cultures.
And yes, it wasn’t in my plans to return to Italy so soon: I had received an offer in France, but ENG managed to convince me!
What made you feel immediately aligned with ENG?
I clearly remember how, before joining ENG, I couldn’t wait to give my best and had a strong desire to prove what I could do; I was inclined to stay in France, but I told myself it was worth closing the loop and going through the final interviews.
The first meeting with ENG surprised me more than I had imagined: they talked about huge projects, the solutions they had built and how I could contribute, and they did so with an enthusiasm that sparked something in me. Then something almost unusual for these processes happened: an immediate connection with the recruiting team.
After the first interview, I sent an email expressing my appreciation, saying that I felt slightly different from the profile they were looking for; usually that kind of statement closes all doors, but instead they replied by proposing an alternative path in another division. When I explained that I had another offer, they moved with incredible speed.
Within a week, we went from the first interview to the offer!
What was the decisive detail that made you say, "OK, this is the right place"?
Without a doubt, the decisive moment was the interview with the manager, who told me about projects so advanced that they surprised me, even with a technical background like mine.
In a context like ENG’s, with more than 80 offices worldwide and over 15,000 employees, you expect great things, but hearing them described so closely really has a different impact.
A concrete example is EngGPT, our proprietary GenAI model, customizable according to different industries, which represents a true point of differentiation compared to the market. Over the years, I have worked on predictive and monitoring tools in telemedicine, on solutions for managing regulations in central public administration, on EngGPT for document analysis and generation, and more recently on the no-code Agent Studio platform, designed to create AI agents capable of handling complex processes in a simple and secure way.
All of this would already be enough, but I was also involved in an even more ambitious project: training EngGPT completely from scratch, thanks to collaboration with major computing centers.
When you think about your first impression of ENG, what image comes to mind?
The first image I had of ENG was that of a gigantic machine capable of executing any project. However, this impressive impression was immediately balanced by the way the company is experienced: a style of flexible work, smart working, welcoming offices and a very natural relationship with colleagues.
Having only a few years of work experience, I wondered if this unexpected combination was standard in a large company. The truth is that it is not at all, and talking with friends and family, I realized how much ENG truly stands out on topics like employee care, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Here I have that feeling of being part of something great without losing the human dimension, and it is something I continue to feel every day.
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