Data Engineering Intern, Chau Anh Cong, shares her WINR’ing work experience

Australia is home to a wealth of talented data engineers and developers earning their stripes at university. So, what better place to find an ambitious undergraduate with the unique skills to support the expansion of our global address parsing program.

WINR has long been committed to unravelling the complexities of global address parsing to help boost the security and integrity of financial operations worldwide. From diverse formats, multilingual considerations and varying postal code systems, international address structures can make or break organisations’ anti-fraud measures. In 2024, we dedicated R&D efforts to expand our solution to include Thailand, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam.

Vietnam sits among the world’s most nuanced character sets and address systems. To ensure the Vietnamese element of our global solution provided the same level of precision as every other region we sought a budding data engineer who understood not only the task at hand but also the complexities of the language. This is how we met Business Analytics student, Chau Anh Cong.

“Last year, I made the huge decision to move to Australia and transferred from Vietnam National University to Macquarie University in Sydney for the final two years of my Business Analytics degree. A few months in I saw an advert for a Data Engineering Intern on the university’s career hub, met with the co-founder, Malcom Treanor, and in April I became a WINR.

“Having moved to Sydney by myself at the age of 20, the team quickly became my sort of adopted family! WINR offered me a very supportive environment that extended outside of work, with the team taking me to Vivid and helping me celebrate my final exam. I wasn’t expecting to feel so included and integrated, but the team really took me under their wing.

“The work-side of things was hands-on and impactful – not like most internships on offer. I was given my own project and worked closely with the data team, particularly Data Ops Manager, Nicole, and Senior Software Engineer, Paramita. My goal was to deliver a working version of WINR’s global address parser, known as Atlas, that was localised for the Vietnamese character set and postal addressing standards. I was surprised to be afforded such an opportunity and couldn’t believe how big the clients were that would be using my program once it was complete.

“Over the four months my role included observing nuances in the Vietnamese data sources, creating rules, coding with Python, testing and refining. The team supported me every step of the way, teaching me new processes, helping me find solutions and refining my skillset. I learnt so many things during my time at WINR, including the benefits of documenting my progress, the impact of defined procedures and the importance of striking a balance between performance and speed. Spending so much time in such a respectful environment also taught me how much can be gained from clear and honest communication, and that really boosted my confidence.”

“During the last few days of the internship my Vietnamese address parsing program sat at 91% accuracy and was so much faster than my first version – I felt a lot of pride handing it over to the data team for final testing and refinements. My time at WINR has given me a huge feeling of accomplishment, a lot of new skills and an experience that will no doubt help shape the career path I take in the next few years.”

— Chau Anh Cong, Data Engineering Intern