Back to all blogs

Staff Spotlight: Jack Pawson

As the year’s midpoint approaches (and we remember that we haven’t done one of these in a while), it’s the perfect time to kick off another chapter of our Staff Spotlight series. This delightful journey introduces you to the passionate individuals who contribute to making Mobysoft the social housing sector’s most trusted data analytics partner. This month, we catch up with senior data scientist Jack Pawson, a dedicated professional whose expertise in data science drives Mobysoft’s success and delivers invaluable insights to both internal and external stakeholders. 

How did you come to work in social housing? 

I can honestly say I wasn’t even aware of the sector that supports social housing. It was a chat with our founder Derek Steele which enlightened me to the meaningful work and deep opportunities that Mobysoft are involved with. The rest, as they say, is history 

Describe yourself in 3 words: 

Honest. Dependable. Curious.  

Can you tell us a bit more about yourself and your past experience within data and insights? 

Towards the end of my geography degree, I completed some work experience with Lancashire Fire and Rescue which turned into a full-time role after I graduated. It was simply a job at the time, but it was where I recognised my passion for solving problems and helping people through data. After a couple of years as an analyst within the service, I was accidently introduced to data science at a conference at Lancaster University. On the same evening, I applied for postgraduate degrees knowing this would help me transition into a highly technical role. This ultimately led me to the University of Manchester and onto Mobysoft as the company’s first data scientist. 

What does your role at Mobysoft entail? 

I lead the design and development of our artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. I work closely with our product and commercial teams to understand the issues our customers are facing and design simple, scalable AI solutions which can help to solve them. 

What is the most interesting part of your job? 

AI is probably the most interesting part of my job to most, however for me it is the variety of problems, people and data I work with each day. My time is split across our entire platform, so I can be working on supporting our Automated Arrears Prevention (AAP) product, mapping in completely new data into our systems, or giving a talk on ethical AI use within the repairs space.  

What are your biggest challenges at the moment? 

As a data and insights team, our biggest challenges are around capitalising on all the opportunities to support the social housing sector. The data we work with is as detailed as it is wide-ranging and so it can be difficult to identify which problems to solve first (when we want to solve them all!). 

What’s most meaningful part of your job? 

Working with smart, kind, and passionate people. The products we build and maintain make thousands of decisions each day, but I always remember the impact those decisions have on people, whether it be improving a tenant’s experience, delighting a customer, or supporting our internal objectives and ambition. 

How do you measure the success of the outcomes directly influenced via your role? 

The success of my role comes down to the impact of our AI products. A lot of elements go into building a successful AI product, such as good data, adoption, accuracy, and accessibility. AI isn’t a silver bullet and often gets a bad rep because these solutions fail to address the problem for one of the reasons mentioned. The success of our team is determined by how we design products which can continually support in solving a genuine problem customers are facing, whether it’s predicting arrears, identifying properties at risk of damp and mould, or highlighting properties with repeat repair issues. 

What would you say are the biggest challenges faced by social landlords in the current climate? 

From my experience, it is the pressure to do more with less using data. There are a lot of steps to get to the point of deploying live AI solutions which lead to positive real-world outcomes. Missing these steps is often the cause of the many false promises seen with emerging technologies such as AI. Mobysoft has been through process following our data strategy, but this often requires resource and patience to get to this point.  

With ever-growing demands and less resource, I think dealing with the pressure to do more with less without solid foundational data will be the biggest challenge for landlords. 

Working on anything interesting at the moment? 

I count myself lucky that I get to work on a variety of very cool stuff. I am personally working on rebuilding our RepairSense AI, so it can effectively maintain itself in accurately identifying repeat issues, as well generate useful information such as the type of issue which is repeating and networks of related problems within properties.  

Our team is working on our damp and mould (D&M) recommendation engine, which analyses the history of hundreds of thousands of damp and mould cases at properties to identify tenants who may be at risk of damp and mould but have not raised it to their landlord.  

What has been your proudest achievement in housing? 

Designing, developing, and launching Automated Arrears Prevention (AAP) in just a couple of months would be my proudest achievement at Mobysoft. I got to work with colleagues from practically every area of the company and our pilot clients, so it was a massive team effort. To see the early product become such an initial success in preventing tenants from falling into arrears and generating hundreds of thousands of additional credit for landlords was a genuine example of something I have built having a positive impact in the world. It was also great to see this achievement recognised by the technology industry in winning ‘AI project of the Year’ at the RITA 2024 Awards and has paved the way for developing high-performing AI products for supporting income teams and tenants. 

What are your other passions outside housing? 

My main passions are what take up most of my weekends. I love being outdoors, whether it’s walking, running, hiking, camping, or climbing. My other passion is Blackpool FC, which unfortunately take up most Saturdays! 

How do you unwind after work? 

Most of my workdays end with a long walk or a run (or the pub). I try to walk over 10,000 steps every day. 

What is your ideal holiday?  

My ideal holiday is anywhere I can switch off, particularly around big mountains. I was lucky enough to spend this spring walking through the Himalayas. 

That’s it for this summer’s edition of Staff Spotlight. If you enjoyed it, then please do head back to these very pages in around a month or so when we’ll be getting to know another Mobysoft staffer a little better. 

Dean Quinn
Latest posts by Dean Quinn (see all)
Tags: , , , ,