About Me
The Short Version
I am a Director of Software Engineering with 17 years of experience, currently leading a remote-first department of 150+ engineers across 18 squads.
I specialize in scale. whether that’s scaling software architectures to handle thousands of enterprise tenants, scaling teams from local units to global powerhouses, or scaling release frequencies by 1500%.
My Journey
My career didn’t start in a computer lab; it started in my parents’ living room at age 8. I reprogrammed the family satellite receiver to unlock more channels. My Dad was furious until he saw the selection - then he just asked for the remote.
That curiosity never left. It evolved from hacking hardware to building enterprise software, architecting Chip & Pin solutions, and now, defining technical strategy for global SaaS platforms.
Currently, at SS&C Blue Prism, I own the engineering delivery across the entire product portfolio. This involves a delicate balancing act: maintaining the “Current Gen” revenue drivers while architecting the “Next-Gen” cloud-native future.
Impact by the Numbers
I believe engineering leadership is measured by outcomes, not just output. Some highlights from my recent work include:
- 150+ - Engineers, Managers, and Leads in my current department.
- 500% - Increase in release cycle speed achieved through modern CI/CD.
- 15x - Increase in deployment frequency by shifting to a “DevOps First” mindset.
- 300% - Expansion of the engineering department engineered via global recruitment.
How I Lead
While I focus on strategy today, I remain deeply technical. I believe you cannot direct what you do not understand. Then again, Technology is easy; it’s people that are hard. My leadership philosophy is built on three pillars:
- Psychological Safety: Innovation requires failure. I build cultures where teams feel safe to experiment, providing they learn from the result.
- Autonomy with Alignment: I set the destination (Strategy) and the guardrails (Standards), then trust my leaders to find the best route.
- Commercial Awareness: Engineering is expensive. I champion FinOps strategies to ensure every line of code we ship drives measurable business value.
Beyond the Terminal
When I’m not optimizing pipelines or mentoring leaders, I am usually:
- 🐈 Wrangling one of my 4 cats (Yes, 4!)
- 🎮 Gaming on Steam (Ask me about my current obsession).
- 🥐 Baking (Engineering you can eat).
- 🤖 Smart Home tech (I spend an unhealthy amount of time trying to get my vacuum cleaner to negotiate a peace treaty with my cat-flap.)
- 🖨️ 3D Printing (Turning perfectly good spools of filament into ‘abstract art’)
Let’s Connect
I am always open to discussing engineering leadership, the future of AI in education, or the nuances of legacy migration.