18 years of making sure software actually works

I've worked across finance, telecoms, healthcare, legal and retail for more than 18 years, building cloud-based software and helping teams learn to run it themselves. Most of that time has been spent doing the unglamorous work that makes systems trustworthy: getting deployments right, catching security problems early, and making sure nothing falls over at the worst possible moment.

For over 11 years I've also managed people and led change inside engineering teams — hiring, coaching, and helping teams cut through risk so they can move faster without breaking things.

How I work

I build security and reliability in from the start rather than fixing them afterwards — it's cheaper and far less painful that way. I'd rather find a problem in week one than discover it in production.

I also like teaching as I go. If I do my job well, your team ends up understanding the system we built together, not just relying on me to keep it running.

Education

• PhD in Computer Science — University of Sheffield, Verification and Testing Group
  Thesis: a process-driven quality assessment model for electronic healthcare records
• BSc in Computer Science and Mathematics — University of Sheffield
  Dissertation: an XML-based application for archaeologists

Outside of work

When I'm not building things, I'm usually out hiking. I keep learning too — regularly turning up to tech communities, conferences and workshops to stay sharp.