Independent tech lead consultancy. I embed with engineering teams to unblock delivery — architecture, cloud, and the unglamorous work of actually getting things to production.
Architectural decisions live in ADRs, not Slack threads. If a decision isn't written down, it wasn't made — and the team will relitigate it in three months.
The second version of a thing in production beats the perfect version that never shipped. Feedback loops are the engineering org's most valuable asset.
I'd rather give you an uncomfortable number today than a comfortable one that blows up in week six. Under-promising is just a slower form of lying.
My job is to leave your team stronger than I found it. That means pairing, review, and transferring context — not hoarding it.
Tech lead on a multi-cloud data catalogue programme. Designed and delivered the AWS-to-Purview integration using native multicloud connectors, ran the Self-Hosted Integration Runtime PoC on Kubernetes, and led a four-repository GitHub Projects migration to give the team predictable iteration planning.
Tech lead on a high-availability remote hearings platform serving the courts service. Led a cross-functional engineering team through significant architectural change, code review standards, and the day-to-day delivery work of getting changes into production safely.
A decade of full-stack delivery in regulated and high-stakes environments — pre-dating Slim Solutions. Includes greenfield product builds, legacy modernisation, and mentoring junior engineers into senior roles. Available on request.
Drop-in leadership for engineering teams that need direction without the overhead of a permanent hire. Architectural decisions, ADRs, code review standards, sprint planning, and the harder work of unblocking what's been stuck for three sprints. I optimise for the team being stronger when I leave than when I arrived.
Cloud architecture across Azure and AWS, with a strong preference for infrastructure as code, repeatable deployment pipelines, and cost-aware design. Comfortable working at the seam between application teams and platform teams — including the negotiation work that often makes the difference between a working environment and a stalled one.
End-to-end ownership when teams need something built properly the first time. Backend services in C# / .NET Core or Node, type-safe frontends in Next.js or Angular, with auth, payments, and observability wired in from the start rather than retrofitted. Comfortable across the full request lifecycle from edge to database.
Practical data governance, not PowerPoint data governance. Microsoft Purview implementation including cross-cloud scanning, lineage traversal, and the integration work around it. Comfortable with Purview's REST and GraphQL APIs for catalogue automation, ownership reporting, and lifecycle workflows that real data teams will actually adopt.
The discipline around getting code into production — pipelines, environments, secrets, monitoring, runbooks, and the boring work that makes engineers' lives easier. Self-hosted runners, PWA delivery, error tracking, and feature flagging when it earns its keep. I'd rather build a quiet, predictable system than an impressive one that needs babysitting.
Some of the work that's shaped me most isn't billable. Trustee responsibility, end-to-end ownership of a charity's tech estate, and helping early-career engineers find their first foothold all sit alongside the day job — and they keep me honest.
Trustee role with fiduciary and governance responsibilities, leading a team of volunteers and managing programme budgets across football, badminton, and community events. Annual general meetings, trophy presentations, safeguarding obligations — the full remit.
The trustee work is genuine governance, not honorary. It's the same disciplines I bring to client work — risk management, vendor oversight, budget accountability — applied to a non-profit that matters to the people it serves.
Reviewed and rationalised the charity's full tech estate — website hosting (WordPress on shared Windows/IIS), payments infrastructure (Stripe and SumUp), accounting reconciliation pipeline, and supplier management with the hosting provider. Identified an under-publicised loopback routing issue affecting load times and pushed back on supplier responses that didn't add up.
Designed and shipped kcl-football-tracker — a Next.js / PostgreSQL / Auth0 web app for tracking match results, deployed to Vercel with self-hosted GitHub Actions runners, PWA support, and Sentry observability. Migrated it off Azure Static Web Apps when the SSR model didn't fit, and from MSSQL to Neon when the data model called for it.
Helping people grow is part of the work, not a side concern. On client engagements that's looked like delivering structured feedback for engineers seeking promotion, designing and running live technical interview panels, and producing the documentation that makes hiring decisions defensible.
The principle is the same whether the context is paid or not: coach, don't do the work for them.
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