Senior Engineering Advisor · Platforms, Developer Experience & AI-Enabled SDLC
20+ years leading engineering organisations across platform, product, and delivery — most recently Engineering Director at Marks & Spencer (2,000+ engineers). Since 2025, working independently with large organisations on engineering effectiveness, platform strategy, and AI adoption across the SDLC. Fractional. A small number of engagements at a time.
Advisory engagements at VP, Director, or platform leadership level.
Standardising AI-assisted development at scale — tooling, testing strategy for non-deterministic outputs, delivery pipelines, and using platform engineering to introduce capabilities safely and consistently.
Evolving from infrastructure-centric operations to developer-experience-led, product-oriented platforms. Strategy, standards, and Platform as a Product ways of working across CI/CD, APIs, observability, and security.
Meaningful measurement that guides decisions — DORA and SPACE-aligned signals, developer sentiment, and workflow telemetry segmented by engineering system type. Real improvements in lead time and MTTR.
Operating models, team structures, and ways of working that reduce cognitive load and support autonomy at scale. Clear ownership, shared standards, and technical direction that empowers rather than constrains.
Supporting senior engineering leaders and platform leads to set direction, validate or challenge architectural decisions, and navigate trade-offs that come with rapid growth or significant change.
Identifying where AI acceleration exposes bottlenecks elsewhere in the SDLC — backlog readiness, review throughput, operational burden — and targeting improvements before they become the next constraint.