Director of Data Enablement — Springer Nature
January 2023 – Present
I lead data engineering and data enablement for a function serving 40 domain teams across Springer Nature — translating executive ambition around AI and data into concrete foundations that teams can actually build on. I own the data engineering competence directly (8 engineers) and operate in a federated model with 15 more embedded across the business.
- Moved the organisation from duplicated, non-standard data infrastructure to a shared platform: 50 teams now hosted on BigQuery with standardised tooling, delivery practices, and data standards for interoperability.
- Reduced shadow IT and waste by establishing a federated ownership model — domain teams own their data products; the central function sets standards and enables delivery rather than owning everything poorly.
- Scaled data platform adoption to 40 teams while keeping costs reasonable through clear federated cost accountability.
- Shipped reusable data products, including one now consumed by 30 teams — a concrete example of the shift from bespoke delivery to reusable, governed assets that can be used as geniune foundations for wide-ranging use cases, beyond the analytical plane.
Solutions Architect — Springer Nature
June 2016 – January 2023
Joined Springer Nature as a Solutions Architect, leading delivery teams during the company merger then the migration of the flagship content delivery platform onto the cloud. Led initial data engineering efforts with different business areas before introducing the Data Mesh and Data Product approach and establishing engineering-grade pipelines as the standard. Worked closely with domain and platform teams to make the transition from ad hoc data delivery to a governed, reusable capability.
Tech Lead / Platform Lead — EqualExperts @ GDS/HMRC
January 2014 – June 2016
Worked as a consultant and technical lead in delivery teams on the new HRMC Digital platform including leading the re-build of the tax payments system. Later I moved to Platform Lead where we implemented “coding in the open” and enabled the growth from 10 to 30 delivery teams deliver by creating tools, shared services and golden paths.
Senior Consultant — ThoughtWorks
April 2010 – December 2013
Worked as a consultant and technical lead across media and publishing, bringing software engineering discipline to teams and departments. Led rebuilds of mission-critical systems, built full continuous delivery pipelines, and delivered Scala-based microservices architectures on Cassandra at scale. Coached teams in XP, TDD, and evolutionary architecture; reported learnings back through conference presentations.
Software Engineer — Enigmatec Corporation
March 2007 – April 2010
Built distributed P2P platform and datacenter management tooling integrated with VMware, using Java with actor-style supervision architecture for fault recovery. Developed integration workflows with WS-Security web services under tight deadlines on-site at a top-tier investment bank, contributing to a significant commercial win.
Engineer — Practical Law Company
January 2006 – February 2007
Engineer on a market-leading legal document automation platform. Built server-side features including a custom object cache using sizing heuristics and multi-user document support via optimistic locking.
Research Associate — University of Newcastle
October 2002 – December 2005
Researched and built Java-based services for a BT-sponsored project investigating dynamic service provisioning for scientific computing — completing a three-year programme in eighteen months. Published several IEEE conference and journal papers, including a single-author paper.
Internship — HP-Arjuna
2002
Built a transactional web services workflow system. Masters degree report received a distinction.