I’m a strong advocate of modern approaches such as microservice architecture, well-versed in the modernisation of legacy technologies, and capable of leading the technical design for a solution’s infrastructure build & deployment.
As an architect, I have:
- Cultivated a reputation as an expert in Cloud technologies. I’m approached across my employer for my thought-leadership in this area.
- Championed Continuous Delivery & Automation. I am a firm believer in “you build it, you run it”, including giving teams powerful tools to make this a reality.
- Considerable experience designing for resilience and security, including through evolutionary design & experimentation. I believe that to be a good architect you must know the real capabilities of the technologies you’re driving - not just what it says on the tin.
I’ve also played a significant role in setting infrastructure strategy - technical design, patterns and governance - particularly for Cloud.
Platform Architect - Cloud Adoption & Continuous Delivery, Partnership IT, 2017-2019
This was at the time a newly created role working across the John Lewis Partnership - but with an initial focus on John Lewis e-Commerce - focused on driving Cloud Adoption and Continuous Delivery.
As the sole Cloud Architect, I was instrumental in building the first pan-Partnership Cloud Strategy and continue to ensure it remains relevant as the industry evolves and our needs change, including establishing clear principles and standards to maximise value and ensure that services are strategically sound.
I was able to do this effectively through being directly embedded within the newly formed platform team within the johnlewis.com area. I was instrumental in shaping and driving its adoption, whilst also maintaining a level of hands-on exposure as the role allowed. I think my team would agree it helped steer the platform towards a successful outcome.
As part of this team, I was able to practice Agile & Lean techniques such as Continuous Improvement & Kanban, as well as adopt new practices such as Evolutionary Design, then champion these back into the architectural community. I also wrote the Partnership’s formative Cloud Strategy while in this role.
The role evolved into a Platforms Architect across two teams - the second created in response to demand for frictionless onboarding & maturing of the platform’s “paved road”.
Technical Infrastructure Architect, John Lewis IT, 2015-2017
Before the role above, I was part of a small team who shaped the IT infrastructure strategy for John Lewis. This included exploitation of existing on-premise technologies, exploring newer initiatives such as Cloud Computing and DevOps, and advising other architects and engineers on the capabilities and areas of opportunity within Infrastructure.
In contrast to other architectural domains in John Lewis, this role comprised both Enterprise & Solution Architecture functions - allowing me to see our technologies put to use, whilst also building relationships with business and IT stakeholders, understanding the challenges they faced and how they can be supported through technology. I believe this worked really well for the role.