An experienced Engineering Manager with a strong technical foundation, specialising in platform engineering and developer experience. I lead teams building shared internal platforms and foundations that improve delivery, reliability, and developer effectiveness at scale.
My background includes significant tenure in technical product leadership, giving me a well-developed product mindset that complements my engineering role. I’m comfortable operating at the intersection of people leadership, technical direction, and delivery, helping teams stay focused on outcomes and improving flow through pragmatic ways of working.
I take an analytical, data-led approach to decision-making and technical prioritisation, balancing short-term delivery with long-term platform health. I bring strong technical grounding and I’m confident reviewing system designs, challenging assumptions, and balancing trade-offs with senior engineers. I place a strong emphasis on coaching, mentorship, and creating an inclusive, high-trust environment where engineers can do their best work and grow their careers.
Skills
Engineering Management & People Leadership
Platform Engineering (IDP)
Delivery Leadership & Flow
Metrics, Experimentation & Engineering Health
SQL, Python & Data Literacy
Architecture Reviews & Trade-offs
Observability, Reliability & Logging
Team Growth & Organisational Design
Cross-Functional Delivery
Culture, Standards & Ways of Working
Career History
Software Engineering Manager – Web Platform
Marks & Spencer | May 2025 - Present
Accountable for delivery outcomes in the Web Platform area, leading teams responsible for shared web foundations used across the digital estate.
Partner closely with Product and senior engineers to set direction, align stakeholders, and balance delivery with long-term technical health.
Improve developer experience by reducing friction and cognitive load through platform capabilities, tooling, and clear standards.
Foster a high bar for engineering excellence through expectations, coaching, and continuous improvement of ways of working.
Champion responsible and effective use of AI to improve delivery, quality, and developer productivity.
Head of Product – Internal Developer Platform
Marks & Spencer | Oct 2023 - May 2025
Led a team of 7 platform product managers across a broad platform portfolio (50+ engineers, £14m budget) spanning Web, Mobile, APIs (incl. GraphQL), Runtime, Events, Experimentation, and Developer Experience with ~1800 internal users.
Partnered with engineering leadership to shape and execute a multi-year platform strategy in ambiguous problem spaces.
Drove adoption and standardisation to reduce cognitive load and accelerate delivery across engineering.
Established developer experience and engineering health metrics as core performance indicators.
Secured funding to train and hire product managers with strong platform expertise.
Led development of internal runtime platforms and developer tooling, supporting multiple engineering teams and a multi-million pound budget across platform initiatives.
Defined API and platform strategies with a focus on usability, security, and scalability.
Embedded measurement and experimentation to drive prioritisation and demonstrate impact.
Improved DevEx through automation and self-service capabilities, reducing friction for engineers.
Managed technical teams working on core game platform, DevOps, and infrastructure.
Ensured more of the code base was reused, reducing cost and time to market.
Improved team flow and feature visibility across the org through adaptive processes.
Tech & Project Management Career Progression
Marks & Spencer | May 2011 – Mar 2018
Progressed from Business Analyst to Senior Technical Project Manager, shaping M&S’s retail technology landscape.
Delivered multiple POS & payments projects, introducing automated build and test pipelines.
Served as an Agile Champion, driving best practices across engineering teams.
Education
MSc Computer Science (Distinction) – University of Hertfordshire (2011)
BEng (Hons) Aerospace Engineering with Astronautics – Kingston University (2007)
Professional Training & Certifications
Certified Platform Engineering Practitioner – Aug 2025
Certified Platform Engineering Professional – Aug 2025
SAFe 5.0 Agilist
Personal Project
The Cabin — terminal-based survival-horror text adventure with a diegetic free-text AI interpreter (LLM + rules-based fallback), stateful world model, and structured quests/logging.