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. At Marks & Spencer, I currently lead Web Platform and Developer Services, spanning shared web foundations and the front door into the internal developer platform for around 1,500 engineers.
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, influencing senior stakeholders, navigating competing priorities across the organisation, and helping teams stay focused on outcomes 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. I am particularly interested in where AI can genuinely reduce friction for engineers, and I approach it pragmatically: build, measure, and keep only what proves useful.
Relocation & Finland Context
Planning permanent relocation to Finland. Married to a Finnish national, with close family ties in Finland and regular extended stays over many years.
I speak basic Finnish, with prior formal study and ongoing daily exposure. We raise our son bilingually, with Finnish spoken at home, and I am comfortable living and working in a bilingual environment. I am continuing to improve my Finnish through regular use.
Skills
Engineering Management & People Leadership
Platform Engineering (IDP)
Delivery Leadership & Flow
Metrics, Experimentation & AI Evaluation
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 & Developer Services
Marks & Spencer | May 2025 - Present
Lead two platform areas — Web Platform and Developer Services — spanning shared web foundations and the engineering front door to the internal developer platform.
Set strategy and technical direction across both areas, including an AI-native orchestration approach that turns natural-language intent into governed platform workflows.
Deployed M&S’s first organisation-wide engineering health framework, using DX survey data and support analysis to quantify ~1.6 FTEs per week of wasted engineering time and prioritise improvements.
Built a RAG-based engineering support PoC, then used analysis of ~1,900 support messages to narrow the real AI opportunity and steer the work towards lower-friction native tooling.
Delivered a zero-incident Golden Quarter across the web selling experience with a team of three engineers.
Led org-wide contributions including automated change management, GitHub Actions re-enablement standards following a cyber incident, and major platform modernisation work.
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.
Held dual product and engineering management responsibility in the absence of a dedicated Engineering Manager — managing engineers, owning team health, hiring, performance, and engineering culture alongside product leadership.
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 combining free-text AI input with rules-based guardrails, diegetic responses, and a stateful world model.