Joining Microsoft

March 3, 2022

🏷 career

Over the past five years I’ve been running my own consultancy and software companies. Last year was a period of reflection for both Nightingale HQ and myself. What do we want to be and where should we be spending our time? The answer for Nightingale HQ (NHQ) is a change towards more of a blended product and services offering in the manufacturing space. For me, it’s gaining a stronger foundation in technology leadership. To that end, Ruth will be stepping up to the role of CEO for NHQ and I’m moving to a role within Microsoft.

Microsoft

I’m going to be leading a team of Digital & Application Innovation Cloud Solution Architects (CSA). Part of the Customer Success Unit (CSU), the goal of the team is to support successful digital transformation in UK organisations. I’ll be working to both scale the effectiveness of technologists whilst delivering supporting customers in achieving strategic technology adoption.

NHQ

I’m moving to the role of Chair for NHQ’s Board, acting in an oversight and advisory capacity. Ruth will be taking over as the CEO and will be responsible for growing the business into the technology areas and geographical focus that the last year of trading has been testing.

Locke Data

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been doing small engagements via my consultancy Locke Data. This will be closing and I have referred many of customers to either Jumping Rivers or Advancing Analytics. I have left my blogs, talks, and other materials available for access. I hope the open-source contributions the consultancy has made over the years continues to have value for the data platform and data science communities.

Tech community

The past five years have been tough but wonderful to contribute to the technology community. Between entrepreneurship and COVID, it hasn’t been easy and at times I feel like I haven’t done very much. In recognition of my changing focus, I have found homes for many of my open-source projects since I no longer code enough in those languages to keep them up to date. I’ll be continuing to the support the SQL Saturday not-for-profit which is starting to come out of hibernation as COVID has become more manageable.

I hold a strong interest in helping the squishy parts of the systems (a.k.a. humans) work more effectively. The interest in [Something]Ops over the years plays into this – how do we work more effectively with technology to deliver value? With that in mind I fully expect to continue talking about the concept of developer velocity with both Microsoft’s customers and the broader technology communities that I love to be a part of. As I start my new role and get up to speed, I fully expect to re-engage the tech community with talks, blog posts, and open-source contributions again.