Mark Cowley

SSP Limited 12/05/2022 - 04/30/2025

Head of Infrastructure

 Took ownership of a failing infrastructure landscape, stabilising legacy systems and replacing critical hardware/services to re-store reliability; recognised with the internal SSP Star Award for service delivery and disaster recovery leadership.  Directed five technical teams (Networks, Operations, NOC, Applications, Security) comprising 30+ engineers and team leads, embedding regular scrums, 1:1s, and succession planning to strengthen performance and ensure leadership continuity.  Executed a full cloud-first strategy, lifting and shifting two data centres into Azure and AWS, managing compliance, resilience, and phased cutover with zero major service outages.  Delivered £700K+ cost savings in one year by consolidating Microsoft licensing, renegotiating vendor terms, and reclaiming oversubscription fees, feeding efficiency gains back into infrastructure projects.  Modernised the virtual environment through VMware optimisation, consolidation, and rightsizing, reducing operating costs and improving performance across the enterprise stack.  Oversaw migration of the Citrix Gateway (2,000+ users) from physical to virtual, ensuring business continuity and improved scalability while cutting maintenance overheads.  Partnered directly with C-suite executives, sitting on CAB and providing strategic recommendations on infrastructure, risk, and capacity planning to influence business-wide decisions.  Actively led recovery planning following a ransomware attack, redesigning SSP’s security landscape, conducting vulnerability assessments, and embedding proactive monitoring to futureproof the estate.  Controlled multimillion-pound OPEX and CAPEX budgets, applying strict governance while continuously identifying opportunities to reduce costs and increase ROI.