About Me
Accomplished Release and Infrastructure Engineer with a decade of experience in delivering stable and efficient deployments across multinational environments. Expertise in release management and systems administration ensures high-quality, auditable outcomes, driving significant process improvements and enhancing system efficiency. Proven ability to lead diverse teams and manage complex projects while maintaining compliance with best practices, fostering collaboration to achieve seamless deployments. Skilled in configuring cloud tools such as Azure, Octopus and AWS for optimal performance.
Education
City University, London 1992
BSc Business Computing Systems
Work & Experience
Schroders 12/01/2016 - 09/26/2025
Release Implementation Specialist
• Member of Release Control Team, (RCT) which acts as gatekeeper between Schroders Development and Controlled environments (Test, UAT and Production). Personally deployed software and configuration releases for 220+ different Line of Business (LOB) applications. Personally deployed on average 200 releases across all environments monthly with no failures. Accomplished during a period of rapid change due to cloud transformation and widespread introduction of DevOps / Agile practices, including scripting automation and adoption of CI/CD Tools. All deployments performed in an auditable manner, following ITIL best practices and to regulatory standards. • Developed and used extensive knowledge of Octopus, Azure DevOps, Azure, AWS and GitHub configuration and administration, decreasing development time to market by 30%. • Gained extensive Powershell experience through troubleshooting scripting errors, developing new code for automation processes and assisting other team’s deployments. This reduced development time to market by at least 30%. • Performed regular and successful major releases of globally used applications such as SailPoint MyAccess (IAM), Collibra (Data Platform Governance), iManage (Document Management), Cloudera (Kubernetes brokerage), Alteryx (Data Analytics), Profisee (Master Data Management) and Thomson Reuters QA Direct. • Utilized expertise in release management, ServiceNow and best deployment practices to systematically clear an initial backlog of 400+ releases across multiple environments, sustaining low levels through ongoing monitoring and prioritization of deployment pipelines. Subsequently, designed and implemented processes using Octopus and GitHub to align code versions between Test and Production environments, improving deployment consistency through continuous improvement. • Performed regular annual regenerations of Test environments from Production, involving multiple teams. Reduced duration of these from 14+ days to 8 days. • Took on responsibility for onboarding new applications into the release module in Service Now (as used in Schroders for all ITIL requests). Over 100 applications successfully onboarded and managed through the Service Transition process, extending infrastructure reliability. • Developed Powershell scripts for SSIS (MS SQL Server Integration Services) deployments, Active Directory interrogation and application/web server maintenance. • Rewrote and updated internal Confluence-based documentation suite used for middleware releases. Wrote and maintained similar pages for 50+ other LOB applications. • Declared a key member of the RCT team for an 18 - month project to implement Black Rock Aladdin within Schroders. Part of a 20 strong cross-functional team which successfully implemented Aladdin to Europe and Asia. After highly successful timely rollout, the RCT team received special commendation from the Schroders CTO for exemplary professionalism and dedication to the project’s success.
Private Study 07/01/2016 - 11/30/2016
Private Study
• Created an Office 365 test environment resembling a typical organisation within Azure. • Created VMs using Powershell DSC within an Azure virtual network to act as various server types, including Azure Active Directory, all running on Windows Server 2016. • Created and configured an Office 365 test licence installation. • Configured federated authentication of the test users between Azure and Office 365 subscription. • Engineered a repeatable IaC deployment over 4 weeks using Azure Resource Manager templates and PowerShell DSC to automate provisioning of Office 365 and Azure AD lab environments, reducing manual configuration time by 75% across 3 sandbox environments
Thomson Reuters 01/01/2014 - 06/24/2016
Senior Systems Engineer
• Member of large 30+ multinational Wintel Server Support Team. • Performed varied and complex support and implementation activities across a 12000-node global Windows server (2000/2003/2008/2012) estate, regularly meeting SLA targets. • Delivered comprehensive on-call support within a rotation schedule, efficiently resolving technical incidents across a global Windows server environment utilizing ITIL processes. • Engineered and executed complex server migrations, seamlessly transitioning business-critical workloads across global data centres while ensuring uninterrupted service delivery and strict adherence to compliance standards.