I’ve been with Fluid for just over five years and I now work as the Technology Director. In my position, I take a hands-on approach, working as a developer and solutions architect for our clients. I oversee everything technical in terms of developing solutions, analysing data, and anything else that requires a hands-on approach.

We’ve got a team of developers who work across multiple disciplines, as we’re solution agnostic, a lot of my role consists of overseeing the team to ensure we’re delivering the right approach for our clients. This consists of making sure we’re resourced correctly, giving estimates and planning builds. I’m always looking to upskill the team so that they’ve got the tools to be self-sufficient and do things we’ve never done before so that we can deliver better solutions. I always look for developers who are hungry, we work across multiple disciplines with multiple clients, so it’s crucial that they want to learn and keep growing with the business. This means that my role is twofold, as I’m both a team leader but I will also get involved with the hands-on builds when necessary.

I’ve been developing for the last 20 years, and I have also been contracting for a number of years, which is how I first met Fluid’s CEO, Gareth Murphy. I worked for BT for quite a few years in data warehousing, working on government projects and working with large amounts of sensitive data. I’ve also worked for BAE Systems and South Yorkshire Police.

A lot of my experience has been in hands-on development as a contractor, and because I’ve worked in a range of environments, I’ve seen how things can be done well and not so well, and I try to instil the best bits into my team.

We’ve got a number of developers, with one of them, Arun, currently travelling the world, it’s something I did when I was younger, but I didn’t have the opportunity to work remotely. I’m 100% behind him travelling, because I trust he’ll get the work done, I don’t need to check in every two minutes to know he’ll deliver.

I want to be the manager that I’d want as a manager. I want our developers to enjoy working for us and I don’t want to be a blocker to stop them from achieving their personal and professional goals. They’re developers right now, but if they wanted to move into solutions architecture or had other ambitions, we’ll help them to grow into these roles and give them the opportunities to learn and develop.

Do you have any key qualifications?

I’ve got an Information Systems degree from the University of Leeds, which is how I first came to Yorkshire. I’m Oracle certified, which was the main platform I used at the start of my career. I’ve also got a range of Microsoft qualifications, including for Power BI, Power Automate and AI Fundamentals.

But for me, it’s important that I encourage my developers to do at least two or three certifications every year, funded by Fluid. It’s so important that we continue to invest in and bolster the skills of the overall team, not just management, so that we can provide the best solutions for our customers.

Yes, although I think there’s a misconception of what AI really is. We’ve been doing a lot of work internally into how we can best use it for our clients and adopt it into our own processes.

We’re looking at how to best train people, we do AI assessments, where we go into a business and look at how well it is set up for adopting AI. And that’s not just installing ChatGPT, it’s ensuring that they have the correct licences, and that they’re well protected from data privacy and security issues.

My biggest client at the moment is Bettys & Taylors Group. I’ve been working with them for four years in a solutions architect and data integration role.

It’s all about understanding their data, how we get it out of their systems, move it and make sure it’s cleansed. Working with these ongoing clients like Bettys & Taylors allows me to still get hands on, while also overseeing the wider development team and acting as a member of the senior leadership team.

What is your proudest career achievement?

I’ve worked with lots of big companies and projects over my career, but being part of a smaller team at Fluid, I’m proud of the way we’ve got to where we are together. We had a big restructuring a few years back and have collectively built the business into what it is afterwards.

Now we’re in a place where I have a team of developers who know our clients inside out, I don’t need to get as involved in the day-to-day anymore, building that team is also something I’m very proud of.

I’m from the Wirral near Liverpool, so my life revolves around Liverpool Football Club, where I’m a season ticket holder and I spend a lot of time going to the match with my mates at the weekend. Apart from that, I like to keep fit, I play football and badminton and go the gym.

If you could eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

I like a Chicken Madras, I love a curry, that’s my takeaway of choice. I could probably eat a curry every night of the week!

To meet more of the team members who ensure your projects are a success, explore here.