Head of Software Engineering @ British Heart Foundation  ·  Engineering leader, writer, and builder of useful things.

I've spent 15+ years in software engineering, and the thread running through all of it is the same: figuring out how solid engineering translates into real business outcomes, and building the teams that make it happen.

Today I lead a ~30-person engineering function at the British Heart Foundation, spanning platform, infrastructure, DevOps, QA, and delivery — the teams behind the digital platforms that power BHF's fundraising, supporter engagement, retail, and data integration. My focus areas:

• Owning a 5-year Software Engineering Enterprise Vision aligned to BHF's wider tech strategy
• Establishing and maintaining good clear engineering governance
• Managing significant vendor partnerships and multi-year contract strategy
• Championing people development — career ladder redesign, graduate mentoring, and regional recruitment

Before BHF I spent nine years at a UK digital consultancy, moving from Software Developer through Lead Developer to Head of Software Development — delivering enterprise software for public and private sector clients across retail payment modernisation, enterprise integration, and digital fundraising, always with security baked in rather than bolted on (ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials Plus, PCI DSS).

Engineering that ships. Platform engineering work that's taken deployment cycles from hours to minutes. Micro front-end architectures that let teams move independently. Integration platforms that don't fall over at month-end.

AI, honestly. Generative and agentic AI are changing development workflows in meaningful ways — but the value comes from treating AI like any other engineering investment: measurable, incremental, and tied to tangible outcomes. I coined ACES — Agentic Coding & Engineering as a Service as a way to think about delivery capacity when it starts behaving like an external service dependency.

The people side. Career ladders that mean something. Mentoring graduates. Inclusive and regional recruitment. A quality-first culture where teams feel confident enough to stop and fix rather than ship and hope.

• TokenEvaluator.Net — A .NET library for measuring and calculating LLM token counts against specific model tokenisers. Useful when you're trying to get serious about AI cost management.
• spotify-data-viewer — A tidy front-end for making Spotify's JSON data export actually human-readable. Friday afternoon coding.

Languages & runtimes   C# · .NET · TypeScript · JavaScript | Python · Java Cloud & platform   Azure · AKS · App Services · Functions · Event Hub · API Management · Service Bus · Bicep · GitHub Actions Front-end   Vue · Next.js · React · Astro (micro front-end architectures) Data & CX   Microsoft Dataverse / D365 CE · SQL · Postgres Desktop   WPF · WinUI · Xamarin · MAUI · WinForms AI & ML   Azure AI / Cognitive Services · generative & agentic AI workflows · GitHub Copilot · Microsoft Copilot Studio Security & compliance   ISO 27001 · Cyber Essentials Plus · PCI DSS

I write regularly at ctco.blog on engineering leadership, AI adoption, and the craft of building software inside real organisations. Recurring themes:

• AI-assisted development and what it actually changes day-to-day
• AI governance and the NCSC's positions on SaaS and agentic tooling
• Integration architecture in regulated and high-stakes environments
• The journey from engineer to technology leader

If you're organising a meetup, podcast, or conference in the UK engineering leadership space, I'd be happy to talk.

• Board Member, risual Foundation (2022–2024) — giving back to communities through technology, learning, and young-people career pathways.
• STEM Ambassador (2017–2019) — volunteering with 14–19 year olds considering a career in software and the sciences.
• Staffordshire Chamber Digital Innovation Award (2017) for the Akin mobile platform, plus a security sector runner-up the same year.

I'm open to meaningful pro-bono engagements with humanitarian and charitable organisations — particularly in animal welfare, disaster and humanitarian relief, and science and technology. If your mission needs engineering leadership, architecture guidance, or a practical second opinion, please do reach out.

_{📍 Staffordshire, UK  ·  "Finding bugs and setting them free." 🍪}