Systems Engineer (Consulting), (Consultancy) – Assuring the supplier’s  architectural designs for an extremely complex System Engineering project. This project is in the far reaches on ‘Complex, Hybrid’ projects, requiring a multitude of skills and considerable experience in a variety of areas. Working client side (as opposed to supply side), the project must deliver a highly secure, integrated, end to end solution. As a central part of the Design Assurance team, this work is cutting new territory in the sector’s ability to deliver SE.

Systems Engineer (inc. Architecting), (Defence Company) – I qualified the Command Infrastructure for an experimental UAV. This included integrating a significant quantity of COTS/MOTS software components, managing requirements and developing systems designs for qualification documentation, including an architectural repository for a portion of the Ground Control infrastructure. This is one of my key skills; finding effective ways to communicate systems designs to all stakeholders. It was a prestigious project (although still not very public) and extremely interesting to work on.

Systems Architect, (Defence Company) – I was the Chief Developer of architecture for a £1.2M ISTAR Integration Assessment Phase Project. This work was very intense (we had to fit a lot of work into a short period of time!) but was ultimately very satisfying. Again I was using an architecture (in this instance using the Ministry of Defence Architecture Framework (MODAF))  to help unify development efforts and communicate to different stakeholders (including the customer).

Enterprise Architect, (Defence Company) – I was directly responsible for delivering Operational Views and Systems Views using MODAF for a project integrating UAVs into Civil Airspace. This was one of my favourite projects because I firmly believe that the use of UAVs in civil airspace will become commonplace in the near (2015) future. I valued my input to that project and only hope that one day I will be able to contribute further to the UK’s efforts to firm up CAP 722 and effectively integrate UAVs into the civil airspace.

Assistant Project Manager, (Defence Company) – I was directly responsible to the account manager for monitoring, manipulating and scheduling £7M – £21M budgets using Earned Value Management. I also spent a fair portion of my time developing a novel schedule integration technique using multi platform project management systems (including MS Project) amongst different project partners. This included requirements analysis, concept generation and solution development (including code generation). It was (if I say so myself!) a great solution…. but was never implemented because some politics got in the way. I’m sure that’s never happened before!

Consultant, (Decorations and Display company) – When I came back from a period of world travel I spent a little time contracting whilst I searched for a the next role. An opportunity arose to work with a decorations company, installing large scale decorations. This was only a few months and a breath of fresh air but I ended up finding myself responsible for the electrical wiring of Britain’s largest Christmas tree with over 100,000 Light bulbs, 1,700 branches and 9Km of wiring.

World Travel – Including Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Cuba, Alaska, Japan, South Africa. read more about that over at my Personal Blog

Project Director, (Contracting) – I took sole responsibility for the delivery of a £0.5M European (ESF) project delivering training for Aerospace/Space Engineers. Working with CEOs, MDs and directors of many SMEs and Prime Aerospace companies, I took the lead, reporting to a board with representatives from QinetiQ, BAE Systems, Flight Safety, EADS Astrium and other large primes. I delivered the project with 99% successful delivery, even after being head hunted for the role a month after the project had begun. This role provided great insights into the working, and training needs of Aerospace Engineering SMEs and I had the privilege of sitting on a number of Aerospace representative councils.

Software Developer/Technical Analyst, (Large multinational HR Company) – I was recruited on a temporary basis to develop architecture and software to enforce processes for administration staff, including data processing of large record sets. Mostly this was for financial record processing (P11-Ds etc) but some of it was for flexible benefits. I meant working with large (often poorly constructed!) relational databases and using complex SQL queries to clean and manipulate data. We were using some crude toolsets (mostly MS Access) but it was interesting to work on optimising the workflow, especially when working with large sets of data. When I arrived, the technical team took a number of weeks to develop a single processing tool. I developed a unified architecture and a tool generation toolkit to bring development of data cleansing and simple processing down to less than two days.  Additional work included  mapping and optimising internal company processes and supporting users with the software we developed.

Web Developer (Self Employed), LindsayHart – I started up as a self employed developer, developing and maintaining affiliate websites, private hosting packages, PC support and administration for customers. This required a highly technical and broad ranging IT skillset as well as excellent time management (as anyone that has worked for themselves will know!), B2B and B2C communications as well as considerable problem solving and programming skills required.

Design and Manufacturing Engineer, (Precision Engineering Company) – (Full and Part Time) Managing and working in Manufacturing & Assembly workshop with CNC machines I held a  multidisciplinary role, highly technical in nature with responsibility for a small number of staff and technical manufacture as well as product development tasks, programming and IT support. Whilst I was there, in the “downtime” I developed proprietary invoicing application (SQL, VB and Access) which I believe is still in use today!

Director, (SlothStuff LLP) – Having always wanted to work for myself, I formed SlothStuff LLP, a holding company for a retail and product development company (SlothBall) in the outdoor sporting (predominantly paintball) industry.  This startup required high levels of commitment, time management,  and technical development of all aspects of setting up and running a limited company including direct sales, accounting and finance, product development, collaboration, market research etc. With no previous formal qualifications or experience, this was a baptism by fire but by far the best way to learn the harsh lessons of business. the lessons I learnt during this period still serve me well today!

I have had plenty of roles previous to this, including working at the Farnborough International Air Shows (2 shows running) as well as plenty of jobs as a “young ‘un” (most enjoyably, working for about 5 years (part time) as a judge for a paintball company! A lot of fun and met some cracking people). If you want any further information, why not get in contact?