01 The day job: digital systems, data and IT leadership

Running the technology of two organisations, every day

Digital systems and data management analyst, and the IT lead of an advisory firm and an infrastructure developer at the same time. The systems on this site were built inside that role; this page is about everything else the role means, day after day.

What the role is

Two organisations, one technology function. One advises on infrastructure and energy; the other develops infrastructure projects. Both run on documents, meetings, money and data, and both needed someone to make the technology behind all of that dependable, secure and useful. That is the job: the analyst who designs the systems and looks after the data, and the lead who owns the whole IT function, from the network to the boardroom.

What it covers, week by week

Digital systemsChoosing, building and running the systems people work in every day: the data room and project platform, the finance and operations system, the websites, the document tools, and the links between them, so information is entered once and flows where it is needed.
Data managementOne place where the truth lives. Documents, project data, financial records and correspondence organised, versioned and protected, with the reports leadership needs produced on time and the figures traceable to their source.
SecurityAccess for the right people and nobody else: accounts, permissions, sign-in rules, sharing with lenders and partners, backups that are tested, and a record of who did what. Security reviewed as the organisations grow, not once.
Daily ITEmail and collaboration platforms, devices, licences, video meetings, printing, internet providers, onboarding and offboarding. The things that must simply work every morning, run so that they do.
Documents that raise moneyProject information memoranda, teasers, proposals and reports designed to be read by lenders and investors, in the brand of the organisation that sends them.
Leadership and advicePlain-language advice to partners on what to build, what to buy and what to stop; budgets for technology; vendors held to their promises; staff trained on the systems they use; and every decision documented so it outlives the day it was made.

Where this comes from

Before this role: building and managing a company website end to end, with its hosting, security and analytics; multilingual customer and technical support for the users of a global streaming service, resolving account, billing and technical issues to strict quality targets on professional ticketing platforms; travel and protocol operations for corporate clients; freelance digital consulting for small businesses; and an engineering degree in telecommunications, specialised in network and system security. Support work teaches what engineering alone does not: how a system feels to the person on the other end, and how to explain a technical problem in plain words.

Everything else on this site, the data room platform, the finance system, the websites, the secure hosting, the brand and investment documents, was delivered from inside this role, alongside the daily running of the technology of both organisations.
← All the workData room and project management platform →
Let's build something that lasts

Whatever you are building, let us engineer it properly.

A system to build, a network to secure, data to make sense of, or a brand to sharpen: describe the problem, and the engineering, design and reliability follow.

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