About

This page isn’t here to repeat my CV, but to share a bit more information about me, which I hope will be useful to potential employers and/or recruiters - particularly at this specific point in time when I am transitioing my career into a data role.

My passion for data

My fascination with data goes right back to my mid-teens. When I studied a general ICT course at college, the subject I was most excited about was databases. I didn’t understand how they worked at the time and I was desperate to learn more.

Unfortunately, the course didn’t delve into data as much as I would have liked and instead focused heavily on web development, which shaped the early part of my career (as my CV reflects). But that curiosity for how data works never left. It’s always been an itch I’ve wanted to scratch properly.

How hands-on have I been despite being in senior roles?

Data has been a core part of every role I’ve held.

E-commerce:

I spent years buried in Google Analytics — analysing performance daily, building dashboards, and producing board-level reporting long before I joined the board myself.

Multi-channel:

When I moved into a wider commercial role, my usage of analytics grew even deeper. I designed and implemented a loyalty programme and was responsible for everything from segmentation to reporting to data quality tasks such as cleansing, migration, integration, and governance.

IT:

I built the company’s entire Power BI architecture from the ground up back in 2020 during Covid, whilst the entire business was on furlough. I designed and managed the full ETL layer using dataflows, which involved complex cleansing and transformation. I created dozens of operational dashboards covering sales, footfall, conversion, customer metrics, employee KPIs and much more. I also built a comprehensive board-level reporting app spanning retail, merchandising, HR, marketing, and technology.

I’ve led several transformation projects, but one of the most relevant is a machine learning initiative focused on forecasting sales and optimising inventory movement. This project, completed through the UK government’s KTP programme, was awarded the highest possible grade — and the resulting academic paper was later picked up by a prestigious US puplication:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0957417424030677

hy I chose to leave a director-level role to focus on data

In what I could call the first phase of my career, I was extremely motived to get to the top of which ever organisation I joined and fortunately, I was able to do that. I felt in that role I’d achieved everything I wanted, which culminated in delivering a large in-house ERP application and data platform. After the delivery of the latest transformation project, I knew I needed a change to freshen things up, get re-energised and focus on working exclusively with data.

Will I have any difficulty stepping down in seniority?

Absolutely not. In fact, I’m genuinely looking forward to it.

I’m excited to be more hands-on, more technical, and to continue learning and building meaningful solutions. I see this move not as a drop in seniority, but as a refocusing toward what I enjoy and what I want the next chapter of my career to be about.

It is also important to state that I’m fully aware and comfortable that future salary levels will align with the reduced seniority and narrower remit.

What am I doing currently?

I left my previous role on Friday 31st October. I took a week off to recharge, and then I got straight into learning.

While I’m absolutely ready to step into the right role immediately, I’m equally comfortable spending the next few months focused on structured upskilling if that’s what it takes to build the strongest foundation possible.

So far, I’ve completed a SQL course and am wrapping up another focused on statistical analysis. I’ve used both throughout my career, but I felt revisiting them with a fresh perspective was important.

I’m also currently enrolled in a Python course, which is a new area for me in terms of being hands-on, while continuing to strengthen my skills across Azure, Power BI, and Microsoft Fabric. Microsoft’s ecosystem is my current focus, and I’m working through the key skills relevant to the AZ-900, PL-300, DP-203, and DP-600 certifications. Whether I sit the exams will ultimately come down to timing; the priority right now is building capability.

While my direction leans toward Microsoft, I’m also keeping an eye on the AWS and GCP equivalents, as well as exploring wider industry tools such as Tableau, Looker, dbt, Databricks and others.

As I continue developing my skills, I’ll be showcasing my progress and projects on this site.