Three common challenges I see scale-ups facing are:- Building scalable, resilient technical teams without burning through your runway- Aligning technical teams to your product vision- Balancing necessary technical scaling work against product featuresI've been there and struggled with these issues myself, which is why I set up my business specifically to support tech scale-ups in Scotland and beyond. Over my career I've built up teams from just a few developers through to 60 people. I understand the processes you need in place to scale and the types of people you need to hire to be successful. It's not all about seniors, good technical teams need good balance in roles and seniority and lowering attrition means providing room to grow. Having worked in both product and tech leadership roles, I understand the tensions that can exist between ensuring a solid tech platform for growth and a business need to acquire and retain customers and I am experienced in creating technical roadmaps that align with the vision and needs of both teams.These are a sample of the services I can offer:- Leadership and management for technical teams- Technical strategy development, review and implementation- Product and tech team alignment workshops- Tech team capacity planning, including hiring if required- Tech team leadership development and career planning- Tech process and infrastructure reviews with scaling capability in mindI work with my scale-up clients on the basis of 1-3 days a week for 6-12 months to grow and develop your technical teams to the point where they are strong, resilient teams with the ability to handle future challenges unsupported. Full-time leadership is likely not needed initially, so my support means you can delay hiring a CTO or VP of Engineering until later in your journey, saving you money and potentially equity.My clients benefit from my extensive tech and leadership experience and know they can trust me to grow their tech team in a way that supports the business goals. My support allows you to focus on scaling your business and let go of day to day team management.
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Chief Operating OfficerDanu RoboticsEdinburgh, Gb -
Fractional CtoThistle Labs Ltd Sep 2023 - PresentEdinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom -
Chief Product OfficerCodeclan Feb 2023 - Aug 2023Edinburgh, Scotland, United KingdomWhilst my role as CPO only became official in February, I have been doing product work since I started at CodeClan. In this role I owned the curriculum and the delivery of all all courses including career changer courses, short courses and industry training. I was also responsible for the student experience whilst training with CodeClan.* Used insights from Business Operations and Admissions teams to reach new audiences* Used these insights to improve the pipeline of data course… Show more Whilst my role as CPO only became official in February, I have been doing product work since I started at CodeClan. In this role I owned the curriculum and the delivery of all all courses including career changer courses, short courses and industry training. I was also responsible for the student experience whilst training with CodeClan.* Used insights from Business Operations and Admissions teams to reach new audiences* Used these insights to improve the pipeline of data course candidates from 10 a month to 10 a week* Pivoted business model towards self-paced learning to increase margins* Maintained Industry relevance in all curriculums through continuous improvements to content* Developed and coached 2 new product managers to step into their roles* Collaborated closely with other departments e.g marketing to ensure successful launches of new products Show less -
Chief Delivery OfficerCodeclan Sep 2021 - Aug 2023Edinburgh, Scotland, United KingdomLead and managed the delivery team at CodeClan.* Lead a team of 40 staff members to deliver a consistently exceptional customer experience (4.5+/5)* Developed and coached my second in command to grow his own team of managers* Developed and coached several new managers* Developed the strategic direction for day to day operation of the delivery team* Managed budgets, career development and performance reviews for the delivery team -
Studio Chief EngineerM&G Plc Jan 2020 - Aug 2021Edinburgh, United KingdomI took over the technical strategy of the engineering team in January after the new head of engineering came on board. I successfully defined the roadmap for the year, negotiated a budget and people to carry out the work and ensured we met our key milestones. I continued to play a role on the people side of the engineering team including building out the competencies framework* Initiated the Studio Transformation program to tackle key technical issues* Built the business case for… Show more I took over the technical strategy of the engineering team in January after the new head of engineering came on board. I successfully defined the roadmap for the year, negotiated a budget and people to carry out the work and ensured we met our key milestones. I continued to play a role on the people side of the engineering team including building out the competencies framework* Initiated the Studio Transformation program to tackle key technical issues* Built the business case for the above program and negotiated budget and people* Led 3 teams to complete key 2020 milestones* Developed the Engineering Career Pathways and Competencies* Assisted with rolling out career pathways across the whole of M&G technology* Promoted bi-weekly tech talks* Managed the graduate, intern and apprentice intake program for Customer Technology* Achieved 50:50 gender split on apprentice intake program - a first for any M&G Technologyteam Show less -
Interim Head Of Engineering, Wealth SolutionsM&G Plc Mar 2019 - Jan 2020Due to my knowledge of the engineering team and previous leadership experience, when my manager left the company I was asked to step up and lead the engineering team. Whilst this was a steep learning curve, it was also a challenge I enjoyed. With support from my mentor, peers and the wider team I developed the skills I need to succeed in this role.* Led a department of 40 engineers across 3 sites in the UK and India* Encouraged the formation of engineering communities from the… Show more Due to my knowledge of the engineering team and previous leadership experience, when my manager left the company I was asked to step up and lead the engineering team. Whilst this was a steep learning curve, it was also a challenge I enjoyed. With support from my mentor, peers and the wider team I developed the skills I need to succeed in this role.* Led a department of 40 engineers across 3 sites in the UK and India* Encouraged the formation of engineering communities from the ground up, to share knowledgeand experience across the engineering teams* Drove the development of coding standards and practices within the engineering communities* Worked with technical leads to reduce the impact of governance and risk activities on featuredevelopment* Established a technical working group to own the technical roadmap and provide advice andguidance to engineers in feature teams* Worked with platform team to ensure the engineers have the knowledge, tools and experience todeliver code securely to production* Led on the introduction of a new on-line training platform Udemy* Led the technology graduate and intern program for 2019* Reinvigorated the lapsed weekly show and tell sessions to raise awareness of work going onacross Wealth Solutions. Show less -
Senior Technical LeadM&G Plc Nov 2018 - Mar 2019I joined Prudential as a Senior Technical Lead responsible for the customer experience (CX) team and the engineers in the Edinburgh office. With the CX delivery lead I brought on board two Mumbai based feature teams who picked up the wealth portal development from a third-party supplier who had done the initial development. -
Development ManagerSky Nov 2017 - Oct 2018Edinburgh, United Kingdom -
Engineering Team Lead - WorkflowFreeagent Feb 2014 - Nov 2017EdinburghAt FreeAgent I led the Workflow team - a cross functional team of engineers and designers working with product management to deliver features for our core user base. We owned a broad section of the FreeAgent app from invoicing and expenses, to time tracking, banking and more. Every customer login touched on feature we had developed. This meant our team had a huge potential impact on customers.As a relatively small team, owning a lot of functionality, we had to stay dynamic and resilient… Show more At FreeAgent I led the Workflow team - a cross functional team of engineers and designers working with product management to deliver features for our core user base. We owned a broad section of the FreeAgent app from invoicing and expenses, to time tracking, banking and more. Every customer login touched on feature we had developed. This meant our team had a huge potential impact on customers.As a relatively small team, owning a lot of functionality, we had to stay dynamic and resilient to changes as the business goals shifted. I’m proud to have built a team that could respond and adapt to change and quickly reprioritise to adjust to a new direction.* Led a large-scale rewrite of the banking section of the application* Created an experimental culture to ensure the team can adapt and improve.* Introduced technical practices to ensure code quality is maintained even against tight deadlines* Managed up to 3 separate teams simultaneously, including distributed teams.* Managed remote engineers, including those in different timezones* Introduced a Personal Development process to ensure that engineers were being supported in their career development. This process has been adopted by other departments in FreeAgent* Encouraged and lead initiatives to share practices from Engineering with the wider company* Maintained my technical skills and relevance by completing small features, code reviews and bug fixes Show less -
Software Team LeadGranta Design Sep 2011 - Feb 2014Cambridge, United KingdomAt Granta I led a cross-functional team working on the Granta:MI product. As well as line managing the team I was responsible for managing several large projects with strategic value for the company.* Managed projects with durations from a few weeks to over a year* Worked with engineers to create architecture designs that reflected the end users’ domain.* Managed teams of up to 8 engineers* Line managed up to 4 engineers -
Agile ChampionGranta Design Apr 2011 - Feb 2014Cambridge, United KingdomI was responsible for the introduction of agile development methodologies to the entire software team and the wider company. Including getting backing for the necessary changes from senior management and for managing the adoption to ensure a successful outcome.I created forums for the teams to exchange ideas and find solutions to problems and assisted individuals and teams with agile problems specific to their projects.* Training company stakeholders and other engineers in… Show more I was responsible for the introduction of agile development methodologies to the entire software team and the wider company. Including getting backing for the necessary changes from senior management and for managing the adoption to ensure a successful outcome.I created forums for the teams to exchange ideas and find solutions to problems and assisted individuals and teams with agile problems specific to their projects.* Training company stakeholders and other engineers in Scrum* Educating the management team about benefits and potential drawbacks* Monitoring progress in different teams, identifying when there were difficulties and providing assistance Show less -
Software EngineerGranta Design Apr 2009 - Apr 2011Cambridge, United KingdomI started out at Granta as C# Developer working on the main Granta MI product. I participated in a series of projects for new product functionality and was the lead developer for two larger projects spanning several months. During this time I developed an interest in Agile methodologies as a better way to solve some of the problems in our development process and was able to get backing to use Agile techniques for strategic development project. This venture, although not without… Show more I started out at Granta as C# Developer working on the main Granta MI product. I participated in a series of projects for new product functionality and was the lead developer for two larger projects spanning several months. During this time I developed an interest in Agile methodologies as a better way to solve some of the problems in our development process and was able to get backing to use Agile techniques for strategic development project. This venture, although not without problems, was sufficiently successful to ensure I was promoted to Agile Lead with responsibility for transitioning the development team over to agile. Show less -
Software DeveloperHyperspheric Solutions Ltd Sep 2004 - Apr 2009Cambridge, United KingdomAt Hyperspheric I worked as a software developer on a range of web-based applications for several public sector customers. We developed custom web applications for managing content for public health and teaching. Customers included the region Public Health Observatories, the NHS and the BBC.The biggest project I worked on was a year-long effort to create a customisable content management framework that allowed us to meet the needs of 5 public health observatories (PHO) with one… Show more At Hyperspheric I worked as a software developer on a range of web-based applications for several public sector customers. We developed custom web applications for managing content for public health and teaching. Customers included the region Public Health Observatories, the NHS and the BBC.The biggest project I worked on was a year-long effort to create a customisable content management framework that allowed us to meet the needs of 5 public health observatories (PHO) with one solution. The application allowed for multiple levels of access control and could be easily skinned to match the PHO colour scheme whilst retaining a common look and feel. As the development team was very small I worked on all aspects of the application from the SQL database and back end server to the web front end in ASP.Net. Web Forms.I mainly worked in C# and SQL although I also maintained legacy applications in VB.Net and ASP. Show less -
Software EngineerRicardo Sep 2003 - Aug 2004Cambridge, United KingdomI had two main projects while I worked at Ricardo. The first was developing an automated test harness for engine management software. I worked as part of a team of engineers to create a generic test harness that would enable the software to be tested with realistic inputs to try and predict performance in the field.The second project involved working with international team of developers to document the behaviour of existing engine management software. The team in India provided… Show more I had two main projects while I worked at Ricardo. The first was developing an automated test harness for engine management software. I worked as part of a team of engineers to create a generic test harness that would enable the software to be tested with realistic inputs to try and predict performance in the field.The second project involved working with international team of developers to document the behaviour of existing engine management software. The team in India provided low-level documentation about the functional behaviour of the code and the team in Cambridge provided a high-level system view understandable to engineers. Show less -
Summer StudentTransversal Jul 2001 - Sep 2001Cambridge, United KingdomAs a summer student at Transversal I created a custom control for Dreamweaver written in JavaScript. Although I was the only person working on the code, I was supervised by an experienced developer and I learnt a lot about the software development process.
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Student EngineerFord Motor Company Jul 2000 - Sep 2000Halewood, LiverpoolI returned to Ford Motor Company after my first year at university to work as a production engineer at the Halewood transmission plant (now owned by Jaguar Landrover). My project for the summer was to investigate the causes of the high degree of rejected second gears. I successfully identified the problem, proved that my theory was correct and suggested ways to implement a solution. -
Student EngineerFord Motor Company Sep 1998 - Sep 1999EssexI worked for Ford Motor Company as a year out before university. I rotated around several job areas as part of their student training program - including vehicle finance, apprentice training and the factory floor.
Ceri Shaw Education Details
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1St Class -
Data Science
Frequently Asked Questions about Ceri Shaw
What company does Ceri Shaw work for?
Ceri Shaw works for Danu Robotics
What is Ceri Shaw's role at the current company?
Ceri Shaw's current role is Chief Operating Officer.
What schools did Ceri Shaw attend?
Ceri Shaw attended Cambridge University, The Open University.
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Ceri Shaw
Co Founder - Americymru Website & Social Network #Social Media Marketing #Content Management #Web Content ManagementPortland, Oregon Metropolitan Area2gmail.com, gmail.com -
1pm-law.co.uk
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