Jon Blake Email & Phone Number

Newport, United Kingdom

Leading multiple agile development teams to build software products and iteratively deliver the statistical processing platforms within the ONS Enterprise Architecture framework.Key achievements:• Statistical Production Platform alpha to deliver quarterly VAT data into National Accounts outputs – SPP-V• Data Exploration & Analysis alpha, leading to the introduction of Jupyter Notebooks• Non-Survey Data Collection alpha, demonstrating the capability to ingest external data sources• Legacy Uplift alpha to re-implement core survey processing systems in the new technology stack• Currently the UN Global Platform, building an eco-system of cloud-native services to sup-port innovative data science initiatives for public goodOperating at programme level to establish connections across project delivery streams covering different application development and infrastructure implementation teams, aligning and supporting team deliveries and managing dependencies and risks.

Newport, United Kingdom

The role is focused on defining the ONS digital and technology services strategy, aligned with ‘Better Statistics, Better Decisions’ strategy, providing direction and leadership to the DTM Digital Journey Programme and leading DTM Planning activities.Key responsibilities:• Defining the Digital & Technology Services Strategy for ONS ensuring alignment with UK Government IT Strategy, GDS Service Design Manual and Authority Strategy;• Provide leadership to the DTM Digital Journey programme in the context of the Digital Strategy;• Lead DTM Strategic Planning across 6 DTM Divisions producing detailed plans aligned with ONS Business Services Model and Digital Strategy;• Management of Technical Architects team (permanent and contract staff);

The role comprises defining the strategic direction for the development of the Department’s technology platform, ensuring that solutions and services are fully supported by the right architectures and systems and support ‘Digital by default’.Key responsibilities:• Design authority and technical governance for ONS Technology and infrastructure;• Driving the adoption of Cloud technologies;• Leadership/Management of Technical Architects team (permanent and contract staff);

Responsible for the management of,Oracle, SAS and Lotus Notes support teams;Oracle eBusiness support team;Application Build and Release team;Environment Management Team;Rational support team;Overall team is between 20 and 30 staff.Organisational and process redesign are key requirements in this role in the short term.

Design authority for all technology and infrastructure with the organisation, this is a very wide brief and includes servers, storage, networks and desktops and the operating systems and the majority of the applications that run on them;Created the organisation’s Software Management Policy and software taxonomy and am responsible for the assessment and approval of all new software requests for the entire organisation;ONS’ technical lead in all discussions with its outsourced suppliers covering data centre, network and desktop designs;Member of the Business Design Authority which is part of the governance for all new business initiatives in the organisation;Represented ONS at the cross-Government Flex shared service Technical Impact Board (I have also chaired this board on several occasions);Led numerous Architecture Reviews for high-profile development projects - including the first one involving competing, external development suppliers;

Full promotionTransferred to IM Solutions, Architecture BranchI created the Organisation’ s data centre strategy.I introduced the idea of architecture bricks as a means of articulating the organisational stance on various areas of technology which has been developed further as the vehicle to describe aspects of the organisation’s technology strategy.I was a key player in the organisation’ s Statistical Modernisation Programme (SMP) which was designed to fundamentally reengineer methods, processes and technologies for all systems within ONS. The programme was split into 4 work-streams - 3 led by senior civil servants - I led the other work stream as a Grade 7. My work-stream was responsible for the implementation of the infrastructure platform for the whole programme, which was delivered on budget and ahead of time.I produced the infrastructure design covering servers, storage and network.

Temporary promotion.Transferred to the Design Centre.Head of Infrastructure and Deployment Branch.Responsible for the formulation of strategy and policy concerning the ONS technical infrastructure.Full technical design responsibility for:Java Deployment strategy,Technical infrastructure,Java security architecture,Java performance architectureDesign Centre representative on the Citizen’s Information Project.Technical specialist on numerous projects.

Promoted to research analysis post as part of the creation of the "Intelligent Client" functionTransferred to Technical Strategy/Research Branch.Deputy branch head.Responsible for the formulation of strategy and policy concerning the ONS technical infrastructure.Full responsibility for the management and development of a technical research team of 3 techniciansTechnical specialist on numerous projects.

Newport, United Kingdom

During this period I was promoted to Technical Team Leader.• Senior RDBMS technical support specialist for the Newport site.• Full responsibility for the management and development of the technical support team of 3 technical support specialists.

Transferred to infrastructure support area - specialising in RDBMS support and Unix administration;Responsible for the management of teams of up to 7 technical staff.

A variety of application development and support roles in different projects and support areas.

Directly responsible for managing the Nigerian debt portfolio – then UK’s largest African debt – travelled to Nigeria to represent UK at debt negotiations and reconciliation meetings.Directly responsible for managing Egyptian debt portfolio - travelled to Egypt to represent UK at debt negotiations and reconciliation meetings.Full responsibility for the management and development of up to 7 Administration Officers.

Msc, Information Systems Engineering

The course has been renamed to Strategic Information Systems - I took the course as a part-time student - my dissertation is.

Education record