Manchester, England, United Kingdom
A driven and accomplished ISO Management Lead and System Administrator with over 12 years of experience in technical and operational positions and client-facing roles. A proven track record of leveraging extensive technical expertise and industry knowledge to drive continuous improvement and service delivery and enhance client satisfaction and operational efficiency whilst ensuring compliance with industry standards. Adept in Information and Cyber Security, with leadership responsibility for all ISO management requirements at Workshop IT, a leading provider of managed IT services in the AEC sector. Credited with achieving full conformity in external audits throughout a five-year tenure and successfully delivering a wide range of projects that strengthened Information Security and Quality Assurance standards and contributed to operational effectiveness.
This role was awarded in recognition of my experience and achievements in system administration and process improvement. I was responsible for balancing the provision of complex system administration with the management of all ISO requirements across the organisation. Throughout my tenure, I led initiatives to strengthen compliance and security by implementing and managing ISO 27001 and 9001 frameworks—elevating the former from minimum standards to full compliance. My efforts were instrumental in the organization achieving full conformity in external audits for five consecutive years. Additionally, I overhauled ISO management practices across all business areas. To ensure a proactive approach to IT security I regularly conducted assessments and audits to identify vulnerabilities and mitigating strategies. I played a key role in ensuring that ISO principles and best practices were enforced organisation-wide, developing and maintaining ISO documentation and policies and associated training materials.
During this period, I was recognised for my technical abilities and promoted to a system administration role, working as part of a small team reporting to the Technical and Operations Directors, and playing a key role in managing both the client and company’s servers and infrastructure. I was also accountable for the deployment of system upgrades to support service delivery and improvement and for managing complex network configurations. This role also saw the delivery of several major projects across infrastructure and R&D, enhancement of existing internal and external capabilities, expansion of service offerings, management of our data centre presence, system refreshes, and major client onboarding activities. Lastly, I was entrusted with the mentoring and training of technical staff, contributing not only to their proficiency and professional development but to the overall functioning of the technical services delivery both internally and to our customers.
Here, I built upon my frontline experience to deliver support on behalf of Workshop IT, a provider of managed IT services to architects, engineers, sustainability consultants and others within the AEC sector. The role encompassed desktop and server support within a mixed Windows and Linux-driven, open-source environment where I drove best practices, built strong professional relationships with clients, and supported Linux-based server solutions and virtualization technologies to optimise customers’ IT infrastructure.
This was a frontline role supporting 25 SME clients in the media, broadcast and theatre industries. I reported directly to the Senior Technician and was accountable for the consistent achievement of strict customer SLAs.
As a self-employed web developer in my first role after graduating, I collaborated with a graphic design consultancy to transform their client briefs and design concepts into fully functional websites.