Planning a new chapter...

I’m not going to bury the lede… I’m making some life changes and am looking for a new role in 2023, and I’d love your help to find it!

I’ve been on maternity leave since earlier this year, which has been the longest time I’ve been out of the tech bubble day-to-day since my career started. In between the chaos and sleep deprivation that comes with a newborn it’s also been a chance for me to spend a bit of time thinking about the life I want over the next few years, and revisit how my career fits into that. As such I’ve decided to spend some extra time looking after my kid, but will then be looking to start a new role in mid-late April 2023.

I was originally planning to share this a bit later, but when I made my decision to leave I didn’t quite expect a worsening cost of living crisis, mass layoffs, the death of Twitter and losing the ability to reach people quite so easily(!), so I’ve decided to throw this out there sooner rather than later to get the ball rolling.

I’m grateful to everyone at Farewill for a very enjoyable couple of years

I’ve got a huge amount of respect and thanks for everyone who’s been in my teams, and who’ve been a genuine pleasure to work with. Also specifically to ex-CPTO and co-founder Tom Rogers who brought me in and gave me so much trust and autonomy to really build up engineering, and to him and the rest of the exec team for promoting me to VP level to run engineering, IT, and data after Tom left. In classic scale-up style a lot has changed since I’ve been off on mat leave, and whilst the growth plans and shape of the role now don’t quite fit what I’m after longer-term, we’re all very much still friends and I’ll definitely be continuing to support everyone from the outside after I officially leave in January.

Into the future: what I’m looking for next

But I’m excited to explore what may come next! This isn’t intended as a definitive shopping list or set of demands, and I’m still keen to hear about options which may only meet some of these, or be more of a wildcard. However, as a guide:

👩🏻‍💻 I’d love to work on something which contributes to pushing the web* itself or developer experience forward, to work in a problem space that aligns with my interests, or does good in the world. Or all three! (*I’m not interested in cryptocurrency/blockchain/web3 roles)

💼 I’ve been considering whether to focus on smaller CTO/VP roles where I can have full ownership, or a role across an area in a larger and more established company. I’m open to either, but I’m particularly keen to hear about Engineering Director-level or similar manager-of-manager roles at more established companies, but where I can still make change happen and influence positively.

🏡 I’m looking for a company that does remote working really well, with opportunities to meet up in-person periodically, but which doesn’t mandate weekly days in an office. I’ve worked remotely in some form since 2011ish, but it’s even more important to me now.

4️⃣ I’d like to continue spending some time with my kid as they grow up, so would love to work somewhere supportive of 4 day weeks.

🫶🏻 Working somewhere that’s genuinely inclusive, which supports diversity and understands the importance of treating people well is important to me.

🗾 At first glance it may seem in conflict with some of the above, but I also love travel and would find it a huge bonus to work somewhere that meant I have an excuse to spend more time in Japan.

There’s a long time between now and April, but if I can’t find the right match I’m also considering a return to contracting so would be happy to hear about shorter-term or interim opportunities too. Likewise if you’ve got an amazing role that won’t open up until later on in 2023 I’d also be prepared to wait (although I would again need to earn some money in the meantime!)

I’m also interested in hearing about advisory or non-executive director roles that I could help with.

A bit about me

I’m happy to share some more specifics privately about work I’ve done and things I’ve achieved, but in a nutshell…

• Most recently I’ve been the most senior technology representative, on the exec team, responsible for engineering, IT and data & insights, reporting to the CEO. Before that I led engineering across Operations and Financial Crime at Monzo.
• I’m an experienced manager-of-managers, and am confident in areas like developing tech strategy, building and retaining a strong team, and encouraging technology best practices.
• I originally started out as a back-end developer before becoming more generalist, and whilst I’m not after a day-to-day hands-on role I would like to stay close to technology.
• I strongly believe in the power of building a positive culture and developer experience within engineering, and how this can make a real difference to both the people working there and business outcomes.
• I really care about the web, making technology that works for everyone, privacy, digital rights, and openness.

Please get in touch with exciting things, but also please be patient with me!

I’m currently the primary carer for my baby and have extremely limited free time during the day, plus we’re not yet on a predictable schedule which makes synchronous things (calls etc) hard to book in as they inevitably coincide with naps/feeding/grumping/etc.

My hope with sharing this post is that it could help introduce me to some really interesting opportunities that I may not otherwise find. However, if I get a ton of responses I’m unlikely to be able to set up calls with everyone, and it may take me a while longer to reply than you may consider typical. So thanks in advance for your patience whilst I work this out 🙏🏻

Email is best for introductions please

I have a LinkedIn profile with some more info, but if you want to get in touch my email address is readily available on this site’s contact page (or use the form), and this is what I’ll focus on for replies. Please don’t use any other emails or phone numbers you may find in stalker CRM products.

Thank you in advance for sharing or getting in touch, and I’m looking forward to seeing what might come of this!

Thanks to USGS for the header photo.