Meet the People Behind the Software series continues with our Head of Technology, Kevin.
With an impressive career spanning over 20 years in fast-paced tech environments, Kevin has been instrumental in seamlessly integrating innovative solutions across a wide array of sectors, including Education, Clinical, and Energy. His diverse experience equips him to tackle challenges head-on, always with an eye toward the future.
In the Q&A below, we explored Kevin’s personal and professional life.
- Can you share your career journey and how it led you to Elementz?
After graduating with a master’s in information technology, I worked as a freelance web developer for a not-for-profit organisation affiliated with the University of Aberdeen. During that time, I built an educational resource for the Scottish Government, which was distributed to all primary schools in Scotland and had to meet strict government standards. This project was particularly challenging, as I worked remotely from Ardnamurchan while my wife completed her teacher probation, relying on dial-up broadband and traveling up to five hours for meetings. I take pride in the resource we developed, which helped me build self-reliance and problem-solving skills early in my career.
Following my wife’s probation, we moved to Edinburgh, where I joined a leading Clinical Research Organisation. I started as a project manager assistant, setting up laboratory databases, and quickly progressed to a clinical data programmer. This highly regulated sector taught me best practices in change control and data management.
After three years in clinical trials and starting a family, we returned to Aberdeen at the end of 2009. I secured a one-year contract with Aberdeenshire City Council, working on a Scottish Government initiative to implement a new national education model. My role involved providing technical support, developing systems for information dissemination, and collaborating with legal representatives on data-sharing agreements.
Following a major restructuring at Aberdeen City Council, I joined a medium-sized software company focused on cost control solutions for the oil and gas sector. This experience introduced me to agile development, allowing for quicker implementation of changes.
In 2013, I joined Aker Solutions as a Coabis Engineer, attracted by its global customer base and the opportunity to work on customer web customisations. My role involved technical support, training, offshore installations, and business analysis. I briefly left Aker to help a small software house develop an asset tracking system for shipping containers, which exposed me to big data and scaling challenges. During this period, Aker established a dedicated software house and invested in modern development technologies, drawing me back just in time for Coabis’s transition to Integrity Elementz.
- What are your key responsibilities as the Head of Technology?
My key responsibilities encompass leading the technology strategy, overseeing the implementation of technology solutions in a cost-effective manner, and ensuring the organisation stays ahead in terms of innovation, security, and scalability.
- With over 20 years of experience, what are the biggest transformations you’ve witnessed in the software development field?
The biggest transformations I have witnessed are the adoption of agile methodologies, automation, and move to cloud services. These advances have enabled the pace of software development to increase dramatically, the deployment of software more reliable, and people’s energies to shift left onto problem solving. The result being features making it to market quicker, refined iteratively, with quality built in.
- What inspired you to pursue a career in software technology?
I have always had an interest in science and technology. In the final year of my biochemistry undergraduate degree, we were introduced to an emerging field; computational biology. The idea you could use computers to model biological pathways and greatly speed up and improve predictions for novel interactions struck a chord with me. Experiments in a wet lab used extremely sophisticated equipment and techniques but, could be very slow to render results. With computers, you could greatly speed this up. After graduating, I was lucky enough to get funding for a master’s degree in information technology, which I intended to use to pursue a career in computational biology. In life, the best laid plans often go awry. Although I went onto forged a career with computers, opportunities to apply this to biology didn’t work out. None the less I have had the opportunity to apply my technology skills in many sectors such as education, clinical trials, local government and energy.
- Who is Kevin outside of work?
First and foremost, I’m a dad and husband. I don’t have much time outside of family and work, so I prioritise staying fit through running. I have run a couple of marathons and several half marathons. I value the mental resilience and stamina you develop as an endurance runner.
- When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up, and do you see any connection between that dream and your current career in technology?
When I was five years old I wanted to be a pilot. I was fascinated by planes. Technology in general has fascinated me from a young age. My dad regularly travelled to Hong Kong on work and would bring back gadgets and tech. I was lucky to get a commadore 64 when it first came out and loved programming games using the examples provided in the manual. I think I was destined to work in some kind of technology.
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