Mark Osborn
Problem Solver
Leader
Optimist
Mentor
About Me
Problem Solver, Leader, Optimist
Head of Infrastructure @ Gladstone Software
Accomplished leader with a proven track record of driving innovation, strategic technology initiatives, and cross-functional collaboration to achieve business goals. Adept at blending technical expertise with a deep understanding of company dynamics, resulting in the successful development and execution of cutting-edge solutions. Thrives on steering complex projects, building high-performing teams, and harnessing emerging technologies to deliver transformative outcomes.
I have a interest in health and wellbeing, including running and cycling. I also like to explore the worlds of cryptocurrency and have a keen interest in company stocks and shares.
Details
Residence
Benson, UK
markosborn202@gmail.com
Phone
+44 (0)7545307735
Title
Head of Infrastructure
Inspiration
"Leadership is based on inspiration, not domination; on cooperation, not intimidation. "
"A shephard should smell like his sheep"
"Who dares wins"
Resume
Experience
2021 - Present
Head of Infrastructure
Gladstone Software- Currently lead a high-performing team of 11 individuals at multiple skill levels developing the team's skills and moving the team to be 100% fully Microsoft certified.
- Designed and implemented Gladstone's cutting-edge cloud platform in Azure using VMSS and Kubernetes which has replaced the outdated on-premise architecture. This platform now hosts the vast majority of Gladstone's clientele, handling millions of daily requests with seamless efficiency.
- Migrated over 200 customer environments from on-premise to cloud reducing the costs of the hosting offering by 50% during this time.
- Remodeled the licensing structure within the cloud environment to reduce overall expense by £120k a year.
- Oversee the compliance adherence including ISO9001, ISO27001, PCI & Cyber Essentials with future aims of achieving ISO27017 & ISO27018
- Secured over £25k worth of funding from Microsoft to implement a new AVD hosting solution for a legacy VB6 application by navigating the complex incentive program. This allowed us to train the team and build a platform without effecting velocity or impacting quality of output.
- Successfully consolidated two departments into a unified team, streamlining operations and significantly enhancing overall efficiencies. By automating manual tasks, we substantially reduced on-boarding time by over 50%, providing quicker and smoother experiences for new customers.
- Created an automated deployment structure which updates and deploys customer environments without human intervention creating a £500k service opportunity with a single customer.
- Implemented an on-call structure to bring Gladstone's Infrastructure support to 24x7 - this decreased the number of declared support incidents by 80%.
- Spearheaded Cyber Security best practices and moved the company to a least privileged model. This enforced good security practice within the business and internal incidents have dropped to the lowest ever levels across all areas of the platform.
2020 - 2021
Technical Architect
Gladstone Software- Led and managed a team of over 18 developers and QA in the successful creation of a new multi-tenanted microservices cloud solution.
- Architected and implemented a highly scalable SaaS platform utilizing Azure SQL, Kubernetes and MongoDB, with a focus on infrastructure as code to automate cluster maintenance.
- Managed contracting resource and 3rd party development houses to keep projects to required time constraints.
- Cultivated a culture of continuous learning and innovation, encouraging the team to stay updated with the latest industry trends and best practices.
- Successfully designed and deployed a cloud-based reporting solution, leveraging Snowflake, StitchData, and DBT, replacing an on-site installed application for improved efficiency and accessibility. This multi tenanted data warehouse handles terabytes of data daily and allows for multiple 3rd party integration's.
- Eliminated manual updates by automating SQL deployments, streamlining development processes and ensuring consistency. This reduced SQL upgrade issues by 100%.
- Managed the R&D cloud computing costs and reduced the departments overall spend by over 30%.
2018 - 2020
Development Team Lead
Gladstone Software- Led a development team of 8, fostering a cohesive and collaborative work environment.
- Successfully implemented comprehensive coding standards for all developers and QA members, resulting in streamlined processes and eliminating differences in opinions on pull requests.
- Part of the core team which onboarded UK resource after offshoring was closed out. Recruited most of the team including aligning contractors for specific project work.
- Enforced a stringent pull request policy, elevating code quality and promoting a culture of accountability and excellence across the entire department.
- Orchestrated a seamless migration of the company's source control from TFS to BitBucket, enhancing version control capabilities and optimizing collaboration among team members.
- Pioneered cross-team scrums, promoting effective communication and knowledge-sharing within the department, ultimately leading to increased productivity and cohesive teamwork.
- Encouraged development teams to attend technology events and also to attend customer sites to see their work in the workplace, this helped with context when building new features reducing time in getting tickets completed.
- Spearheaded the transition of the development team to microservices architecture, initiating training sessions on .NET Core and Docker, driving technological advancements and modernization.