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Cirriculum Vitae

JAMES ANDREWS

Principal Architect and Platform Engineer

London, UK | +44 7707 124 215 | [email protected]
www.jgandrews.com | github.com/andrewsjg

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Senior Technology Strategy and Architecture Leader with 20+ years of experience driving digital transformation, platform engineering and architecture initiatives across global financial services organisations. Proven track record of developing and executing strategic technology roadmaps, leading cross-functional teams, and influencing C-level stakeholders to deliver transformative infrastructure platforms that align with business objectives.

Expert in translating complex business requirements into comprehensive technology strategies, architecting enterprise-scale solutions, and establishing governance frameworks that drive organisational transformation. Demonstrated success in managing indirect leadership structures and fostering cultures of technical excellence across global technology organisations.

My career is grounded in front office capital markets technology, having spent formative years on sell-side electronic trading desks across Rates, Credit, and FX at BNP Paribas. This experience gave me deep understanding of low-latency trading architecture and the demands of revenue-critical systems where micro and nanoseconds matter. I’ve since applied this front office rigour to increasingly strategic roles: platform engineering in commodities trading, DevSecOps technical leadership in global payments, and now as Principal Architect at a leading fintech, where I shape infrastructure strategy for platforms serving retail and institutional investors worldwide.

CORE COMPETENCIES

  • Strategic Leadership & Vision: Technology strategy development, digital transformation leadership, strategic roadmap creation
  • Enterprise Architecture: Solution design, architectural governance, technology landscape optimisation
  • Stakeholder Engagement: C-level communication, cross-functional collaboration, strategic alignment
  • Team Leadership: Indirect team management, technical mentoring, community of practice development
  • Financial Services Technology: Cloud platforms, infrastructure services, service management, regulatory compliance
  • Digital Transformation: Modern architecture design, cloud native technologies, emerging technology evaluation
  • Business Alignment: Strategic planning, KPI development, business case creation

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

IG GROUP

Principal Architect - Infrastructure & Platforms
London, UK | 2021 - Present

Strategic Leadership & Architecture Direction:

  • Serve as trusted strategic advisor to CTO and senior leadership team, providing technology strategy recommendations and architectural guidance for enterprise infrastructure investments exceeding £10M annually
  • Developed and executed both comprehensive 3-5 year technology roadmaps and pragmatic near term solutions for enterprise observability, container orchestration, and cloud migration initiatives. Ensuring alignment with business strategic objectives
  • Established architectural governance framework and standards, creating measurable KPIs for technology transformation progress and architectural compliance across multiple business units
  • Champion a Site Reliability Engineering approach to modernisation
  • Key contributor to AI implementation and use at IG
  • Established a modernised high availability trading transformation approach

Digital Transformation Leadership:

  • Enterprise Observability Strategy: Led strategic design and implementation of enterprise-wide observability platform, creating comprehensive architectural roadmap and establishing integration patterns across multi-cloud environments. Initiative now supports 200+ applications with standardised monitoring frameworks and cost optimisation of 30%
  • Container Platform Transformation: Architected and delivered enterprise container orchestration strategy from conception to production, including 3-year technical roadmap, security framework, and deployment patterns. Platform transformation enabled 40% reduction in deployment times and supports 100+ containerised applications and 1000 workloads over all environments.
  • Cloud Migration Framework: Developed strategic cloud adoption framework including architectural patterns, security controls, and compliance requirements. Successfully led migration strategy for critical trading applications to AWS with zero business disruption

Team Leadership & Stakeholder Management:

  • Led cross-functional delivery teams of 15+ engineers and architects for mission-critical infrastructure transformations, managing both technical delivery and stakeholder communication across multiple business units
  • Established and led DevOps Community of Practice with 150+ participants, creating architectural standards, best practices, and strategic technology adoption guidelines
  • Conducted strategic technology assessments and proof-of-concepts for multi-region cloud deployments, presenting business cases and technical recommendations to senior leadership

Worldpay / FIS

Cloud Security Architect - Global Security Services
London, UK | 2016 - 2021

Strategic Architecture & Security Leadership:

  • Developed enterprise cloud security strategy and architectural frameworks supporting global financial services operations, ensuring regulatory compliance and security governance alignment
  • Created comprehensive cloud security roadmap including technology selection criteria, implementation timelines, and integration requirements with existing enterprise security infrastructure
  • Collaborated with enterprise architecture teams to establish cloud security patterns and governance frameworks, contributing to organisation-wide digital transformation strategy

Technology Innovation & Implementation:

  • Architected cloud security visibility platform integrating with enterprise SIEM, designing strategic data collection architecture and security monitoring framework supporting SOC operations across global organisation
  • Developed policy-as-code strategic framework enabling automated compliance validation and security control implementation across hybrid cloud environments
  • Led strategic evaluation and implementation of enterprise secrets management architecture, establishing secure DevOps workflows

Leadership & Cross-Functional Collaboration:

  • Managed and mentored team of security architects and engineers using agile delivery methodologies, fostering culture of architectural excellence and innovation
  • Collaborated with development teams across multiple business units to integrate security architectural patterns into CI/CD pipelines and development workflows
  • Qualified as SAFe 4.6 Program Consultant, supporting organisation’s strategic agile transformation initiative and architectural governance alignment

PREVIOUS STRATEGIC ROLES

Marex Spectron
Infrastructure Architect / DevOps Engineer | London, UK | 2015-2016
Led infrastructure platform strategy and implementation for financial trading applications, adopting modern DevOps practices and architectural patterns.

BNP Paribas
eTrading Engineer - Interest Rates and Credit | London, UK | 2012-2014
Designed strategic technology architecture for low-latency trading infrastructure, contributing to electronic trading platform transformation initiatives. Designed, managed and executed a complete migration of a mission critical trading platform from Paris to London without business disruption.

BNP Paribas
eTrading Engineer - Interest Rates and FX | London, UK | 2007-2011
Established foundational experience in financial services technology architecture, designing mission-critical trading infrastructure and messaging architectures supporting global trading operations.

EDUCATION & CERTIFICATIONS

Bachelor of Science, Computer Science
Canterbury University, Christchurch, New Zealand

Certified AWS AI Practitioner Certified AWS Practioner

STRATEGIC & TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES

Financial Services Technology:

  • Deep architectural knowledge of cloud platforms and cloud native technologies
  • Extensive experience with financial services regulatory requirements, compliance frameworks, and security governance

Enterprise Architecture & Strategy:

  • Strategic technology planning, IT transformation at scale
  • Business model analysis, operational process optimisation, technology-driven transformation leadership

Strategic Management:

  • Technology roadmap development, KPI establishment, strategic measurement frameworks
  • Agile transformation leadership, product and platform operating model implementation
  • Cross-functional stakeholder management, C-level communication and influence

Technical Architecture:

  • Cloud & Infrastructure: Multi-cloud architecture, hybrid cloud strategies, infrastructure as code
  • Platform Technologies: Container orchestration, container platforms, observability frameworks
  • Security & Compliance: Enterprise security architecture, regulatory compliance, governance frameworks
  • DevOps & Automation: CI/CD platform architecture, deployment orchestration, automation frameworks

ADDITIONAL

  • Leadership Philosophy: Proven track record of building high-performing teams and fostering innovation cultures
  • Strategic Thinking: Experience with strategic frameworks, competitive analysis, and emerging technology evaluation
  • Communication: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills with proven ability to influence senior executives
  • Volunteering: Steward and Guide at Bletchley Park, demonstrating commitment to technology heritage and knowledge sharing
  • Personal Interests: Computing history, continuous learning, regular blogger at https://jgandrews.com
May 17, 2025 ∙ cv