Mark KayeIndependent Infrastructure Assurance
Senior technical assurance for platforms that cannot afford failure, grounded in two decades of hands-on automation, DevOps, and operational scale.
About Me
I work in infrastructure advisory, providing independent technical assurance to enterprise and high-growth organisations whose platforms are too important to rely on assumption. When technology becomes business-critical, operational certainty matters. That's what I bring: systems-level judgement grounded in experience, without internal bias.
Over two decades I've designed and delivered automation, DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering, and large-scale digital transformation for enterprises across logistics, retail, and government. I've helped teams move from fragile infrastructure to resilient, observable systems. That hands-on depth is what grounds my senior assurance. I've been in the engine room; I know where risk and scale bite, and what actually moves the needle.
My expertise spans cloud architecture, Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, and observability, and I still believe that if it can be automated, it should be. That rigour reduces operational risk and frees people to focus on what matters. What I bring to independent assurance is clear visibility into operational resilience, architectural risk, and what to do next: business consequence, not just tech.
When I'm not advising on platform risk and scale, you'll find me experimenting with emerging tech, from AI-driven reliability to humanoid robotics, and exploring how they can redefine the future of work. I also built a Wi-Fi-enabled thermometer for my daughter's aquarium (Raspberry Pi Zero, Prometheus, Grafana… naturally 🐟🐠🐡) and I'm a motorsport, car and motorcycle guy. Sorry, not sorry 🏍️💨 🏎️💨
Trusted by the folks at
Recent Experience
Founder
Opsology
Founded Opsology to provide senior, independent infrastructure assurance to organisations whose platforms cannot afford failure. Delivers high-impact engagements focused on operational resilience, architectural risk, and scaling readiness. Independent technical assurance grounded in systems-level judgement and commercially grounded insight, for enterprise and high-growth environments.
- ▹Independent Infrastructure Assurance: risk and scale assessments giving leadership clear visibility into operational resilience and what to do next
- ▹Infrastructure Risk & Scale Assessment engagements: failure modes, operational hotspots, capacity and architecture constraints under scale
- ▹Business-consequence focus: prioritised view of risk and action, not staff augmentation or generic consulting
- ▹Trusted across enterprise and high-growth environments operating business-critical platforms
Founder
CIOJoy
Founder of CIOJoy, a CIO-as-a-Service offering providing fractional and interim CIO leadership for organisations undergoing digital transformation. Capability spans strategic technology leadership, governance, and automation-led modernisation; designed to give boards and senior stakeholders clear oversight without the overhead of a full-time executive hire.
- ▹Productised CIO and technology leadership as a fixed-price, outcome-based engagement framework for SMEs and growth-stage organisations
- ▹Capability to architect and deliver multi-cloud infrastructure modernisation using Terraform, IaC, and repeatable deployment patterns
- ▹End-to-end observability and reliability: Prometheus, Grafana, and custom dashboards to improve service reliability and mean time to detect
Co-Founder / Senior Consultant / Country Manager
Flo Group (acquired by Accenture)
Co-founded and served as Senior Consultant and Country Manager for Flo Group, a global logistics software consultancy. Led infrastructure modernisation and DevOps initiatives for clients including IKEA, Lockheed Martin, and DHL. Established and managed Flo's offshore development centre in the Philippines, driving DevOps adoption, infrastructure automation, and global managed service delivery.
- ▹Established an offshore development centre delivering front-end, back-end, and DevOps engineering for Flo's Boxchain platform and managed services teams
- ▹Implemented DevOps vision at IKEA including Docker, Kubernetes, Ansible, and GitHub Actions
- ▹Consolidated 250+ servers to 75, enabling shift to cloud-based microservice and serverless architectures
- ▹Partnered with leadership to define cloud migration strategies for programmes valued up to £12m
Recent Projects
Ephemeral Infrastructure as Code Platform
Architected and delivered a commercial SaaS platform that automated on-demand provisioning of ephemeral test environments and test execution at scale. Delivered scalable, repeatable testing as a service with clear cost control. Gave leadership visibility into scaling readiness and operational risk.
Role: Lead Architect
Key Wins:
- ✓Substantial reduction in infrastructure cost through ephemeral environment automation
- ✓High availability for test execution with scaled concurrent environments
- ✓Security-first approach to multi-tenant environment provisioning
Key Challenges:
- ⚡Managing deployment state across ephemeral resources
- ⚡Test isolation and security in a multi-tenant environment
- ⚡Execution efficiency at scale
Infrastructure Consolidation & Modernisation
Led a major infrastructure modernisation, consolidating the server estate significantly through containerisation, managed data services, and automation. Delivered a scalable, self-monitoring platform that improved reliability, observability, and operational efficiency. Reduced operational risk and gave leadership a prioritised view of resilience and next steps.
Role: Lead Architect (DevOps and Infrastructure)
Key Wins:
- ✓Major consolidation of server estate, reducing operational overhead
- ✓Faster, more reliable deployments for business-critical applications
- ✓Order-of-magnitude improvement in environment provisioning
Key Challenges:
- ⚡Migration of legacy data services to managed offerings
- ⚡Unifying monitoring and observability across the platform
- ⚡Upskilling and cultural change to embed modern practices
CIOJoy – CIO-as-a-Service
Developed CIOJoy as an offering for fractional and interim CIO services. Enables organisations to access strategic technology leadership, governance, and transformation expertise without the overhead of a full-time executive hire.
Role: Founder
Key Wins:
- ✓Scalable service framework for technology leadership delivered as a subscription
- ✓Repeatable playbooks for strategy, modernisation, and transformation
- ✓Governance and reporting grounded in automation and observability
- ✓Pricing and engagement structure that works for SMEs and enterprise
Key Challenges:
- ⚡Productising bespoke advisory into a standardised, outcome-based offering
- ⚡Balancing strategic leadership with operational delivery
- ⚡Demonstrating value to clients new to fractional leadership models
What People Say
"Mark, you are a serial optimiser!"
Jon Harvey
Systems Development Manager, Apple
"Mark's architectural vision and technical depth were pivotal to the success of a €1 million information management programme. He brings rare clarity, professionalism, and leadership that inspire confidence at every level."
Alan Bainbridge
Programme Manager, BHP
"Mark is an excellent Solutions Architect with deep expertise across Documentum, application servers, and infrastructure. His design leadership and technical insight were key to the success of our Network Rail deployment."
Andrew Van Der Laan
Senior Architect, Network Rail
"Mark is a highly motivated technology consultant with deep technical knowledge and an infectiously enthusiastic attitude. He brings energy, expertise, and genuine passion to every project — a pleasure to work with."
John Anderson
Lead Content Platform Architect, HMRC
Get In Touch
I'm open to discussions about infrastructure assurance, technical leadership, platform resilience, or independent engagements: whether you need senior assurance on risk and scale or hands-on depth on automation and observability.
For structured assurance engagements, see Opsology.