Hi, I'm Lee Payne
Director of Consulting Expert & SRE Leader
Strategic IT and engineering leader driving business value through cloud, SRE, and DevOps transformation.
IT Strategy
Aligning tech stack capabilities with corporate P&L goals.
Enterprise Arch
Building scalable, cloud-native microservices solutions.
About Me
My Philosophy
I am a strategic IT and engineering leader focused on guiding high-performing consulting, development, and SRE teams. I specialize in cloud migrations, platform modernization, cost optimizations, and building secure, resilient operational structures.
My leadership style is pragmatic and people-first. I believe in establishing clear growth frameworks for engineering practices, building cross-functional alignment, and delivering measurable business value for client organizations.
Interests & Hobbies
PADI-qualified scuba diver with experience diving in Australia and Turkey. Enjoy hiking, exploring new cuisines, reading both technical and non-technical books, and spending time with family.
“Make it simple, but significant.”— Don Draper
Experience & Projects
Director of Consulting Expert: DevOps and SRE
Directing high-stakes DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering consulting engagements, leading operational readiness strategies, and implementing upskilling frameworks.
Key Achievements:
- Transitioned critical landing zone intellectual property (IP) from the innovation team to the operational support team to guarantee service stability.
- Creating a DevOps academy to upskill internal staff, reducing reliance on expensive outside contractors and lowering consulting operational costs.
Manager of Consulting Delivery – Unified DevOps
Senior consulting delivery leadership role directing DevOps capabilities, client engagement outcomes, and cloud platform strategy.
Key Achievements:
- Defined and implemented the technology strategy for the Unified DevOps practice, aligning architectures with client objectives.
- Led the successful migration and cultural integration of engineers from BJSS into the unified CGI consulting practice.
- Oversaw major cloud architecture modifications for a high-profile government client, ensuring tight compliance and uptime.
- Reduced client security vulnerabilities by 70% through targeted remediation audits and governance improvements.
- Reduced client cloud expenditures by 76% through aggressive resource optimization and governance controls.
- Implemented Continual Service Improvement (CSI) cycles and formalized maintenance processes to reduce service outages.
Managed Services Engineering Practice Lead
Led the Managed Services engineering division with full accountability for delivery quality, people management, and operational maturity across client accounts.
Key Achievements:
- Held overall resourcing, hiring, and capability planning accountability for the managed services engineering cohort.
- Designed and implemented a unified career development and progression framework across the business unit to reduce staff churn.
- Introduced a comprehensive skills and competency matrix to enable targeted personal development and self-directed engineer learning.
- Led the creation and rollout of Well-Operated Reviews to improve service delivery quality, reliability, and consistency.
- Partnered with corporate client executives to define and deliver technology strategies aligned with their core business objectives.
Engineering Manager
Engineering management role with responsibility for cloud platforms, continuous delivery tooling, infrastructure, and budget control.
Key Achievements:
- Managed a team of 5 platform engineers delivering core build infrastructure and deployment automation services.
- Owned AWS account strategy, security governance, and cloud budget management.
- Introduced Infrastructure as Code via Terraform, reducing infrastructure build times by 93%.
- Migrated build infrastructure to a fully containerized architecture, reducing platform costs by 88%.
- Improved infrastructure security by migrating access to AWS Session Manager integrated with Azure AD.
Web Environments Manager / DevOps Manager
Leadership role overseeing DevOps and web platform operations across 4 European sites.
Key Achievements:
- Managed a team of 9 engineers across multiple European locations to maintain high-availability systems.
- Implemented SRE and DevOps methodologies, reducing average support ticket age by 81% and total ticket volume by 56%.
- Reduced out-of-hours infrastructure support callouts by 90% through automation and reliability tuning.
- Led capacity management, CAPEX/OPEX planning, and lowered OPEX via tool rationalization.
Server, Storage, Data Centre & Open Systems Manager
Infrastructure leadership role managing core enterprise platforms and physical data center operations across UK sites.
Key Achievements:
- Led 13 systems engineers across 2 UK sites, managing all servers, storage arrays, Active Directory, and Exchange systems.
- Reduced support ticket backlog by 70% and successfully merged two separate IT teams with zero staff attrition.
- Reduced infrastructure security vulnerabilities by 80% and introduced cloud disaster recovery services.
Network & Voice Manager
Managed network infrastructure, telecom platforms, and voice engineering delivery teams.
Key Achievements:
- Oversaw WAN/LAN upgrades, security firewall policies, and corporate VOIP telephony systems across sites.
Network Engineer
Hands-on network routing, switching, and voice engineering support.
Key Achievements:
- Maintained corporate networks, Cisco routers, switches, and resolved high-priority network outages.
Skills Matrix
Leadership & Advisory
Cloud & Infrastructure Platforms
DevOps & Site Reliability (SRE)
Networks & System Operations
Education
Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Technology Management
- Earned an executive MBA focusing on technological innovation, business strategy, and technology management frameworks.
Level 5 Diploma in Leadership & Management
- Professional diploma focused on operational managers, covering project leadership, strategy, and resourcing.
BSc (Hons) Computer Science in Software Systems & Networking
- Graduated with 2:1 Honors.
- Core focus on distributed networks, software engineering, and systems administration.
Certifications
Associate & Professional Cloud Certifications (AWS, Azure, GCP)
Cloud ProvidersProfessional Memberships
- Chartered member of the Chartered Management Institute
- Member of the Association of MBA's
- Chartered Member of the British Computer Society
Get In Touch
Contact Information
Feel free to reach out for collaborations, project inquiries, or just to say hi!