Rebel Astronaut

Co-Founder

Featurespace

Principal Site Reliability Engineer

DOPS  DIGITAL

Consulting as the Director of the DXOne program for the London Stock Exchange Group.

- Delivered a Developer Platform (DXOne) that would provide a single experience across the whole Org (12k technologists).
- Ran a program with ~50 engineers, architects and BAs.
- DXOne was the first program to successfully deliver their transformation objectives on time, since the merger with Refinitiv.
- Reduced time from idea to market on average by 67% for Lines of Business.
- Delivered an analytics platform to ensure CIOs and their reports get visibility on their areas.
- Designed and Implemented a new operating model to break down the flow of work across teams.
- Designed a community engagement model that was elevated to become the standard for all developer focused comms.
- Liased with Regulators to ensure that changes were approved to the same level as nuclear power plants. 
- Presented and sold the vision of DXOne to numerous CIOs, Heads of Department and Developers.

Principal Transformation Consultant

- Won the company wide ‘Raising the Bar’ award for innovation. 
- Designed and implemented new operating model in a department of 150 employees, driving a more product focused approach.
- Implemented Agile processes in 5 teams to increase velocity by over 100%.
- Owned and implemented the roadmap for IG’s new platform, based on kubernetes.
- Increased resilience for platform by 50% through repeated testing and iteration.
- Designed engagement model for onboarding new teams to the platform.
- Evangelised new platform and created excitement and momentum around the initiative.

Technical Architect - Platform

Contino

- Provided security assurance for FTSE 250  enterprise.
- Enabled Transformation to go live with a goal to double profit within 2 years.
- Developed a “Security First” Culture within the org. 
- Built in-house security team and empowered them to set their own agenda.
- Compiled a report of recomendations for the C-Suite to empower their transformation.
- Developed the consultancy’s internal security practices.

Principal Consultant

Pearson

- Designed and built a platform to support 600+ developers
- Leading architectural decision making and being the voice of security within the team.
- Leading a team of 20 DevOps engineers, training where needed and ensuring the team’s
velocity steadily improved.
- Decreased application onboarding from 3 months to 1 week.
- Decreased overhead for application teams reducing or removing non business workloads to
enable them to decrease cycle time.
- Designed and deployed an automated detection and remediation system within all Pearson AWS
accounts (~200) reducing risks by up to 80%.
- Worked with stakeholders to define account strategy for whole of Pearson.
- Implemented regular vulnerability scanning and remediation for both containers and AMI’s.
- Spearheaded migration to improved CI infrastructure, reducing run times by over 50% and
increasing stability by 30%.
- Implemented Incident response and reporting precedure and ran weekly drills, resolving
incidents 50% faster than before implemented.
- Redesigned kubernetes control plane to support multi-master and regular deploys.
- Responsible for defining and creating a contract between DevOps teams and application teams
to be able to deliver 99.999% uptime to their applications and reduce friction between teams.
- Decreased cost by 200% within development environments, by utilising automated cleanup,
elastic scaling and simplifying the architecture.

DevSecOps Lead/Architect

UK Home Office

- Leading a team of 20 within to deliver a platform supporting 300+ developers.
- Working within highly secure environment empowering critical national infrastructure.
- Implement Vault/Consul workflow for secrets and certificate management.
- Design/Implement the ability update AMI’s without data loss or downtime.
- Standardise engineering practices to increase stability across the whole environment.
- Educate security teams around the differences between cloud infrastructure and on prem.
- Work with team leads to promote containerisation within the team.
- Built out splunk for security monitoring of environments.

Lead Devops/Security Consultant

PhotoBox

- Responsible for taking a dysfunctional team with no leader and low velocity, motivating them,
clarified working procedure and increased velocity by over 100%.
- Designed new kubernetes cluster based around kops for Photobox to migrate all legacy systems
onto.
- Began work on constructing full feature monitoring and security systems.
- Worked closely with the SOC team to manage the security risks and implementing fixes,
including basic secrets management system, and cloudformation creation pipeline.
- Worked with development teams to enable them to manage their own pipelines securely within
Jenkins framework.
- Took stability from 60% uptime in the first month, over all environments, to 100% uptime in the
last.
- Liased with development leads and managers, to ensure that all goals were aligned.
- Implemented agile, to ensure that the workload was measurable, and changes were data-
driven.
- Descreased cycle time by over 40% development teams, allowing features to get shipped faster
and more frequently.

Lead Devops Consultant

- Built and Managed multiple kubernetes clusters as PAAS’ for all Home Office Digital Projects, ie.
- Consulted on the migration of highly sensitive projects onto kubernetes.
- Audited projects on security and worked with apps that were deemed vulnerable to remediate
those threats.
- Built and managed monitoring platform based on Sysdig running on premise on kubernetes and
monitoring over 200 nodes across 3 different cloud providers.
- Built and extended multiple tools to allow teams to avoid reuse of work and ensure time to
production was as low as possible.
- Worked with Neo4j to spearhead their approach to kubernetes and ensure they were able to
support it.
- Worked to ensure all users of the PAAS were able to utilise its self service offering.
- Built relationships within numerous areas within the Home Office to ensure that getting things
done was as easy as possible.
- Supported teams with running kubernetess on bare metal using PXE-boot technology.
- Interviewed and hired multiple other DevOps engineers to build the team from 5 to 15.
- Main point of contact for developers, evangelising best practices and training, both on and
individual and team level.
- Reduced onboarding time from 1 month to 1 day, through automation.
- Increased the number of development teams utilising the platform from ~10, to ~50 over a 6
month period.
- Implemented chargeback system to ensure that all costs were being allocated to respective
development teams, and ensured they still saw at least a 40% reduction in cost.

Senior Devops Engineer

Style.com

- Designed and built Kubernetes platform on AWS
- Adapted scala application to run in a scalable manner, broke application into microservices.
- Designed ci pipeline to deploy code within 5 mins of git commit.
- Dockerised and redesigned application to run on docker, be fault tolerant and scale limitlessly.
- Worked to design a tolerant solution for running Datomic on kubernetes without losing state on pod restart.

Giles is a co-founder of Rebel Astronaut, a startup that aims to make companies more dynamic, flexible, and profitable by speeding up the time from idea to product release. He is also a principal site reliability engineer at Featurespace, a leading provider of adaptive behavioral analytics and fraud detection solutions. 

With over 8 years of experience in DevOps, security, and cloud computing, he has successfully delivered and implemented multiple transformation projects for various organizations, such as the London Stock Exchange Group, Pearson, and the UK Home Office. He has extensive knowledge and skills in infrastructure as code, Amazon Web Services, and DevSecOps methodologies. He is passionate about helping companies achieve their goals by increasing their security, efficiency, and agility.

Giles Hinchcliff

Kompassant

Supporting a leading organization navigating a major strategic and cultural shift—moving toward a more commercially driven, data-informed approach to growth.

As part of a senior cross-functional team brought in to accelerate this shift, I focus on identifying and initiating key growth initiatives. My role involves bridging functions, unlocking business potential, and supporting long-term revenue development through insight, alignment, and strategic action.

This assignment builds on my background leading complex growth journeys and acting as a trusted advisor and catalyst in dynamic, high-impact environments.

Management Consult

VOCA | affärsnära rådgivning för ledare

VOCA embodies the fusion of mentorship, blending tailored business guidance with personalized coaching to nurture professional growth and strategic development. We empower senior leaders and C-suite executives with the holistic support needed to navigate challenges, seize opportunities, and achieve sustainable success in today's dynamic business landscape. Hence serving as a shortcut to competence and development.

Mentor for business leaders

Medius

New role within the Strategy & Growth team, focused on driving corporate development, sustainable growth, and leading global strategic initiatives. Played a pivotal role in scaling operations, overseeing M&A integrations, and expanding market reach, contributing to a near-doubling of the company’s size through acquisitions. Led cross-functional teams to enhance product offerings and strengthen our competitive position.

●	𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽:  Executed global corporate strategy and led change, working closely with C-level executives to drive transformation.
●	𝗠&𝗔 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: Directed M&A programs alongside C-suite executives, managing integrations with 10-13 project teams across Sales, Marketing, Product, and R&D.
●	𝗠&𝗔 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Led the M&A integration of Expensya and OnPay Solutions, coordinating with steering committees comprising Private Equity owners and board members to ensure alignment and value creation.
●	𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱: Chaired the GTM advisory board, fostering collaboration between cross-functional teams to drive innovative product launches.
●	𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗿: Served as a strategic advisor to the Executive Management Team, providing insights on market strategies, tech-enabled growth, and business development.

𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁: Leveraging my ability to balance strategic vision with operational execution, I played a pivotal role in aligning teams, optimizing processes, and driving growth. This enabled the company to achieve its strategic objectives, maintain a strong growth trajectory, and navigate complex challenges with efficiency and clarity.

Director Strategic PMO

Led both client-facing and corporate-level initiatives across multiple business functions, aligning teams, processes, and technology with strategic objectives to support both organic and inorganic growth. Spearheaded M&A integration and operational development to scale the organization’s growth.

●	𝗠&𝗔 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 & 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵:  Led the operational integration of Wax Digital into Medius, collaborating with the CEO and senior executives to align cross-functional teams, systems, and processes to meet growth targets. Delivered synergies that were integral to Medius’s inorganic growth strategy.
●	𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 & 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: Played a key role in a global PMO initiative, standardizing operations and establishing scalable frameworks. Implemented KPIs, processes, and digital solutions that increased efficiency, supporting sustainable growth across the organization.
●	𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 & 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Served as Service Manager (Stream Lead) for D365 ERP, providing global support and creating strategic roadmaps to align systems with evolving business needs. Drove cross-functional collaboration, streamlined workflows, and led training initiatives within the global Professional Services team.
●	𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 & 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁: Delivered innovative spend management solutions, advancing clients’ digital transformation efforts. Managed key customer accounts, consistently delivering high-quality service and maintaining client satisfaction, reinforcing Medius’s reputation for excellence.

𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁: Enabled the seamless integration of M&A acquisitions, drove operational scalability, and delivered value-driven solutions across key customer accounts, supporting global growth and strategic alignment.

Recognized as a top performer and one of the top 5 consultants of 2020 for successfully leading the fully remote M&A integration of Wax Digital amid COVID-19.

Senior Project Manager/ Project Manager

Euromaster AB

Led cross-functional change initiatives and developed digital solutions to enhance Operations. Collaborated closely with technical teams and stakeholders to design user-centric solutions that improved operational efficiency.

●	𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 & 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: Led projects that streamlined operational processes, improving organizational efficiency. Coordinated cross-functional teams to align project goals with business objectives.
●	𝗘𝗗𝗜 & 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Project-managed the Swedish unit’s scope in a Nordic EDI application initiative, collaborating with developers to design, test, and implement an invoice-matching solution. Co-led the development of a web-based invoicing tool, ensuring smooth implementation for partners and franchisees.
●	𝗚𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 & 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲: Supported the establishment of governance for outsourced invoice capturing in Accounts Payable, ensuring compliance and efficient processing.

𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁: Drove operational efficiency and improved customer experience through the development and implementation of digital solutions, with a strong focus on user experience and stakeholder collaboration.

Project manager Finance and IT

Akademibokhandeln

Handpicked for a newly tailored role to lead the Finance department through a significant digital transformation and operational improvements, particularly following the merger of Akademibokhandeln and Bokia.

●	𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽: Led the automation of finance processes, aligning technology solutions with post-merger growth requirements to drive operational efficiency.
●	𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 & 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Oversaw Finance applications, ensuring effective system management and collaborating cross-functionally to streamline workflows.
●	𝗠&𝗔 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Managed the finance aspects of the Akademibokhandeln-Bokia merger, including the design and implementation of a new AP function. Successfully transitioned all finance functions in-house, resulting in 90% automation of supplier invoice processing.
●	𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀-𝗙𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Worked closely with teams across the organization to develop and optimize business processes, enabling improved operational efficiency.

𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁: Drove the digital transformation of the Finance department, achieving significant automation and process improvements that enhanced operational scalability and supported post-merger integration.

Change manager

Led the invoicing team and acted as the SAP superuser, optimizing day-to-day operations and ensuring effective system usage for greater efficiency.

●	𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 & 𝗦𝗔𝗣 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲: Led the invoicing team, maximizing SAP utilization to streamline operations and improve efficiency across Accounts Payable.
●	𝗘𝗗𝗜 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁: Managed a ground breaking project to onboard suppliers to an EDI portal, surpassing industry benchmarks for automation, which was recognized at leading conferences.
●	𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆 & 𝗦𝗟𝗔 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: Coordinated with an outsourced shared service centre, proactively managing invoicing workflows and ensuring SLA compliance. Drove further automation initiatives to enhance invoicing processes.
●	𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Took responsibility for the strategic optimization of invoice workflows, focusing on leveraging digital solutions to improve operational efficiency.

Key Impact: Enhanced operational efficiency in Accounts Payable by driving process improvements, increasing automation, and improving system integration, contributing to faster, more effective invoicing workflows.

Process owner

Change. Complexity. Uncertainty.

These aren’t just challenges—they’re constants in today’s world. And they’re the very forces I’ve been leading people and organizations through for years, driving growth in dynamic, often unpredictable environments.

I thrive where others hesitate—navigating complexity, managing high-stakes transitions, and creating momentum in uncertain times. From leading M&A integrations and scaling growth companies to advising leadership teams through transformative change, I’ve consistently turned vision into impact.

But leading through complexity isn’t just about strategies and numbers—it’s about people. Growth is only sustainable when people are empowered, engaged, and aligned with purpose. That’s why I focus on building environments where collaboration thrives, potential is unlocked, and change becomes a continuous driver of progress.

Throughout my career, I’ve helped organizations:
✔️ Scale into new markets and expand product suites
✔️ Navigate complex M&A integrations, ensuring seamless value creation
✔️ Bridge the gap between strategy and execution
✔️ Drive growth in fast-paced, ever-changing environments

I’m drawn to roles and opportunities where I can be part of growth journeys—whether through strategic leadership, M&A, speaking engagements or as a trusted advisor helping organizations scale, adapt, and succeed in today’s complex landscape.

If you’re seeking someone who can navigate uncertainty, unlock potential, and drive lasting impact, let’s connect.

taplio

The Battle

Giles Hinchcliff

Camilla Hemström

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