Is it ever too late to reinvent your career?

In this episode of Tech Paired, Michael Phair is joined by Gerry Thomas, an experienced IT leader whose career journey proves that where you start does not have to define where you end up.

After spending 15 years in retail management, Gerry made the decision to return to education, retrain in technology, and build a career that would eventually see him leading enterprise-scale IT teams, managing major technology services, and supporting more than 20,000 users globally.

This is a conversation about career reinvention, resilience, leadership, enterprise technology, Microsoft governance, AI adoption, and the value of transferable skills.

Gerry shares how his early career in retail gave him the foundations that would later become critical in technology leadership: customer service, operational discipline, people management, commercial awareness, and the ability to work under pressure.

He explains why those 15 years were not wasted, but became the foundation for his success in IT.

We talk about the decision to go back to education later in life, what it felt like to sit in a classroom as a mature student, and how Gerry balanced family life, finances, self-doubt, and the challenge of starting again.

A major theme of the episode is mindset. Gerry explains why age became an advantage rather than a barrier, how maturity helped him approach learning differently, and why his first helpdesk role became more than just a starting point it became an opportunity to understand business systems, users, and the wider role of IT inside an organisation.

We also explore Gerry’s progression from first-line support into leadership, including the importance of taking ownership, volunteering for difficult work, asking for opportunities, and solving bigger business problems rather than just bigger technical problems.

From there, the conversation moves into the reality of enterprise-scale IT. Gerry shares what it is really like to support technology services for tens of thousands of users, why assumptions can be dangerous during incidents, and why facts, governance, communication, and impact awareness are critical at scale.

We also dig into Microsoft licensing, Copilot, AI governance, and automation. Gerry explains where organisations commonly waste money, why SharePoint storage and consumption-based charging can quickly get out of control, and why AI without proper governance can become expensive risk.

He shares a practical view of Copilot adoption, including the importance of data governance, permissions hygiene, sensitivity labels, user education, adoption metrics, and clear controls before scaling AI across an organisation.

Finally, Gerry gives honest advice to anyone wondering whether it is too late to change career. His message is clear: do not wait for someone to hand you the opportunity. Take ownership, keep learning, manage your risk, and use the experience you already have as an advantage.

This is a practical, honest, and inspiring conversation for anyone thinking about changing career, moving into technology, leading IT teams, scaling enterprise systems, or understanding how AI and governance are reshaping modern organisations.

In this episode, we cover:

• Reinventing your career later in life
• Moving from retail into technology
• Why transferable skills matter
• Going back to education as a mature student
• Starting again in a first-line helpdesk role
• Building confidence in a new industry
• Career progression through ownership and persistence
• Moving from technician to IT leader
• Managing technology services for 20,000+ users
• Enterprise IT pressure, incidents, and impact
• Why facts matter more than assumptions
• Microsoft licensing waste and optimisation
• SharePoint storage and consumption-based charging
• Copilot rollout reality versus hype
• AI governance, data controls, and permissions hygiene
• Why “AI without governance is expensive risk”
• Automating joiners, movers, and leavers
• Advice for anyone wondering if it is too late to change career

Tech Paired is the podcast from Tech Pair, exploring the people, careers, teams, and technology shaping the future of work.

What does AI-first engineering actually look like inside a real software organisation?

In this episode of Tech Paired, Michael Phair is joined by Allan Mayberry, Senior Director of Engineering at Planet DDS, to explore how AI is reshaping software development, engineering leadership, team design, hiring, security, and the future of technical careers.

Allan leads a 100+ person engineering organisation and is actively driving AI-first development practices across teams working with tools like Claude and Copilot. But this conversation goes far beyond hype. Allan shares a grounded, practical view of what is really changing, what still needs human judgement, and why AI should be treated more like a co-pilot than an autopilot.

We discuss how engineers are moving from writing every line of code to orchestrating systems, how AI is changing the role of senior engineers, and why the basics of software engineering still matter more than ever. Allan also explains why teams that tried AI six or twelve months ago may need to revisit it, because the tooling has evolved so quickly that old assumptions are already outdated.

A major theme of the episode is team design. Allan breaks down Planet DDS’s move towards smaller pod-based teams, designed to reduce context switching, improve focus, get engineers closer to customers, and create more autonomy. He shares why traditional agile structures can struggle when code is no longer the main bottleneck, and why product, engineering, QA and design need to work more closely around shared outcomes.

We also dig into governance, security, and risk. Allan talks openly about the dangers of blindly trusting AI-generated code, the importance of proper peer review, automated testing, change logs, compliance processes, and maintaining clear accountability. From prompt injection and AI-assisted cyber threats to deepfake candidates and vendor outages, this episode explores the new security landscape engineering leaders now have to navigate.

For junior engineers and graduates, Allan gives honest advice on what to focus on in an AI-first world: learn the fundamentals, understand why good engineering practices matter, find mentors, and use AI to accelerate learning rather than replace it. For leaders, his message is clear: carve out time to experiment, get hands-on with the tools, understand where they help, and build guardrails before gaps become risks.

This is a practical, honest and wide-ranging conversation for engineering leaders, software teams, founders, recruiters, product leaders, and anyone trying to understand what the future of software development really looks like.

In this episode, we cover:

• AI-first engineering in real teams
• Claude, Copilot and agent-based development
• Why AI is not a replacement for engineering judgement
• Engineers as orchestrators, not just coders
• Guardrails, testing and pull request reviews
• The future of junior software engineering roles
• Pod-based teams and reducing context switching
• Governance, compliance and AI risk
• Prompt injection, security threats and vendor risk
• Deepfake candidates and AI in hiring
• What leaders should do now to avoid falling behind
• Why the fundamentals still matter

Tech Paired is the podcast from Tech Pair, exploring the people, teams and technology shaping the future of work.

In this episode of Tech Paired, Michael and Stuart sit down with Cameron Lepper, Director of Platform Engineering at Tribal Group to explore what it really takes to build platforms, teams, and meaningful careers in modern tech.

Cameron leads Platform Engineering, SRE, DBA, and FinOps across a global cloud product suite, with teams spanning the UK, Philippines, Australia, and beyond. But this conversation goes far beyond infrastructure. From his unconventional route into tech through music and computing, to his leadership in Scotland’s digital skills agenda, Cameron shares a thoughtful perspective on how great technology is built through people, clarity, and purpose.

Together, they unpack what platform engineering actually means, why it should remove friction rather than create it, and how engineering leaders can balance speed, reliability, cost, and carbon responsibility. They also dive into remote-first leadership, onboarding at scale, hiring for mindset and communication, and the growing importance of visibility and shared accountability in modern engineering teams.

The conversation closes with a wider look at the future of tech from AI in platform teams to digital inclusion, access to skills, and why representation still matters in 2026.

This is an episode about more than systems and scale. It’s about creating better pathways into tech, building resilient teams across borders, and remembering that behind every platform, process, and product, it’s people who make the difference.

Topics covered:

• Platform engineering as an enabler, not a blocker
• FinOps, cloud optimisation, and responsible engineering
• Leading distributed teams across global regions
• Hiring for technical strength and human skills
• AI’s real role in engineering teams today
• Digital skills, inclusion, and the future of tech careers