Oliver ‎Leaver-Smith

Most "Head of NOC" roles are about managing rotas. This one is about making them obsolete. We've partnering with a FinTech leader to build a new Network Operations Center (NOC) from scratch. But they don’t want a room full of people staring at screens. They want a "Dark NOC." THE MISSION: Build a Zero-Touch environment where Agentic AI predicts failures and fixes them before a human even logs in. THE ROLE: Head of Network Operations (Greenfield & AI Strategy). The Stack: Azure (ExpressRoute) + AIOps. Your Mandate: 🛠 Build it: Design the topology and team structure. 🤖 Automate it: Deploy the AI that kills the "noise." 🧠 Lead it: Train engineers to manage architecture, not tickets. You get a blank canvas and the budget to build the future. The traditional NOC is noisy, reactive, and exhausting. The future NOC is silent, predictive, and autonomous. We are moving toward the 'Dark NOC' - where Agentic AI handles the remediation, and human architects handle the strategy. Are you building a room of screens, or a central nervous system? 📩 If that sounds like your kind of work or perhaps someone in your network, reach out to Justin (Jay) Adamson or myself, we’re here to help. 🚫 Please note: Unfortunately, sponsorship cannot be supported at this time. At SECURE | CYBER CONNECT we value attitude and aptitude over certifications. If you possess the drive and relevant experience to deliver tangible results aligned with our client’s needs, reach out. We embrace DE&I and welcome applications from underrepresented groups, minorities, women in cyber security, neurodiverse individuals, LGBTQ+ community members, veterans, and those from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. ♻️ Like, share, or comment, this might reach someone quietly very good at what they do. SECURE | CYBER CONNECT, SECURE | CYBER CONNECT Community & Podcast #NOC #networkoperationscentre #Cybersecurity #AI #Quantum #Jobs

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Delighted to announce that Willow Learn will be sponsoring and exhibiting at ISPN next week. What if the biggest risk in AI isn't job displacement - it's raising a generation that can't think without it? That’s what UK schools are scared of at the moment, the DfE is telling them to act now on AI safeguarding, but they're just banning ChatGPT and hoping for the best. We built something that actually solves it - keeps kids learning, stops the deskilling. Willow - Safe & personalised AI for students, controlled by teachers.

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Spoke at the London Microservices Meetup yesterday - on the topic of keeping things up to date. There always seems to be something that needs to be updated or migrated, particularly if you're a platform team. Getting good at managing these sorts of projects is well worth it. They may not be exciting but they are essential, and if you can get through a migration without everyone hating you, that's a badge of honour! I very much enjoyed Eddie's talk at the same event on Building AI Agents, a great roundup of the options available with lots of practical examples. Thanks to Oliver Short, Mark Short and the SEEKR team for inviting me and hosting the event. If this sounds interesting to you, I quite often give talks at organisations, either as a one-off or as part of a larger consultancy engagement. There's a list of recent talks on my website at https://lnkd.in/eJ9tJrwE

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CDFIs build thriving places, stronger economies and transform lives CDFIs: • grow thousands of jobs and businesses across the UK • build financial resilience by helping households save money • enable social enterprises to maximise impact • boost productivity and enrich communities by supporting people into work Our infographic shows how. Download and share the infographic (pdf): https://lnkd.in/e3tujQzV #CDFIs #ResponsibleFinance

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In a landscape where UK firms' hiring plans are at their weakest since 2020, as highlighted by a recent Bank of England survey (source: [Reuters](https://lnkd.in/eJ2vyFKh)), SSG is bucking the trend. While the broader recruitment industry has seen a decline of 15-20% compared to last year, our partners are not only maintaining but outperforming previous years' metrics. The secret? We've built a comprehensive wrap-around growth platform that empowers recruitment entrepreneurs to thrive, even in challenging economic conditions. By focusing on high-value, people-led sectors and consistently engaging top-performing recruiters, we're providing the tools and insights needed to excel. #RecruitmentSuccess #GrowthPlatform #HighBillingRecruiters #EconomicResilience #SSGPartnerships

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Tech salaries are shifting fast in 2025. We’ve seen a clear trend across the UK: - Mid-level engineers are flatlining - Seniors and specialists (AI, data, platform) are surging - London pay is no longer outpacing the rest of the UK by default Hiring managers: If your salary bands are based on 2022 numbers, you're probably missing out on great people - or losing them at offer stage. Get the full breakdown in our 2025 UK Tech Salary Report (link in comments) 👇

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How often do software engineers in Scotland get the chance to help build a new product category on a global scale? I’m recruiting with a company that genuinely feels like one of those opportunities. You'd be building an AI native product that's changing how an entire industry works. This sounds like hype, but it's the truth. And they're now scaling fast. In addition to that, the engineering team are leaning into AI in how they build too. They are using tools to move faster, iterate harder and raise the level of what they can ship. If you joined, you'd be part of a company that's growing quickly, taking market share internationally, and building the kind of momentum that can put a team, and a city, firmly on the map. I’ve worked in Scottish tech long enough to know these stories do not come along all that often. I believe that this is one of them. If you’re a builder, and you want to be close to that sort of journey, I’d be keen to speak. Drop me a DM or email sean.gilger@be-it.co.uk

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Now here's a very important consideration. AI & Robots don't pay taxes or national insurance. So when companies like Amazon wipe out thousands of jobs to be replaced by AI - everybody loses including HMRC and the Treasury.

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If payments feel confusing, it’s not you. Most systems are explained backwards — features first, basics last. You don’t need to understand everything to get started. You just need the right starting point. Taking Payments 101 explains payments in plain English. 👉 Download the guide. #newbusinessuk #takingpayments #smallbusinessbasics #retailstarter https://lnkd.in/e_VvszjN

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Senior DevOps is shifting fast.  SRE principles are no longer optional. They’re becoming the standard for anyone who wants to progress, even outside FAANG. A lot of UK teams still treat SRE as something extra.  It isn’t.  It’s the framework that connects reliability to business outcomes.  When a CV doesn’t mention SLIs or error budgets, it usually signals a reactive engineer rather than someone who thinks strategically. If you want your CV to reflect real SRE maturity, focus on the practical things you’ve done.  Explain where you defined SLOs.  Talk about how you reduced toil through automation.  Show that you took part in blameless post-mortems and helped improve the system off the back of them. These details carry weight. If your goal is to move beyond just running CI/CD pipelines in 2026, start aligning your experience to SRE practices now. It’s one of the clearest ways to stand out in the senior market. What’s the hardest SLO your team has ever tried to keep?

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The Lovelace report makes for interesting reading. The reason we lose women from Tech jobs is not childcare. The question I wrestle with is, what should we do about it and particularly, what can I do about it? Mentoring women at all career stages, running sessions to get women hands-on experience in Engineering, being visible and doing external speaking events... what else can we do as individuals to help? 75% cite compensation as their top priority 60% find moving into leadership "very difficult" 50% regularly overlooked for high visibility work 50% earn less than the industry average for their seniority https://lnkd.in/eh6D-7XC #LovelaceReport #WomenInTech

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Barclays is actively exploring a blockchain platform for payments and deposits, aiming to partner with technology providers by April, and has invested in Ubyx to enhance digital money connectivity.

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UK Pollyanna Day: Forget the doom-spouting commentators and social-media hater-ithms, from Bsky and the BBC to GB News and X. Here’s something to be glad about: Britain is the most efficient high-income innovator in the world… depending on how you look at it. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) publishes a Global Innovation Index each year. A simple calculation from the 2025 data (output ÷ input) puts the UK first among its high-income peers. Annoyingly, WIPO’s official ranking normalises those figures using z-scores. Once those adjustments are made, the UK comes out 4th for efficiency and 6th overall. Still pretty good, even after the mathematical gymnastics. Greater investment in universities, entrepreneurs and start-ups, together with a strong IPO market and international collaboration, would give us the escape velocity to overcome the gravity of our productivity and growth malaise. A bit of positivity and hope for the day. (I’ll probably fall off a roof this afternoon.) The full 2025 report is here: https://lnkd.in/ehAaCXqJ

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