Bio

I lead the Open Technologies & Open Innovation group at Avanade, housing our open-source projects office (OSPO), developer relations team, and Avanade ventures (startup enablement, academia, and foundations.) I'm passionate about technology, believing in the importance of remaining hands-on, not presenting from an ivory tower but taking part in the design, coding, and delivery. Because of this passion, outside Avanade, I contribute code as a Microsoft MVP, and I'm an ambassador for OpenUK - the organisation for Open Technology in the UK. My team works with organisations as varied as the Green Software Foundation (to reduce the carbon intensity of software), UCL, and the Digital Twin Consortium, supporting software development and creating new standards - the core theme is working out in the open. I've been a geek across my life, dipping my toe into IRC and MUDs at nine years old... if those acronyms mean nothing to you, these were text-based interfaces! At thirteen, I co-developed a browser-based game on the LAMP stack, with 250,000~ deployments at its peak... and the examples could go on. Before finding my feet in the tech world, I took a segue into a legal career. I developed commercial understanding but ultimately found I could never resist the urge to improve the software around me. Fused with my understanding of the power of design, I bring a well-rounded skillset: business acumen, technology expertise, and design thinking savvy to bring business stakeholders, developers, and enthusiastic customers together. Previous roles at Avanade include: - Leading the Emerging Technology Engineering R&D team - Hands-on software development, technical design, innovation processes, and design thinking facilitation. - Establishing the European Data & AI Centre of Excellence - A shared QA, delivery support, and pre-sales function; establishing processes, hiring the team, and coaching/management. - Creating the Intelligent Automation Offering - Capability development for the organisation globally in ML, automation, and sales origination. ----- Avanade is the leading provider of innovative digital, cloud and advisory services, industry solutions and design-led experiences across the Microsoft ecosystem. People who thrive at Avanade are motivated, interested in learning and want to be the best at what they do. If that sounds like you, you sound like a good fit. We are recruiting for roles in Data & AI and Software Engineering. If you would like to know more about joining Avanade, feel free to contact our Recruitment Lead: Richa Ranawat.