Tell us about yourself

I am Milan Parikh, and I currently hold the position of Lead Enterprise Data Architect at Cytel Inc., which is a global statistical software and research organisation operating in the life sciences space. Throughout my 15-year professional journey, I have had the privilege of working across industries such as life sciences, manufacturing, and financial services. My professional journey includes working with Fortune 500 companies. My area of work is at the intersection of enterprise data strategy, cloud architecture, and AI-based analytics.

I have achieved Fellowship of BCS (FBCS), Fellowship of IETE (FIETE), and IEEE Senior Member. In addition to this, I have been serving as Secretary of BCS South Wales Branch and Secretary of EASG. I have been serving as a book reviewer for BCS. My other passion is publishing. I have been building up my portfolio of IEEE papers and peer review in the areas of federated learning, edge AI, and enterprise data modernisation.

I moved to the UK after building my foundation in data and enterprise architecture across various industries. Throughout this journey, I have learned that good architecture is rarely just a technical problem. It is important to understand the organisation, its people, and the outcomes it is trying to achieve.

What motivated you to take on multiple volunteer roles within BCS, and how has that shaped your Fellowship journey?

Volunteering was not part of a plan to become a Fellow. It was rooted in my genuine belief that professional groups only remain relevant if their members are willing to invest in them. I joined the BCS South Wales Branch at a time when it needed people who would turn up and do the administrative and organisational work necessary to keep it going. This work is unglamorous, and I think this is why it is important.

Being Branch Secretary made me think about how you communicate value to members as part of a professional group. It also helped me connect with people from other disciplines outside those I normally engage with in enterprise data work. This changed how I think about solving problems. It made me realise that technology decisions do have real consequences for real people, and that these consequences do not magically end at the boundaries of your project.

The experience helped me be more genuine in my application for Fellowship status. I was not submitting a list of titles and qualifications. I was discussing what I had been doing and why this was relevant to the communities I work in.

What does being a BCS Fellow mean to you?

Having Fellow BCS means that a peer community has evaluated my professional judgment and found it sound. That is something I can believe in, unlike claims of expertise.

It also gives me a sense of responsibility. The designation tells employers, clients, and colleagues that I conduct myself to a standard. If I do not conduct myself in an ethical or competent manner, I am not only reflecting poorly on myself. I am reflecting on every other Fellow. That gives me a focus.

It is also meaningful to me on a personal level because it was bestowed by an organisation that takes ethics and doing good in the world seriously. IT has been used to do harm in the world. I do not take lightly being part of a community that holds the profession to a high standard. It is not merely ceremonial to me.

What advice would you give to future BCS Fellows?

Do not apply for Fellowship to gain a qualification. Apply when you have genuinely earned it, and when you understand what the community will expect of you in return.

Start with giving back before counting the letters. Volunteer. Read papers. Mentor someone. Write something that helps another professional. The Fellowship route rewards the people who have already been doing this work. It will be obvious if you are doing it to apply.

Create a professional story. Vague claims of leadership and impact will not stand up to scrutiny. Document what you did, what changed because of it, and who benefited. The application process is an exercise in professional clarity. This is a skill worth cultivating, even if you don’t apply.

Lastly, be very clear on whether you meet the standard, rather than whether you can frame yourself as doing so. This is an important distinction for ethical reasons, and BCS relies on the honesty of its applicants.

As a Fellow, what positive change have you helped to create?

In my work at Cytel, I have led the architecture of data platforms used in clinical trial analytics and life science research. In the case of data infrastructure, when it does well, it enables the development of better, faster evidence of decision-making. That, in itself, is a public good, even if it’s not immediately visible to the average citisen.

In the BCS branch work, I have helped maintain a regional professional community, which provides practitioners with access to networks, development opportunities, and a sense of belonging to something greater than themselves. In the case of the younger, early career professional, this kind of infrastructure can have real importance.

In the academic publishing work, the papers on federated learning of multi-cloud systems and edge AI for industrial applications provide a reference point for other researchers and practitioners. They also contribute to the history of what has been attempted, which has importance, even if the findings are unremarkable.

None of these are individually dramatic, but they are all sustained over multiple years. I think the pattern of work has more importance than any individual achievement.

Why are trusted professionals more important than ever, and how can organisations ensure they have such individuals?

For instance, AI is increasingly being used to make decisions that have significant effects on employment, credit, healthcare, and public safety. The individuals who design, implement, and control these systems have considerable responsibility. However, if they themselves lack competence, ethics, and accountability, the extent of the problem is directly proportional to the extent of the technology.

These characteristics of competence, ethics, and accountability and their link to the concept of inclusivity that BCS has proposed are not ideals; they are the bare minimum that any professional working within high-consequence systems must adhere to. The trust deficit that we see in technology today is partly because organisations have chosen to make these characteristics optional.

For organisations, this means hiring for these characteristics and then providing the conditions that allow these individuals to actually use their professional judgment. This means that we shouldn't punish individuals for expressing their concern and that we shouldn't reward individuals for speed over thoroughness. We also shouldn't see professional development as a distraction.

Being a Fellow of professional bodies is something that we might want to pay attention to as part of the hiring process. While it is no guarantee of integrity, it is at least a sign that the person has been willing to put themselves through peer review and accept their professional obligations.

What words of inspiration do you have for those considering a tech career?

The discipline requires individuals who are interested in systems, as well as those who are prepared to admit what they don’t know. Both of these are more important than any particular skill, as the technology you learn now will be outdated in a decade.

Be wary of the idea of a tech career as pure individual brilliance. The work that actually matters is almost certainly collaborative, probably unglamorous, and certainly requires patience. If you want to work on problems that actually affect real people, you have to be comfortable with complexity and ambiguity.

Invest in the domain you are working in, rather than the tools. A data architect with domain knowledge of clinical trials will always beat one with data modeling expertise. It’s the difference between a correct answer and a useful answer.

Finally, build your professional networks. The connections you make through organisations like BCS, IEEE, or IETE will influence your career far more than any other credential. Be a contributor, not just a consumer.

What does 'Making IT Good for Society' mean to you?

It is a way of thinking that considers public benefit to be a design constraint, rather than an afterthought. When I architect a data platform, I think about who would be helped if this platform works well and who would be harmed if it does not. These are considerations that should be on the table from the outset, rather than appearing on a risk register as an afterthought.

It is also a way of thinking that recognises the limits of technology. There is a tendency in this industry to overpromise the capabilities of technology and to under promise the risks. This tendency to oversell and undersell the technology does harm. To make IT good for society, we need individuals who will be prepared to say that this technology is not the right answer, or that technology needs to be better before it is deployed.

For me, it is a personal reason for the work that I do on research, standards, and professional communities. The individual practitioner is part of a wider system. To make IT good for society is a collective task, and that requires the kind of institutional investment that BCS represents.

It is not a slogan. It is a standard of practice.