What does becoming a BCS Fellow mean to you personally and professionally, and how has the recognition impacted your career or credibility

Becoming a BCS Fellow is a proud milestone in my professional journey. I've been working in software engineering for over 16 years, and when I look back, it's been a journey of continuous learning, solving interesting problems, and growing into different responsibilities along the way.

I started my career as a software developer, mainly focused on building applications and improving my technical skills. Over time, my role evolved into designing enterprise systems, making architectural decisions, and helping engineering teams solve more complex problems.

Alongside my industry work, I've also become involved in research, mentoring, and professional communities, which have given me opportunities to learn from others and contribute beyond my day-to-day responsibilities.

What makes Fellowship special to me is that it recognises this broader professional journey. It's encouraging to have my experience and contributions recognised by BCS, and it motivates me to keep learning and giving back to the profession.

Can you share an example of the positive impact or change you've led in your organisation, industry, or community?

A significant part of my work at Docusign involves building integrations with third-party enterprise platforms, allowing customers to access Docusign capabilities within the applications they already use.

One example is our work on making agreements accessible in the context of Salesforce records, even when they originate through different workflows. What appears to be a simple experience for users can involve significant complexity behind the scenes, particularly when systems have different APIs, data models, and security requirements.

I enjoy solving these challenges by building reusable platform capabilities rather than separate solutions for every integration. Getting an integration working for a straightforward use case is often the easier part. The real challenge is making it reliable and scalable for enterprise workloads, where different customer configurations and unexpected failures add complexity.

My earlier work in service health engineering has also shaped how I approach these problems, particularly around failure handling and understanding how distributed systems behave in production.

As a technical lead, I work across engineering teams to evaluate architectural options, work through technical challenges, and make decisions that balance customer needs with long-term maintainability. I particularly enjoy helping engineers think beyond the immediate requirement and consider how a solution will evolve over time.

For me, the most meaningful impact comes from making complex processes easier for customers while helping teams build solutions they can continue to improve and extend.

For someone unfamiliar with BCS, why would you recommend getting involved or working towards Fellowship?

I think BCS provides a good opportunity to connect with professionals from different areas of technology and learn from their experiences.

In our day-to-day work, we're often focused on projects and deadlines, so it's valuable to step outside that environment, exchange ideas, and think about the wider impact of what we do.

For experienced professionals, Fellowship is also an opportunity to reflect on their career and the contributions they've made. I'd encourage people to see BCS as a community where they can continue learning, sharing knowledge, and supporting the profession.

What advice would you give to professionals considering applying for BCS Fellowship?

My advice would be to take some time to reflect on your career and the contributions you've made along the way.

When you're working in technology, it's easy to move from one project to another without thinking much about the impact of your work.

Look back at the challenging problems you've solved, the improvements you've introduced, the technical decisions you've influenced, and the people you've supported.

I also believe leadership isn't necessarily about managing a large team. It can mean taking ownership of difficult problems, helping others make better decisions, sharing knowledge, or introducing better ways of working.

When preparing your application, focus on real examples and explain your personal contribution clearly. You don't need to make everything sound extraordinary. Being able to explain what you did and why it mattered is more valuable.

Why do you think trusted, ethical professionals are more important than ever in today's tech landscape? How can organisations ensure they have these individuals?

I think trust has always been important in technology, but it's becoming even more critical as AI and automation become part of more business applications.

In enterprise software, we deal with sensitive information, complex integrations, and systems that organisations depend on every day. A system may work as expected, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's secure, reliable, or ready for real-world use.

The same applies to AI. Building something that demonstrates an exciting capability is one thing. Making it dependable, responsible, and safe enough to use in real business processes is a different challenge.

I'm currently serving as Vice Chair of the IEEE P7022 Trustworthy Generative AI working group. The work is still in its early stages, and I'm looking forward to contributing my engineering experience to discussions around trust, accountability, and responsible AI practices.

I believe organisations need to create an environment where engineers are encouraged to raise concerns, question technical decisions, and openly discuss risks.

Security, reliability, and ethical considerations should be part of everyday engineering decisions, rather than something we think about only towards the end of development.

What advice or inspiration would you give to someone considering a career in tech?

I'd encourage anyone who's curious about technology and enjoys solving problems to give it a try.

One of the things I enjoy about this field is that there's always something new to learn. Even after many years in software engineering, I'm still exploring new technologies and learning different approaches to solving problems.

My advice would be to build strong fundamentals rather than trying to learn every new tool or framework. Technologies will continue to change, but understanding how systems work and how to approach a problem will always be valuable.

I'd also encourage people to develop communication and collaboration skills. As you progress in your career, you'll find that many technical challenges involve working with different teams, understanding different perspectives, and making decisions together.

And don't hesitate to ask questions or learn from experienced colleagues. Some of the most valuable lessons I've learned have come from working with other engineers.

How has your industry experience influenced your research interests and your perspective on emerging technologies?

My interest in research has grown largely from the engineering challenges I've encountered while working with enterprise systems.

When you're building distributed applications, you see how difficult it can be to maintain reliability when multiple services depend on one another. Even when individual components work correctly, problems can arise from dependencies, communication failures, or unexpected behaviour between systems.

These experiences have influenced my research in distributed systems, service reliability, and AI-based systems. My work on service health engineering was published in IEEE Reliability Magazine, and I've also explored topics involving AI agents and service-level-aware coordination.

I enjoy connecting research with practical engineering problems. In industry, we're often focused on solving an immediate customer need, while research gives us an opportunity to explore the underlying challenges more deeply.

I'm particularly interested in how AI agents can work with enterprise platforms while meeting real-world expectations for reliability, security, and performance.

How do you contribute to the wider technology profession beyond your day-to-day engineering work?

I've always enjoyed learning from other engineers and sharing ideas, and over time, that's encouraged me to become more involved in professional and technical communities.

One example is the IEEE Computer Society Tech Talks initiative, which I started to bring together industry professionals, researchers, and engineers to discuss emerging technologies and practical engineering challenges.

Through this initiative, we've hosted sessions with invited speakers, creating opportunities for professionals to exchange ideas, learn from different experiences, and explore new approaches to solving technical problems.

I also contribute as a reviewer for technical research publications and participate in IEEE technical and professional activities. Reviewing research exposes me to different approaches and allows me to contribute to the quality of technical work being shared with the community.

For me, these activities complement my industry work. I enjoy solving engineering problems, but I also value helping create opportunities for others to learn, connect, and contribute to the profession.