Guy Sidford.Get in touch

Experience

Career History

Nearly three decades across IBM, Capgemini, and Northrop Grumman — from hands-on automation to architectural leadership.

  1. Secure Cloud Solutions Engineering Authority

    January 2025 – Present

    Northrop Grumman UK

    • Engineering Authority for secure cloud solutions supporting Sovereign Solutions programmes.
    • Leads technical assurance and design standards for classified and sensitive cloud environments built on AWS.
    • Provides expert guidance on secure Landing Zone design, ensuring compliance with sovereign security frameworks and classification requirements.
    • Senior technical voice in client engagement, pre-sales, and solution shaping for complex Sovereign Solutions engagements.

  2. Principal Cloud Solutions Architect

    October 2021 – December 2024

    Northrop Grumman UK

    • Designed and delivered secure cloud architectures for sensitive Sovereign Solutions clients, leveraging deep AWS expertise.
    • Specialised in AWS Landing Zone provisioning, establishing scalable, secure, and compliant multi-account environments.
    • Worked closely with Cyber Security and compliance teams to meet strict sovereign solutions standards.
    • Contributed to strategic client engagements, translating complex technical requirements into compelling architectural solutions.
    • Mentored junior architects and engineers, raising technical standards across the team.

  3. Lead Architect — Capgemini Cloud Platform

    April 2018 – October 2021

    Capgemini UK

    • Led a multi-disciplinary team of architects and engineers designing, automating, and operating a multi-cloud platform spanning AWS, Azure, OCI, and GCP.
    • Architected DevSecOps pipelines using the Atlassian stack, Jenkins, SonarQube, HashiCorp Vault, Terraform, and CloudFormation.
    • Transformed the CI/CD pipeline onto Amazon EKS and EC2 Spot Instances, improving resilience and reducing cost.
    • Managed senior stakeholder relationships and operational teams across India and Poland.
    • Published thought-leadership on AWS Landing Zone best practice (Capgemini Insights).

  4. Senior Platform Architect

    July 2016 – April 2018

    Capgemini UK

    • Delivered automation of core banking infrastructure for a major Financial Sector client using HashiCorp Vault and Immutable Infrastructure principles.
    • Led migration of an Automotive Industry customer's GCP-based integration platform to AWS China.
    • Led the subsequent upgrade of the same customer's SDLC environment.

  5. Cloud Automation Engineer

    January 2013 – July 2016

    IBM UK Limited

    • Developed global cloud automation patterns using Chef, SaltStack, and OpenStack Heat, enabling worldwide customer deployments.
    • Global team lead for automation developers across the US, Romania, and China.
    • Delivered a successful proof of concept for hybrid-cloud workload portability across AWS and SoftLayer using OpenStack Heat, leading the customer to expand their IBM cloud engagement.
    • Presented demonstrations to US customers and IBM Vice Presidents; spoke at a US zLinux enablement workshop.

  6. IT Architect — Global ISM Investment Programme

    January 2008 – December 2012

    IBM UK Limited

    • Developed Rapid Deployment Services automation, reducing global deployment timescales and cost across the IBM ISM programme.
    • Responsible for architectural development of global integrations between Maximo/ISM and external systems.
    • Contributed to the EMEA Strategy and Design Authority Reference Architecture, focused on workforce management for call centres.
    • Led technical design for an Identity Management solution built on IBM Tivoli Identity Manager.

  7. Various Technical & Architectural Roles

    January 1997 – December 2007

    IBM UK Limited

    • Progressed through a range of technical, integration, and architecture roles over a 10-year period.
    • Established the UK BlueBase Integration Centre — authored the business case, defined scope, and led technical team selection.
    • UK technical lead for Intelligent Device Discovery (automated network asset identification).
    • Supported senior architects in the IT Architects Group on Intel platform design and strategic direction.

Earlier career — 1985 – 1996: CDS TelePath Ltd (various technical and office roles, 1988–1996) · Wolfson Research Laboratories, MUMPS Programmer (1987–1988) · Royal Navy, Midshipman (1985–1987)