Sam Barton
CTO. Fan of solving problems with technology. Proven team-builder.
Recent work
Chief Technology Officer at Smart, a UK headquartered fintech business which has grown since we launched in 2015, to £10 billion in AUM, delivering for more than 1 million people in the UK alone, and hundreds of thousands of customers across the globe.
My approach to work
I believe in a people-first approach to engineering having fostered a strong culture in all of the organisations I have been involved in. My leadership style is hands-on, I enjoy working with teams to build new solutions whilst always using data to drive the decision-making. I’m an entrepreneur at heart and love the problem-solving side of building a new solution.I’m used to being client-facing, often being part of the sales process for new clients and explaining technology in an accessible way to stakeholders.My work has covered operational design, M&A, fundraising, due diligence and many aspects of business-process and security. This has given me a full range of skills across the technology field, from the human aspects of technology to matters including infrastructure scalability, and protection at scale.
Things I'm proud of
Designing the technology platform that has become Keystone and powers the Smart Pension Master Trust and other financial institutions.
Best in class engineering. Full test coverage at Smart that underpins a CI/CD pipeline which deploys 25-30 times a day into production.
Automated payment, portfolio and investment instructions with automated reconciliation. Processing >£70 million each month in the UK alone.
Infrastructure as Code (IaC). A move to Kubernetes plus a process to deploy the infrastructure as part of the same CI/CD pipelines.
Deployment: A green/blue review app process that enables a new Pull Request to be deployed with replica infrastructure for testing and deploying to prod.
Countless payroll integrations via the Keystone API that validates data and automates member onboarding and contribution collection.
Building teams comprised of some truly amazing people who have made the above possible.
I joined Smart at the beginning when there was just one engineer and have been part of its growth for almost ten years.Prior to Smart, I was CTO at ArenaFlowers.com, the online ethical florist. Arena was formed in 2006 and began a journey in Ruby, APIs and AWS hosting. The business boomed from being B2C to adding B2B by offering white label and shared logistics to partners such as Moonpig via our APIs.I was CTO at Arena for a little over 10 years before moving to Smart. Arena is still a market leader and has delivered over 10 million bouquets.
A short video of me talking about Keystone, the retirement technology platform.
My experience
The Role
Current best practices in engineering backed by 20 years of hands on experience.
From start ups to established teams, I have a track record in delivery.
Entrepreneurial and green field approach to tech strategy & roadmaps.
Client facing. I enjoy the sales aspect of technology
Great stakeholder management
Skills
Fluent in cloud-native applications
AWS, Kubernetes, IaC, GitHub and more. All used to build continuous delivery pipelines.
API first. Efficient application design with self documentation via Open API.
Team building. Experienced with teams from 1 to >300.
Data Science. Building a data warehouse with replica database via Snowflake & Matillion (ETL).
Operating Model
Operations: Proven experience building target operating models than enable more effective SOPs.
Fully automated straight through processing.
Compliance documentation: ISO 27001, Master Trust Authorisation, Internal Financial Controls (IFCs), Regulator (TPR) reporting.
Business Information (BI) reporting.
I am comfortable switching context having worked in a variety of domains.
Endorsements
I have had a pleasure of working with Sam for more than 4.5 years. He is the most articulate, creative and enthusiastic CTO I have ever worked with.Sam always finds a way to engage with all engineers, managers and stakeholders at all levels and encourage an overall improvement in performance. He has always followed delivery of small stories to major initiatives. As someone who has been hands on the code base before he can always offer advice without being a micro manager. He has real passion for technology in general and always happy to explain these to non-technical people with great patience and care.His commercial experience and his sales skills are all quite impressive. He is very much a team player and everyone enjoys his company. I highly recommend Sam and I would welcome the opportunity to work with him in the future.
Ali Nazarboland
Director of Engineering
I have been part of the Smart Pension team for 4.5 years, during which I have witnessed the company's remarkable growth. Through these retrospective lenses, Sam's influence on the organization becomes vividly apparent. One of his most notable traits is his ability to translate complex technical concepts into comprehensible language for business stakeholders. I have observed this skill in action multiple times, particularly during townhall meetings and various other discussions.Beyond his contributions to the business, I deeply appreciate Sam's personal qualities. Specifically, his ability to stay connected with people even as the company undergoes a significant expansion, whether it be 3x or 5x times. Rather than distancing himself in an ivory tower, Sam genuinely strives to understand the intricacies of what's happening on the ground. This is a quality that many leaders overlook, but Sam consistently demonstrates it. Maintaining such an approach demands considerable mental energy, yet, in the end, what truly matters are the human relationships forged. Sam has excelled in building bridges, not walls.
Alexander Shagov
Senior Software Engineer
I worked with Sam for almost 7 years whilst at Smart. To say he was someone I would always turn to for support and guidance is an understatement.Sam's technical knowledge and ability to find a creative solution to a problem is unmatched. We worked on many market leading partnerships, and Sam was the gateway to many of the barriers we were faced with being overcome. Aside from his technical brilliance, Sam also supported my role on the events committee for NextGen, and was a frequent panel member or speaker on topics such as integration, AI,and all things tech focused.Sam has got fantastic personal skills and will go out of his way to support colleagues in any way he can.
Ceri Thomas
Strategic Platform Partnership Director
A few articles I have written with my CTO hat on.
I also participate in industry working groups (such as PASA and PSLA) and am often asked to speak at conferences.
| Type | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Article | Culture in engineering. | Read Here |
| Article | Using AI in a regulated industry. | Read Here |
| Article | Github Copilot. AI for engineers. | Read Here |
| Podcast | How I transitioned to being CTO. | Listen Here |
| Article | Demystifying Pension Administration. | Read Here |
| Article | Reinventing Digital Transformation. | Read Here |
Get in touch
I'm currently open to work.If you are interested in working together lets speak!
© Sam Barton