Jon Cowie

Product Manager

Frome, England, United Kingdom20 yrs 5 mos experience

Most Likely To SwitchAI ML Practitioner

Key Highlights

Expert in AI product strategy and implementation.
Led global customer success teams for enterprise solutions.
Proven track record in developing innovative tech solutions.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a SaaS Product Strategy Architect with a focus on AI and emerging technologies.

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Skills

Core Skills

Ai Product StrategyTechnical Problem Solving

Other Skills

AI/ML librariesPythonProduct StrategyInfrastructure ManagementConfiguration ManagementVirtualizationMySQLApacheIntegrationScrumContinuous IntegrationCloud ComputingNetworkingDNSGit

About

I identify and develop solutions to business problems, both through experimental R&D to produce prototype solutions, and through strategic guidance in a range of areas. I also help the business identify where the use of AI can add real value, and own the overall AI product strategy for the Infrastructure Management business unit.

Experience

20 yrs 5 mos

Total Experience

2 yrs 11 mos

Average Tenure

9 yrs

Current Experience

Progress

5 roles

Product Strategy Architect (AI & Emerging Tech)

Apr 2024 – Present · 2 yrs 2 mos

◆ Transitioned intentionally to an Individual Contributor role to stay close to emerging technologies and creatively solve business challenges with a lean, high-performing engineering team.
◆ Translated high-level business objectives into solvable technical problems, bridging strategic goals with hands-on implementation.
◆ Developed experimental proof-of-concepts to validate ideas and accelerate innovation, enabling seamless handoff to Product and Engineering teams.
◆ Owned the internal AI strategy for the Infrastructure Management business unit, aligning technical capabilities with business priorities.
◆ Acted as AI subject matter expert, guiding teams on where AI adds value versus where traditional approaches are more appropriate.
◆ Built solutions using a range of AI/ML libraries and other frameworks in Python, including LangChain, CausalNex and Streamlit, to prototype and validate use cases.

AI/ML librariesPythonProduct StrategyInfrastructure ManagementAI Product StrategyTechnical Problem Solving

Director of Customer Architecture

Promoted

Jul 2021 – Apr 2024 · 2 yrs 9 mos

◆ Expanded remit to include global Customer Success Management teams, spanning multiple time zones and geographies.
◆ Led a 24-person worldwide post-sales customer success organization, supporting a $60M ARR enterprise portfolio.
◆ Acted as the “Voice of the Customer” at the executive level, advocating for customer priorities and aligning expectations with internal product and business objectives.

Senior Manager, Customer Architecture (Chef Software Acquired by Progress)

Oct 2020 – Jul 2021 · 9 mos

◆ Led a strategic customer architecture team supporting post-sales technical success across a $60M ARR enterprise portfolio.
◆ Designed and implemented career progression frameworks and leveling matrices for roles outside standard organizational guidelines.
◆ Recruited and onboarded talent across multiple geographies and time zones, ensuring consistent ramp-up and team cohesion.
◆ Developed scalable working models and customer coverage strategies tailored to regional and global delivery needs.
◆ Owned the translation of customer priorities into actionable inputs for product and engineering teams, while managing roadmap communications and expectation-setting with customers.

Director of Solutions Engineering (Chef Software)

Dec 2019 – Oct 2020 · 10 mos

◆ Build and staff Solutions Engineering team to bring deep technical expertise and a business lens to develop creative solutions to the most complex customer problems.
◆ Develop initial commercialisation strategy for Chef Habitat
◆ Identify and develop architectural patterns for “full-stack” usage of Chef’s product offerings in an enterprise environment
◆ Engage on-site with customers in technical deep-dive engagements to drive internal roadmaps and feature priorities along with tactical engineering support on complex integration issues.

Principal Customer Architect (Chef Software)

Jun 2017 – Dec 2019 · 2 yrs 6 mos

◆ Built and led a high-performing engineering team to deliver tailored technical solutions for strategic enterprise customers.
◆ Translated complex customer requirements into actionable engineering deliverables, ensuring alignment with business objectives.
◆ Served as a subject matter expert on Chef product internals and architecture, providing deep technical guidance and mentorship.
◆ Engaged on-site with Fortune 1000 clients to resolve critical technical challenges and drive successful solution adoption.

Etsy

4 roles

Web Operations Manager

Promoted

Aug 2016 – Jun 2017 · 10 mos

◆ Manage every aspect of the day to day operation of Etsy's Web Operations team (13 people across 3 countries, 11 direct reports)
◆ Built and hired (as both IC and then manager) Etsy's Dublin operations team, the first engineering hires at Etsy in IE
◆ Manage and design Etsy's adherence to IT General Controls for Sarbanes – Oxley compliance
◆ Ownership and implementation of the Operations team's roadmap and headcount budget
◆ Work closely with other engineering teams and subsidiary companies to ensure a collaborative and successful relationship
◆Build and leverage executive sponsorship to deliver on complex and cross functional projects

Staff Operations Engineer

Oct 2014 – Aug 2016 · 1 yr 10 mos

◆ Senior member of global Ops team running Etsy.com and all supporting infrastructure and services
◆ Joint creation of Etsy's “Indigo” infrastructure provisioning suite
◆ Development of Chef workflow processes and tooling to enable 30+ Chef deploys per day in a continuous deployment environment (and authorship of “Customizing Chef” with O'Reilly)
◆ Multiple conference talks on various aspects of Etsy's culture and processes
◆ Mentoring and coaching of junior team members

Senior Operations Engineer

Promoted

Feb 2013 – Oct 2014 · 1 yr 8 mos

Web Operations Engineer

Sep 2011 – Feb 2013 · 1 yr 5 mos

Aframe ltd

System Administrator

Aug 2010 – Sep 2011 · 1 yr 1 mo

◆Design and implementation of chef configuration and deployment management system
◆Design, implementation and operation of live infrastructure for app.aframe.com, hosting and delivering multiple terabytes of video built around Apache, Ruby on Rails / Passenger, RabbitMQ and PostgreSQL
◆Design and administration of all supporting infrastructure including continuous integration, version control and staging servers
◆Design and implementation of a multi-location WAN network capable of transferring large quantities of video data *Responsible for all deployments to live servers
◆Creation of customised packages for installation on Debian Linux
◆Administering a variety of other systems including GIT, Hudson and Final Cut Pro running on Debian Linux, Windows Server 2008 and Mac OS X Server

Reevoo.com

System Administrator

Jun 2010 – Aug 2010 · 2 mos

◆Maintenance of chef configuration management system
◆Maintenance of a scalable and resilient live hosting environment for the reevoo.com website using based around Apache and MySQL.
◆Maintenance and support of all live, development and staging servers including backups and deployments
◆Maintaining and configuring continuous integration system and GIT source code management system

Mccann erickson

Freelance System Administrator

Oct 2009 – Jun 2010 · 8 mos

◆Implementation and maintenance of bespoke hosting platforms for projects from clients including Microsoft, UPS, and Nestle UK
◆Deployment and management of Amazon Cloud based development and staging environment including the use of Elastic Load Balancing for automated scalability
◆Maintenance and support of all live, development and staging servers including backups and deployments
◆Maintaining and configuring Hudson continuous integration system and GIT source code management system
◆DNS and Postfix mailserver management for approx 80 domains under the control of the Digital team

Trampoline systems

Presales and Implementation Consultant

Mar 2008 – Oct 2009 · 1 yr 7 mos

◆Working with Trampoline's head of sales, won deals at Royal Bank of Scotland, Capgemini (internal use), Raytheon, McKinsey and *McCann Erickson
◆Worked with head of sales to develop a paid proof-of-concept model for deploying Trampoline's SONAR software including designing documentation and processes
◆Working with Trampoline's head of sales in a technical pre-sales capacity to secure and increase business opportunities
◆Collaborating with Trampoline's implementation partners to develop and extend SONAR's integration points
◆Working with clients to design and specify solutions for deploying Trampoline's SONAR suite into their infrastructure
◆Installation of SONAR into client infrastructure, working with client's technical resources both on site and remotely
◆Provision of post installation support for client installations of SONAR suite
◆Development of pre-sales and technical documentation for Trampoline's SONAR suite
◆Development, design and implementation of a virtualisation based deployment model for Trampoline's SONAR suite