Ben Horn

Results-driven Digital Transformation Leader with a proven track record of scaling digital strategies, driving technological innovation, and empowering high-performing engineering teams. Expert in Agile methodologies, value stream optimisation, and smart factory development, delivering award-winning operational excellence.

Technology Development & Release Manager at Christians Against Poverty (2025-02 – Present)

• Managing all developers across three teams, building and maintaining a stack of over 20 systems and applications; from custom PHP to Salesforce. Significantly increasing velocity by improving development practices, tooling, and resourcing.
• Spearheaded release process optimisation and automation to drastically improve both velocity and stability. Reducing manual hours by 85% (~36h to ~6h) in my first 6 months.
• Leading teams of teams to deliver key projects, using Agile methodology to optimise value streams. Coordinating internal and external developers, architects, and analysts.
• Establishing and cultivating numerous long-term external partnerships to close capability gaps and strategically accelerate projects. Ensuring seamless integration and knowledge transfer.
• Managing parallel engineering streams of legacy system decommissioning alongside development of a new debt-help platform. Leading confidently through restructuring (hiring and redundancy), strategically balancing resources to maximise value delivery.

Director at Crystal Doors (2026-06 – Present)

• Strengthening the leadership team with executive oversight and governance, aligning resources for radical innovation and expansion.
• Building strategic roadmaps and setting vision to lay the groundwork for enhancing smart factory capabilities, driving production optimisation and automation.
• Conducting technical discovery for industry-changing smart furniture product lines and preparing to secure key partnerships to close capability gaps.

Digital Transformation Director at Crystal Doors (2021-12 – 2024-06)

• Supporting the Managing Director in developing the business's strategies for digital systems, operations, production, sales, and sustainability.
• Transforming the factory from a traditional manufacturer towards a smart factory. Achieving carbon neutrality in 2023, a B-Corp Certification of Outstanding in 2023, and working towards lights-out production capabilities, A.I. scheduling, and digital twin monitoring and control.
• Developing and delivering projects such as: a custom order processing system, intelligent production scheduling, intelligent delivery scheduling, integrated E-commerce, data analytics and insights, mobile devices for factory workers, IoT machine monitoring, predictive maintenance, paperless processes, production line automations, stage one of a digital twin, and real-time carbon impact IoT monitoring.
• Our team winning awards such as: The Queen's Award for Sustainable Enterprise 2021, Chamber Excellence Awards 2022: Green and Sustainable Strategy, KBB Review Retail & Design Awards 2022: Special Achievement Award, Sustainability Leaders Awards 2021: Small Business of the Year, Make UK Awards 2021: Regional Winner of Energy and Sustainability, BusinessGreen Leaders Awards 2021: Manufacturer of the Year, The Manufacturer MX Awards 2021: Finalist for Sustainable Manufacturing.

Digital Transformation Programme Manager at Crystal Doors (2020-08 – 2021-12)

• Promoted to Director of Digital Transformation following exceptional impact on business operations. Spearheaded core transformation initiatives that scaled annual turnover from £1.9M to £2.6M while contributing to winning multiple national awards (detailed above).

Digital Transformation Consultant at Independent Consultant (2022-09 – 2024-04)

• Developed digital transformation strategies for businesses, provided expert advice and architected projects for client business growth.

Associate Consultant at IN4.0 Group (2019-08 – 2020-08)

• Consulting for manufacturers such as NSG Group and McLaren, as well as for SMEs, to identify where technology could transform their operations and roadmapping the implementation. Developing and implementing prototype technology solutions for engineering challenges.

Co-Founder & Treasurer at Preston Hackspace (CIC) (2015-04 – 2017-04)

• Co-founding and co-leading the group for two years, growing it to over 30 members.

Co-Leader, Founder & Trustee at Christ Central Preston Church (Charity) (2014-09 – Present)

• Governing operations, directing diverse volunteer teams, and coordinating community support projects since founding the charity in 2014.

MEng in Robotic Engineering – University of Central Lancashire (2015-09 – 2019-05)