Damian Hickey

AI Technical Lead and TOGAF-registered Systems Architect. I take incomplete operational problems and turn them into production systems: architecture, data model, retrieval, decision boundaries, integrations, human checkpoints, build, test and release. Strongest where the brief is still forming, the data is imperfect, and the risk is letting a model invent the answer.

I keep ranking, retrieval and refusal deterministic. Generation is structured and gated. Final actions that leave the system require a person. Earlier work as CPO, Principal Enterprise Architect and Global Product Lead sits behind that judgement, not in front of it.

Founder · AI Technical Lead & Product Builder at Stretch (Damian Hickey Ltd) (2025-11 – Present)

• Design and deliver applied AI systems for owner-led and mid-market businesses from incomplete operational briefs rather than finished specifications.
• Own the full path: diagnose the data, define architecture and decision boundaries, lead build and test, take systems into production and hand them over.
• Build systems that combine deterministic logic with large language models. Ranking, retrieval and refusal stay rule-based. Generation is structured, consent-gated and audited. A human still signs the action that leaves the building.
• Implement document indexing, embedding and semantic retrieval pipelines, structured extraction and classification, production workflow automation, and multi-agent environments with model routing, memory, skills and tool orchestration under explicit control.
• Direct implementation (including AI-assisted engineering) with clear quality gates, staging-before-production discipline and adversarial testing.
• Specialist recruitment, civils and contractor operations: live systems for candidate ranking, CV intake, classification pipelines and related operational tooling.

Senior Director · Global Smart FM Product Lead at CBRE (2022-08 – 2025-10)

• Designed and delivered a production AI portfolio covering predictive maintenance, technician support tools and related data platforms.
• Set solution architecture across a predominantly Azure multi-cloud environment, connecting asset systems, operational applications and AI services.
• Led build-vs-buy, platform and OEM evaluation for a multi-hundred-million-pound product investment programme.
• Directed product and engineering from architecture through international release. Chaired the global Emerging Technology Council; partners included Microsoft, Amazon, Unity and Boston Dynamics.

Chief Product Officer at Beem (HoloMe) (2019-04 – 2022-08)

• Took a real-time AR communications platform from R&D to a market-ready, self-serve product. Owned product and technical architecture through test and release.
• Secured more than £4m pre-Series A; partnered with T-Mobile and Qualcomm. First company in North America on the Snapdragon programme.
• Built and led a distributed product, design and engineering team. BusinessCloud London Tech 50, 2020; SmARt Campus AR programme with UCL and IAPS.

Product Architect (Contract) at Komposer (PICS) (2018-10 – 2019-03)

• Built the team and delivered a web platform for Unilever Dove to access and remodel 3D environments of new product developments.

Global Digital Transformation Programme Director & Principal Enterprise Architect at Diageo (2017-01 – 2018-10)

• Took over a stalled multi-year digital transformation and brought it back to on-time delivery across global markets and 200+ brands.
• Defined the architecture of the global digital ecosystem (TOGAF-registered) and led the on-premise to cloud transition, with data management, integration and analytics at the core.

Global Head of Delivery & AR Product Owner at Blippar (2015-07 – 2016-07)

• Used TensorFlow to model visual search across the AR product from live visual data.
• Established Centres of Excellence in London, New York and Tokyo, with an engineering hub in India, and a distributed delivery model across 14 offices.

Director (EMEA), Idea Engineering / UK Head of Strategic Operations at Publicis Sapient (2012-05 – 2015-06)

• Led EMEA Idea Engineering and UK Strategic Operations across a $280m annual delivery portfolio, bringing strategy, creative, technology and delivery into one operating model.
• Notable: gov.uk strategy; McLaren and EE launches; NatWest Get Cash; Marks & Spencer replatform; Sky (then Europe's largest account).

Agency Operations Director at RAPP (2009-01 – 2012-12)

• RAPP: led the move from offline delivery into digital operating models, with data at the centre of Media, Data, Strategy and Creative; shared processes across Omnicom.

Various roles at Earlier career (Exposure, Positive Thinking, Hunter Design, Mercier Gray, MCB Digital, Icon Digital) (1989-01 – 2009-12)

• Design through digital product and delivery

TOGAF Registered · Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ-305) · Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900, AI-900, DP-900, SC-900)