Mark Needham

Senior engineering leader with 15+ years' experience leading engineering organisations of more than 160 staff. Proven ability to design operating models, improve delivery performance, lead SaaS transformations across enterprise platforms and align engineering with product and commercial outcomes. Strong track record in organisational design, CI/CD adoption, and building pragmatic, high-performing teams.

Director at Simplicity Consulting Limited (2021-03 – Present)

Co-owned and led a consultancy delivering operational, delivery, and governance transformation across engineering, IT, and business functions for organisations including Fisher & Paykel, Sky, AA Insurance, and T&G Global. Led enterprise transformation involving discovery, solution design, executive workshops, and implementation across engagements. Part-time alongside Head of Engineering role until 2022.

• Designed and implemented operating models, tooling, and reporting frameworks that improved visibility, prioritisation, and delivery effectiveness across software engineering organisations
• Standardised fragmented workflows and reporting, enabling cross-team coordination and real-time executive visibility
• Built data-driven capacity models enabling informed resourcing and investment decisions, including approval of additional staffing and reprioritisation of work
• Reduced reporting effort from up to one week per month to ~30 minutes through automation and unified reporting
• Delivered workflow automation, system integrations, reporting platforms, and AI-assisted support solutions
• Designed and automated governance processes including CAB workflows and product initiative intake
• Managed full commercial lifecycle including proposals, RFPs, contract negotiation, pricing, and risk

Head of Engineering at Vista Entertainment Solutions (2020 – 2022)

Led a 163-person global engineering organisation (5 Development Managers, 2 BA Leads) through SaaS transformation, transitioning from predominantly customer-hosted deployments to cloud delivery while maintaining a dual support model.

• Led organisational restructure from component teams to cross-functional squads/tribes, improving ownership and delivery flow
• Redesigned product-engineering alignment through 1:1 pairing of Product Managers and Development Managers, improving decision clarity and reducing over-engineering
• Scaled engineering capability during talent scarcity while maintaining low attrition (<6%)
• Led transition to cloud-based delivery
• Reduced time for fixes to reach all affected customers from up to 12 months to 1–5 days through cloud-based delivery
• Increased deployment cadence from annual releases to every two months
• Introduced and enforced CI/CD and automated testing standards, including team-level delivery metrics and accountability
• Shifted test ownership from QA to engineering leadership and reallocated QA capability to accelerate adoption
• Managed dual delivery model supporting ~95% self-hosted customers during transition

Senior Development Manager at Vista Entertainment Solutions (2016 – 2020)

• Led multiple engineering teams delivering core platform capabilities
• Owned engineering hiring, recruiting 100+ staff
• Reduced internal hiring decision cycle (interview to offer) by ~80% through streamlined interview and decision processes
• Managed productive remote and contractor teams
• Coupled technical support with engineering teams, improving responsiveness and contributing to improved NPS

Development Unit Manager > Tribe Leader at Orion Health Limited (2011 – 2015)

• Co-Led recruitment and organisational scaling initiatives that grew engineering capability from ~100 to 400+ staff
• Introduced cross-functional tribal model improving ownership and coordination
• Improved product-engineering alignment, reducing over-engineering and improving delivery pragmatism
• Led adoption of Continuous Delivery and automated testing practices

Release Manager / Team Leader at Trustwave (formerly M86 Security) (2009 – 2011)

Developed and Delivered enterprise security products across distributed teams

Senior Software Developer (C++/C#) at Marshal Software (became M86 Security) (2006 – 2009)

Designed and developed web and email security applications

Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Computer Science & Geology – University of Auckland