Open to the right opportunity

Ben Fosbery Head of IT · Infrastructure & Systems

I take fragile, aging IT estates and turn them into resilient, virtualised, audit-ready infrastructure, then keep it online. Head of IT by day, gamer and tinkerer by night.

Seeking a senior infrastructure or IT leadership role, remote or hybrid.

Get in touch

ben@infra:~

Virtualised servers under management (Windows / Linux)

99.9%

Uptime sustained across the virtualised estate

100

Users supported across 3 sites (UK & India)

100%

Ticket-resolution score (FreshDesk)

// 01 · profile

From the hypervisor
to the help desk.

I'm a Head of IT who owns the whole stack: strategy, hardware, security, and the people who depend on it.

Over the last decade I've rebuilt an entire server estate from the ground up, migrating ~25 aging machines onto a fully virtualised, scalable, resilient architecture, then automated the patching and policy that keeps it that way. I've driven a business through PCI DSS, Cyber Essentials and ISO 9001, stood up company-wide VPN and backup, and carried a 100% ticket-resolution record as the senior escalation point.

I lead from the front: I'll plan the migration, rack the kit, write the policy, and train the team that uses it. No layer of the problem gets handed off because it's "not my job."

roleHead of IT

basedForest of Dean, UK

focusInfra · Security · Compliance

scope100 users · 3 sites (UK & India)

uptime99.9%

stackWindows · Linux · Azure

networkUniFi Enterprise

remoteYes / Hybrid

statusOpen to opportunities

// 02 · experience

Career, in production.

A track record of owning uptime, security and change, then shipping migrations the business never noticed.

Head of IT · Stock Sweepers Ltd

2017 - Present IT Assistant → Systems Administrator → Head of IT

Promoted to lead IT operations across a virtualised estate of 20-25 servers (Windows / Linux), supporting 100 users over three sites including an offshore team in India. Full ownership of uptime, security, compliance and the strategic direction of the company's systems.

Infrastructure & Virtualisation

Overhauled the entire server environment, migrating to a fully virtualised, scalable architecture that retired aging hardware and saved £1,000s in replacement costs. Scripted patch automation in PowerShell, and extended the estate into Microsoft Azure with virtualised domain controllers and file servers behind an Azure VPN Gateway. Codified the policies that hold the estate at 99.9% uptime and ISO 9001 data integrity.

Security & Compliance

Drove the company to PCI DSS, Crown Commercial Supplier status and Cyber Essentials through targeted hardening and policy. Delivered an ISO 9001-compliant backup system and rolled out a company-wide VPN for secure remote work.

Projects & Migrations

Project-managed a full Active Directory migration with zero disruption to daily operations. Led a facility-wide CRM transition, onboarding 30+ users, and owned IT delivery for the company's office relocation, a clean cutover to the new site.

Support & Enablement

Senior escalation point for every network and systems issue, with a 100% resolution score in FreshDesk. Trained staff across departments on security, network ops and software, and owned the company knowledgebase and asset register.

IT & Marketing Administrator · gap personnel

2015 - 2017 Sales & Marketing Apprentice → IT & Marketing Administrator

A hybrid role straddling IT support and digital marketing: keeping the kit running while driving the campaigns that ran on it.

Ran paid search & paid social end to end, tuning creative and targeting to squeeze the best ROI within defined budgets and audience segments.
Built and deployed email campaigns to 4,000+ contacts in Constant Contact, with automated retention sequences triggered to maximise engagement.
Delivered marketing content reaching 1.8M people a year across Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, and ran the company blog.
Installed and maintained hardware & software and handled IT requests through a ticketing system.

// 03 · capabilities

The toolkit.

Hands-on across the stack: infrastructure, networking, cloud, security and the service layer that ties it together.

01 Infrastructure & Virtualisation

ProxmoxHyper-VAzure Stack HCI Windows ServerLinuxActive Directory PowerShellBashPatch Automation Server Build & MigrationBackup & DR

02 Cloud & Productivity

Microsoft AzureAzure IaaSAzure VPN Gateway Azure BackupMicrosoft 365O365 Administration Entra / IdentityEmail & Collaboration

03 Networking & Security

UniFi EnterpriseSophos XGSLAN / WAN VPNFirewall HardeningNetwork Segmentation

04 Compliance & Governance

PCI DSSCyber EssentialsISO 9001 Policy & DocumentationAsset Management

05 Service & Operations

FreshDesk / ITSMIncident & EscalationKnowledgebase SLA OwnershipStaff Training

06 Leadership & Delivery

Project ManagementZero-Downtime MigrationVendor Management Strategy & RoadmappingBudgeting

Currently learning C# and CI/CD pipelines.

// 04 · credentials

Certified & trained.

Compliance milestones delivered for the business, plus formal training and qualifications.

PCI DSSdriven to certification

Cyber Essentialsled to certification

ISO 9001systems & backup compliance

Crown Commercialsupplier status achieved

UniFi Enterprisetrained direct from UniFi

Microsoft AzureIaaS · VPN · hybrid

L3 Networkingapprenticeship · 2016

// 05 · references

In their words.

LinkedIn recommendations from colleagues who worked alongside me.

Ben is an IT genius. Great guy to work with, always willing to help and go the extra mile. I'm sure with all this combined he will go far. Good luck Ben.

Lisa Woodhouse Specialist Recruiter · senior colleague at gap personnel LinkedIn recommendation

Ben is one of the most promising young men I have had the pleasure to work with. His drive and ambition excels and he has a unique ability to pick new skills up. Without Ben's knowledge and implementation, very successful sales campaigns would never have happened. Ben is a credit to anybody he works with, and I would not hesitate to recommend him.

Rob Hackles Senior colleague at gap personnel LinkedIn recommendation

// 06 · off the clock

I'm still building
when no one's paying me to.

A lot of what I do professionally started as a hobby, long before it ever touched production.

The home lab

Every segment is VLAN-isolated: the cameras, a guest network, and a filtered kids' network are all kept off the trusted LAN and the lab, with the UniFi AP broadcasting each as its own tagged SSID. The VMs run on a Proxmox host where AD and Group Policy, Docker and UniFi get tested before they ever touch production, and two of them double as a learning environment I run with my son.

past venture · esports

Director of eSports Operations · Nihilo eSports

prior role

Ran a competitive esports organisation end to end: created and administrated tournaments from concept through marketing, signups and live event ops; secured partnerships and sponsorships; shoutcast events; managed promotion across multiple platforms; and coached teams competing under the banner. I've sat on every side of online gaming: player, organiser, broadcaster, and the person keeping the servers and stream alive on the night.

maker

Hardware & home lab

3D printing, home automation and a home lab where most of these skills got their first run before they ever touched production.

3D PrintingHome AutomationHome Lab

creative

Build & communicate

Web development, graphic design and video editing; this site is one of them. I can build the thing and explain it to people who don't speak fluent infrastructure.

Web DevGraphic DesignVideo Editing

// 07 · contact

Let's talk infrastructure.

I'm open to the right opportunity, especially where keeping things online actually matters. The fastest way to reach me is email.

Email me LinkedIn

From the hypervisorto the help desk.