Ayaz Ahmed profile photo 1 on Tal

Ayaz Ahmed

Technology Director | Cloud, Infrastructure & Platform Leader | AWS data-centre transformation, FinOps & enterprise security | enabling safe AI adoption

Greater Sydney Area

19+ years of work experience

Grays
Jan 201214 yrs 8 mosPresent

Sydney, NSW

As a Technology Director, I am responsible for providing strategic leadership and oversight of all technology-related functions within the organization. My primary focus is on aligning IT initiatives with the company’s overall business objectives, ensuring that technology serves as a key enabler of growth, innovation, and operational efficiency. I lead the development and execution of the organization’s IT strategy, including the design, implementation, and management of enterprise-wide systems, infrastructure, and digital transformation initiatives. In this role, I oversee a team of IT professionals, guiding them to deliver high-impact solutions that address business challenges while optimizing processes and resources. I work closely with executive leadership and cross-functional departments to ensure that technology investments drive measurable improvements in performance, customer experience, and competitive advantage. I also play a key role in risk management, ensuring robust cybersecurity measures and compliance with industry standards. By fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement, I help the organization stay ahead of emerging technology trends, positioning it for long-term success in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. My expertise in project management, vendor relations, and stakeholder communication ensures that all technology initiatives are delivered on time, within budget, and in alignment with business priorities.
Grays
Aug 20194 yrsJul 2023

Australia

Grays
Jan 20127 yrs 7 mosJul 2019

Sydney, Australia

- Managing strategy, development, support and change for all internal applications and integrations. - Contributing to the overall IT technical strategy, architecture and technical roadmap. - Providing clear direction and prioritisation on all tasks in programs of work. - Management of developers and external partners to deliver programs of work. - Management of developers and external partners to provide support to achieve the required service levels. - Ensuring the technical capabilities of the development team are grown to sufficiently deliver on target programs of work.
HotelClub.com
Mar 20102 mosApr 2010

Team lead web analytics
Orbitz
Apr 20099 mosDec 2009

Web Support Team Lead
Orbitz Worldwide
Jan 20075 yrs 1 moJan 2012

An experienced Team Lead with an excellent track record of managing large team of developers and Muptiple projects. An individual with a strong leadership skills and business focus with ability to analyse and understand the needs of end users. Manage a large team of developers, motivate and nurture them to achieve deadlines and deliverables. Using Agile and Scrum approach to increase productivity, respond to changes and enhanced product quality.
flairview travel
Jan 20072 yrs 4 mosApr 2009

Request For Service Group Lead Web Development Lead the RFS Group Team consisting of six developers, Support Web site enhancements, Maintenance , Marketing Campaigns, Reporting and Bug fixing.

Education

Western Sydney University

master of computing, software

Western Sydney University

20002 yrs2002
Western Sydney University

Graduate Diploma Business Computing, Software

Western Sydney University

19982 yrs2000

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Headline

Technology Director | Cloud, Infrastructure & Platform Leader | AWS data-centre transformation, FinOps & enterprise security | enabling safe AI adoption

About

I'm a technology leader with 25+ years helping Australian enterprises turn legacy infrastructure into scalable, secure and cost-efficient platforms — and, increasingly, into the foundations for data and AI. As Technology Director at Grays, I lead engineering, cloud and infrastructure across 10+ platforms serving 3.8M users. The work I'm proudest of: - Led a full data-centre-to-AWS migration of 160 servers — 50% lower infrastructure cost and a far more resilient, scalable estate. - Embedded FinOps and vendor discipline that cut operating costs 35%, through cloud cost analysis, rightsizing and log/storage optimisation. - Achieved ISO 27001:2022 certification and PCI-DSS compliance protecting 100M+ records. - Built and lead a 23-person team across 14 sites, partnering with business, data, security and product leaders to set technology direction. More recently I've focused on enabling safe AI adoption — including "The Foundry," a VPN-isolated AWS platform that lets staff build and ship AI applications with automated security review, guardrails and cost controls. I work best where strategy meets execution: comfortable owning budgets and vendor relationships at the executive level, but equally at home in the architecture and the AWS console. Core strengths: enterprise cloud & infrastructure (AWS, Azure, hybrid) · data-centre transformation · FinOps · Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation) · reliability/SRE · cyber security & compliance · multi-vendor leadership. Always happy to connect.

Location

Greater Sydney Area

Work experience

Technology Director at Grays, Jan 2012 - Present · 14 yrs 8 mos, Sydney, NSW, As a Technology Director, I am responsible for providing strategic leadership and oversight of all technology-related functions within the organization. My primary focus is on aligning IT initiatives with the company’s overall business objectives, ensuring that technology serves as a key enabler of growth, innovation, and operational efficiency. I lead the development and execution of the organization’s IT strategy, including the design, implementation, and management of enterprise-wide systems, infrastructure, and digital transformation initiatives. In this role, I oversee a team of IT professionals, guiding them to deliver high-impact solutions that address business challenges while optimizing processes and resources. I work closely with executive leadership and cross-functional departments to ensure that technology investments drive measurable improvements in performance, customer experience, and competitive advantage. I also play a key role in risk management, ensuring robust cybersecurity measures and compliance with industry standards. By fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement, I help the organization stay ahead of emerging technology trends, positioning it for long-term success in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. My expertise in project management, vendor relations, and stakeholder communication ensures that all technology initiatives are delivered on time, within budget, and in alignment with business priorities.

Head Of Technology at Grays, Aug 2019 - Jul 2023 · 4 yrs, Australia

Applications Development Manager at Grays, Jan 2012 - Jul 2019 · 7 yrs 7 mos, Sydney, Australia, - Managing strategy, development, support and change for all internal applications and integrations. - Contributing to the overall IT technical strategy, architecture and technical roadmap. - Providing clear direction and prioritisation on all tasks in programs of work. - Management of developers and external partners to deliver programs of work. - Management of developers and external partners to provide support to achieve the required service levels. - Ensuring the technical capabilities of the development team are grown to sufficiently deliver on target programs of work.

Lead Web Analytics at HotelClub.com, Mar 2010 - Apr 2010 · 2 mos, Team lead web analytics

Team Lead Web support / analytics at Orbitz, Apr 2009 - Dec 2009 · 9 mos, Web Support Team Lead

Retail IT Team Lead at Orbitz Worldwide, Jan 2007 - Jan 2012 · 5 yrs 1 mo, An experienced Team Lead with an excellent track record of managing large team of developers and Muptiple projects. An individual with a strong leadership skills and business focus with ability to analyse and understand the needs of end users. Manage a large team of developers, motivate and nurture them to achieve deadlines and deliverables. Using Agile and Scrum approach to increase productivity, respond to changes and enhanced product quality.

RFS Group Led Web Dev at flairview travel, Jan 2007 - Apr 2009 · 2 yrs 4 mos, Request For Service Group Lead Web Development Lead the RFS Group Team consisting of six developers, Support Web site enhancements, Maintenance , Marketing Campaigns, Reporting and Bug fixing.

Education

master of computing, software, Western Sydney University

Graduate Diploma Business Computing, Software, Western Sydney University