Senior technology leadership.
Without the full-time hire.
A supplier just asked for your ISO 27001 certificate. Your cyber insurance renewal is asking questions nobody can answer. That’s the conversation we should have.
The problem
Most businesses are one incident away from a very bad day
You've outgrown IT without a strategy
Security and IT decisions are being made reactively. There's no ownership, no roadmap, and no one at board level accountable for risk.
Compliance is overdue and no one owns it
Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001, client security questionnaires — they keep coming and the deadline is always now. You need someone who can own the programme, not just advise on it.
You're adopting AI faster than your controls
AI tools are in production before the governance is built. Audit trails, cost controls, and policy frameworks aren't optional — they're what keeps you defensible.
Services
What I Do
Helping organisations navigate security, infrastructure, AI, and governance with clear routes to engagement.
I started in hands-on IT support and infrastructure, building up through MSP environments where I managed the technology estate for 23 large-scale clients simultaneously at IT Lab. That breadth — across sectors, sizes, and maturity levels — is where the pattern recognition comes from.
In 2019 I moved into Lily's Kitchen as embedded IT Manager through Correct Group, then directly as Head of IT following the Nestlé Purina acquisition. I've led the digital transformation strategy through that transition: hybrid cloud infrastructure, security and compliance, a £1.2m annual budget, and teams across the globe. The AI and automation work — generative AI, agentic workflows, Azure Fabric data model — is the current chapter.
I've run RichardHam.co.uk in parallel since 2014, working with SMEs and PE-backed businesses on the things that don't need a full-time hire but do need a senior person: security posture, IT leadership, compliance prep, M&A due diligence, and AI strategy. I work fractionally because it's a better model — for the businesses I help, and for me.
25+
Years of hands-on security & infrastructure leadership
40+
UK businesses secured, from Series A to listed companies
90%
Of clients renew or expand their engagement
Proof
What clients say
Named companies, not anonymous job titles.
At HOST we specialise in placing cyber security professionals, so our own security credibility matters — both to us and to our clients. Richard helped us get our house properly in order: clear governance, a realistic picture of our risk, and practical controls that we could actually maintain. He's straight-talking, technically credible, and knows how to work with a small team without creating overhead. Exactly the kind of person we needed.
HOST Technology Group
Bradley Rickman, Head of Technology Recruitment
We're a building services business — security isn't our core focus, but that doesn't mean it isn't our problem. Richard quickly understood how we operate and gave us a clear, jargon-free picture of where we were exposed. He fixed what needed fixing and left us with something we could maintain ourselves. Practical, straightforward, and didn't overcomplicate it.
Maintained Building Services
Gareth Westerby, Operations Director
Open Source
Featured Projects
Selected public proof points from the AI, governance, and infrastructure work.
ProjectLodestar
Multi-LLM routing system that optimizes cost, capability, and availability. Routes requests across providers based on model performance and price.
Outcome:
90% average cost reduction in production deployments
Control Tower
GitHub-native control plane for AI-assisted projects. Uses GitHub as the orchestration platform—no new tools, no new dashboards.
Outcome:
Zero-trust automation directly from version control
SentinelForge
Strict governance, auditing, and observability for AI agent execution. Tracks decisions, flags drift, maintains audit trails for regulated environments.
Outcome:
AI governance before it was mandatory
Insights
Recent Writing
Practical articles on fractional IT leadership, security, and AI for UK SMEs.
Process
How it works
Three steps, no lock-in. You can stop after any of them.
Start with a conversation
30 minutes. No pitch, no sales deck. Just a frank look at where you are and whether I can help. Send a note and I'll come back to you within one working day.
Discovery Audit
A structured review of your security posture, cloud configuration, and compliance position. Delivered as a prioritised report you can act on immediately — with or without me.
Ongoing engagement
Monthly retainer, scoped to what you actually need. Typically 1–2 days a week. A senior person in the room, not a junior with a framework.
Let’s talk about what you need next.
Start with the free assessment for a maturity view and prioritised opportunities in about five minutes — or go straight to a conversation if you already know what you need.