Career Stories: Jamie Walker, Principal Consultant

Jamie is one of our Principal Consultants, a senior member of the team who works on significant engagements and manages a team of consultants.

What does a typical day at Steamhaus look like for you?

I collaborate with customers on significant engagements, leveraging my technical expertise to support them in achieving their business objectives.

A typical day involves conducting technical roadmaps and delivering workshops to educate customers on best practices around AWS services or technical processes. Additionally, I manage a team of consultants, dedicating time to their career progression plans and ensuring their well-being is prioritised.

How has working at Steamhaus helped your career?

Prior to joining Steamhaus, I had a well-rounded technical background. However, my experience at Steamhaus has provided me with invaluable opportunities to enhance my expertise in AWS. I started my journey as a Site Reliability Engineer, and then progressed to the role of a Senior Consultant, where I gained extensive knowledge in solutions architecture.

Eventually, I attained the position of Principal Consultant, allowing me to further develop my leadership skills and strategic abilities. Throughout my time at Steamhaus, I’ve had the privilege of working on a number of exciting projects. It has been really interesting to see how the advancements in the AWS ecosystem have influenced the platforms I have built, including event-driven Machine Learning platforms leveraging services such as SageMaker and Step Functions.

What was the first project you worked on?

The first project I worked on was for Lumina Learning—it was an ECS microservices platform, with an Aurora Postgres backend, and I remember it feeling quite daunting.

The more senior people in the team made sure I was supported with regular check-ins, and always made themselves available for questions. The only challenge was having to migrate the customers service from their legacy hosting provider ‘Heroku’ onto their shiny, new AWS platform. However, with all the support from the rest of the team it was a breeze,

How does working at Steamhaus fit in with your day-to-day life?

I couldn’t think of a better company to support my hectic life with a couple of young kids. The flexibility and trust allows me to be autonomous and manage my schedule in a way that suits my life, which is invaluable.

Are you involved in anything outside of Steamhaus, tech-related or otherwise?

Yes, I am an AWS Community Builder and Co-Organiser of the AWS Manchester User Group. Those things keep me plenty busy, but I also play guitar and dabble in some recording in my spare time.

What does your ideal professional future look like? What are your goals at Steamhaus?

I think I see myself as a leader; I’ve loved being a part of Steamhaus’ journey thus far, and I’d really like to play a big part in the company's continued growth. I see myself continuing a relatively similar day-to-day schedule, however, I anticipate becoming an SME (subject matter expert) in at least one area, for example AI/ML.