Nicholas User

I lead a globally dispersed department of Forward Deployed Engineering AI Architects embedded at the intersection of Oracle Product Development, PreSales and Customer Success.

The team is Oracle's A-Team, short for Architecture Team; a designation given to us by Thomas Kurian (now CEO of Google Cloud) that reflects both the technical bar required to operate at Oracle and the nature of the work: t

Anatwine was a hyper-growth SaaS startup scaling at 400% year-on-year. My mandate was explicit: build the Pre-Sales and Solution Consulting function from the ground up, make the business acquisition-ready, and maximise its value for sale.
Mission completed. Anatwine was acquired by Zalando in September 2017.
As a member of the leadership team I built the pre-sales and solution consulting capabilit

In 2015, Symantec divested the VERITAS business into a separate company.
I remained part of the EMEA Leadership team after separation and continued to lead the Global Accounts Pre-Sales business (Pre-Sales + Post Sales; technical value realisation & Customer Success)

Provided leadership and management to a cohort of Technical Directors/Account CTO’s whom intern matrix-managed 43 Service Availabil

Part of the EMEA Leadership team, leading the Global Accounts Pre-Sales business (Pre-Sales + Post Sales; technical value realisation & Customer Success)
Provided leadership to a cohort of Technical Directors/Account CTO’s who intern matrix-managed 53 Cyber Security strategists, Service Availability and Information Management specialists throughout EMEA, AMS, and APJ.

Delivered CISO/CTO advisory

At the pinnacle of my appointment I had the privilege to lead and grow 3 amazing teams. The sectors we covered were: Industry, Telecommunications and New Business
My successes were:
• Built teams of highly regarded cyber security strategists and Information/Identity Protection specialists.
• Created Technical Sales strategies to deliver growth
• Led the delivery of Threat / Information / Identity

I was asked to assume the sales account manager role due to an employee departure and a fiscal budget freeze. I was the technical account manager for the customer (British Petroleum) so blending the roles was a natural choice for the business.
With the support of an amazing virtual team (spanning sales leadership, operations, technical specialists, architects and support), we delivered double digi

Technically managed the BP account for Symantec.

Grew the software and services business during my tenure.
My key achievement was helping BP with their information governance requirements in relation to the Gulf of Mexico situation. This was a collaboration effort where we placed the needs of BP, the communities and people effected front and centre.

Helped UK and Irish clients secure and make their datacenters highly available.

Progressed from Principal Architect to Practice Manager during my tenure.
At the pinnacle I was leading 2 teams in the Northern UK Consulting group and performing a Solution Architects role; Technical Design Authority for large transformation infrastructure projects [for TCV contracts of £10M +].
My technology focus was based on Microsoft; delivering Active Directory, messaging and collaboration

Delivered Network, PC and Server Installation and support to the Council.
A key achievement:
* Delivered the Council's first EMail system on Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5.

Delivered IT projects for engineering contracts to the Oil and Defence industry.
Key achievements :
* Networking and installing p.c and server infrastructure to the PIPER BRAVO OIL PLATFORM
* Delivered the first Microsoft Exchange Server solution to the company.

Organisational strategic planning and performance
Strategic leadership
Strategic project Management
Financial management

Apr 2026

Dissertation: Blockchain as an independent technology solution to support business operations in global and emerging markets, and what businesses need to do to leverage and make the investment a success.
The topics that I covered in my dissertation were:
* Organisational design; leveraging macroeconomic contingencies to drive strategy.
* Leadership and Strategic Management.
* Microeconomics in rel

Apr 2022

Oct 2019