Sam Akers
@samakers
Production operations manager at Techphoria, automating Datadog monitoring with Terraform for a live streaming platform.
United KingdomWhat I'm looking for
At Techphoria, I run production operations for a high-traffic live streaming and media platform. As the senior escalation point for major incidents, I coordinate engineering, DevOps, and product teams through resolution.
I own the platform's Datadog monitoring and observability strategy, including custom integrations, monitors, and dashboards used daily. I also manage monitoring as code with Terraform and automated parts of the post-incident review process in Jira and Confluence.
Earlier at Serial Affinity, I led application support for customer-facing web applications and built Datadog dashboards to monitor performance. I'm looking to move into a hands-on automation, DevOps, or production operations role.
Experience
Work history, roles, and key accomplishments
Operations / Application Support Manager
Techphoria
Apr 2026 - Present (6 months)
Run production operations for a high-traffic live streaming and media platform, leading major incident response and owning monitoring and observability strategy in Datadog. Automate monitoring as code with Terraform and support releases through Azure DevOps CI/CD.
Application Support Lead
Techphoria
Oct 2024 - Apr 2026 (1 year 6 months)
Designed and implemented Incident, Problem, Access and Service Request processes aligned to ITIL 4, and built the team operating model. Improved monitoring and alerting in Datadog and coordinated cross-team incident response.
Application Support Team Lead
Serial Affinity
Sep 2022 - Oct 2024 (2 years 1 month)
Led the application support team for customer-facing web applications, building bespoke Datadog dashboards and writing SQL analysis to identify trends. Managed vendor relationships and worked with cross-functional teams to improve system stability.
Technical Project Lead
Voice Technologies
Jan 2020 - Sep 2022 (2 years 8 months)
Translated client technical requirements into delivered projects and tested application releases for integration with customer systems.
Service Desk Manager
Voice Technologies
Jan 2019 - Jan 2020 (1 year)
Ran the support function against SLAs and managed critical escalations.
Support Team Lead
Voice Technologies
Jan 2017 - Jan 2019 (2 years)
Led the support team and handled escalations.
Technical Support Engineer
Voice Technologies
Jun 2016 - Jan 2017 (7 months)
Provided technical support and progressed to Support Team Lead.
Education
Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework
The Open University
Bachelor's Degree, Computing & IT
2018 - 2024
Studied Computing & IT with a focus on Software Development, completing the program in 2024.
ITIL
ITIL 4 Foundation, IT Service Management
2023 - 2023
Earned the ITIL 4 Foundation certification in IT Service Management in 2023.
Cisco Networking Academy
Networking Essentials, Networking
2020 - 2020
Completed the Networking Essentials course in 2020.
Udemy
The Complete Developer's Guide, Go Programming
Completed the Go: The Complete Developer's Guide course on Udemy.
Udemy
The Complete Guide, Docker and Kubernetes
Completed the Docker and Kubernetes: The Complete Guide course on Udemy.
SCQF
Diploma, IT & Telecommunications
Earned a Diploma for IT & Telecommunications Professionals at SCQF Level 6.
Availability
Location
United KingdomAuthorized to work in
Salary expectations
Social media
Job categories
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