92%
Reduction in critical incidents on a strategically important global engagement.
Executive profile
Jamie Cohen
Executive Technology Leader · Board Advisor · Non-Executive Director
Clear judgement for consequential technology decisions.
I help boards, executive teams and investors make better decisions when technology choices carry material commercial, operational or organisational consequences.
Across more than 25 years, I have recovered critical client engagements, stopped investment in unsuitable technology, built engineering organisations, created new commercial platforms and established governance where experimentation had outpaced control.
My contribution is not simply technical expertise. It is the ability to understand complexity, determine what matters and give leaders a clear basis for action.
For a fuller point of view on executive ownership of AI, read Stop Asking Your CTO for an AI Strategy, or explore the Perspectives Library.
$45m+
Contract renewals supported by restored service performance and confidence.
60+
Specialists recruited across engineering, AI, data and advanced computing.
29
Provisional AI patent applications on which I am a named inventor.
Areas of judgement
- Technology investment
- Product and platform direction
- AI adoption and governance
- Technology risk and assurance
- Organisational capability
- Delivery recovery and operating performance
Selected situations
Judgement in practice
Three examples where the quality of the decision mattered more than the fashionability of the technology.
01 · Recovery
Recovering a critical global engagement
SituationA strategically important financial-services engagement had suffered 43 major incidents in the preceding year. Three previous leadership interventions had failed. Client confidence and the long-term commercial relationship were both at risk.
JudgementThe immediate pressure was to continue delivering visible features. I concluded that this would preserve the underlying instability rather than solve it. I secured agreement to pause feature delivery while the engineering foundations, operating model and accountability structure were rebuilt.
The important decision was not how to deliver faster. It was recognising when delivery needed to stop.
02 · Investment
Redirecting an unsuitable technology investment
SituationAn emerging product initiative had accumulated architectural complexity before establishing a credible route to a scalable commercial product.
JudgementRather than improve an approach that was fundamentally unsuitable, I recommended stopping the investment and replacing it with a cloud-native product strategy. I secured executive backing, established a new operating model and built a multidisciplinary organisation spanning software engineering, AI, data science and advanced computing.
Continuing an investment is not inherently safer than stopping it.
03 · Governance
Turning fragmented AI activity into an investment discipline
SituationAI activity had grown rapidly across a global technology business, but experimentation, governance and portfolio visibility had developed unevenly.
JudgementThe priority was not to create more demonstrations. It was to give leaders a coherent view of what existed, what was valuable, what created risk and where further investment was justified. I established a consistent governance model, created portfolio visibility and shaped the architecture and operating model for a sovereign AI knowledge platform.
AI becomes useful when organisations can govern decisions, not merely generate outputs.
Experience and appointments
Executive record
Unisys
Executive Architect 2025–present
Enterprise-wide leadership across architecture, AI strategy, technology governance and long-term investment planning within a global technology business of approximately $1 billion. Established portfolio visibility and AI governance across more than 100 applications, introduced LeanIX to strengthen lifecycle and investment decisions, and shaped the architecture of a sovereign AI knowledge platform.
Unisys
Senior Solutions Director 2023–2025
Built a multidisciplinary engineering organisation of more than 60 specialists to create and commercialise AI, optimisation and cloud-native capabilities. Stopped investment in an unsuitable architecture, secured backing for a new product strategy and connected engineering priorities more directly to commercial outcomes.
Unisys
Delivery Director 2016–2023
Recovered a strategically important global financial-services engagement after three previous leadership interventions. Reduced major incidents by 92%, achieved three years without a global outage, increased client NPS from 3.5 to 10 and supported contract renewals worth more than $45 million. Also led a COVID-response platform delivered in three months and generating multi-million-dollar revenue.
Last Mile Link
Consultant 2015–2016
Built the engineering organisation, architecture and delivery model for a logistics start-up. Re-platformed the product to AWS and delivered its first operational release, helping secure a further multi-million-pound investment round.
Versatile Systems
Director 2001–2015
Helped grow a specialist technology consultancy serving major international organisations. Increased customer revenue by more than 30%, grew the engineering organisation from approximately 40 to more than 60 specialists and led engagements for Comcast, Motorola, GE Money and Hershey.
Contact
Difficult decisions benefit from an honest conversation.
If you are making a significant technology, AI or transformation decision, or discussing an advisory, board or senior executive opportunity, I would be pleased to talk.