October 20th, 2026 · Leeds, England
DevOps & Platform Leaders Summit
A senior summit for platform, DevOps and engineering leaders shaping internal platforms, delivery models and engineering capability across the UK.
At a Glance
80
Capacity
12+
Speakers
Single-track
Format
About the Summit
The DevOps & Platform Leaders Summit brings together engineering leaders, platform teams and DevOps practitioners responsible for building and operating modern software delivery capability.
The summit focuses on the real decisions and trade-offs involved in running internal developer platforms, improving engineering productivity, shaping delivery models and operating production systems at scale. Talks are practitioner-led and vendor-neutral.
Date
October 20th, 2026
Location
Leeds, England
Venue
Accenture, Aspley House, Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 2EQ
Nearest Station
Leeds City Station (5 min walk)
Full Day Agenda
Day schedule
A single-track summit with practitioner-led talks, ignite sessions, and a closing recruitment panel.
Opening Welcome
Ethan Sumner
Founder & CEO, Community Stack
Keynote
Matthew Rowe-Macleod
Head of Platform Engineering Practice, Accenture
Talk TBC
Aidan Connor
Head of Architecture, Digital and Data, Card Factory
Building a Future-Ready Cloud Centre of Excellence
Keith Moyo
Senior Technical Specialist, NHS
Andy Shepherd
Senior Cloud Architect, Microsoft
AI in Engineering
Sam Cunliffe
Head of Cloud Engineering & Architecture, Howden Insurance
Talk TBC
Supabase: Stop Building the Database Platform, Start Using It
Kate Gawron
Principal Data Solution Architect, DoiT
Who Owns the AI Bill? Rethinking FinOps and DevOps Together
Ian Watson
Director of DevOps, ArisGlobal
Forget IDP. We're in the Era of ADP.
Will Dewhurst
Lead Platform Engineer, Connells Group
Apprentice 101
Suzie Rasnak
Associate Cloud Engineer, Howden
Women in Tech Mythbuster
Jessica Parkinson
Cloud Engineer, Skipton Building Society
Building Technical Careers Where Women Thrive
An open discussion on how organisations can better attract, support and retain women in technology. Panellists from engineering, leadership and specialist recruitment will explore inclusive hiring, mentorship and sponsorship, flexible working, career progression and the barriers that still cause women to leave technical careers. The session will focus on practical actions organisations, managers and colleagues can take to create stronger pathways for women from first application through to senior leadership.
Moderator
Ethan Sumner
Founder & CEO, Community Stack
Panellists
Jessica Parkinson
Cloud Engineer, Skipton Building Society
Suzie Rasnak
Associate Cloud Engineer, Howden
Anna Broadhurst
Co-founder, T5 Digital
Matthew Coney
Director, Ada Meher
Expert Practitioners
Speakers
Practitioners and leaders from across platform engineering, data, AI and engineering leadership.
Matthew Rowe-Macleod
Head of Platform Engineering Practice
Accenture
Experienced manager with a demonstrated history in the information technology and services industry. Skilled in performance tuning, non-functional requirements, technical architecture, performance testing and team leadership. Holds a Master's degree in Natural Sciences from Durham University.
LinkedIn
Anna Broadhurst
Co-founder
T5 Digital
Co-founder of T5 Digital, joining the panel on building technical careers where women thrive.
Aidan Connor
Head of Architecture, Digital and Data
Card Factory
Head of Architecture, Digital and Data at Card Factory. Talk details to be announced.
LinkedIn
Ian Watson
Director of DevOps
ArisGlobal
An experienced technology and people leader deeply enthusiastic about delivering better software in a better way, for both platforms and applications.
LinkedIn
Will Dewhurst
Lead Platform Engineer
Connells Group
A Lead Platform Engineer with 9 years of experience building scalable, secure, and cost-efficient cloud platforms across large enterprises and startups. Specialises in Azure, Kubernetes, Terraform and developer experience.
LinkedIn
Kate Gawron
Principal Data Solution Architect
DoiT
Database cloud architect with 12+ years bridging on-prem and cloud-native systems. Led large-scale RDS migrations, tuned PostgreSQL and Neptune at billion-row scale. AWS Ambassador, Community Builder, and Oracle Certified Professional.
LinkedIn
Keith Moyo
Senior Azure Cloud Engineer
Cloud Centre of Excellence
Senior Azure Cloud Engineer with 7+ years designing and operating secure, scalable cloud platforms in complex, highly regulated environments. Specialist in Azure landing zone and platform architecture, governance, identity, networking, and DevOps enablement aligned to CAF and Azure Verified Modules.
LinkedIn
Andy Shepherd
Senior Cloud Architect
Microsoft
Senior Cloud Architect at Microsoft, co-presenting on building a future-ready Cloud Centre of Excellence alongside Keith Moyo.
LinkedIn
Matthew Coney
Director
Ada Meher
Director at Ada Meher, specialising in recruitment across Development, DevOps, Data Engineering and AI. Joining the recruitment panel to discuss hiring and retention in the current market.
LinkedIn
Jessica Parkinson
Cloud Engineer
Skipton Building Society
Azure Cloud Engineer with 10 years in IT, and Chair of Women in Tech at Skipton Building Society, creating a supportive community and helping the next generation of technology professionals.
LinkedIn
Sam Cunliffe
Head of Cloud Engineering & Architecture
Howden Insurance
Microsoft Cloud, AI and Platform Engineering Leader. Exploring the practical impact of AI tooling on engineering productivity, the art of the possible, and how to demonstrate ROI in tokens.
LinkedIn
Suzie Rasnak
Associate Cloud Engineer
Howden
Associate Cloud Engineer at Howden, speaking on the ignite stage and joining the panel on building technical careers where women thrive.
LinkedInSponsors
Partner with us to reach the North's platform engineering and DevOps leadership community.
CGI
Platinum
Ada Meher
Platinum
Overmind
Platinum
Digital Endeavours
Platinum
Searchability
Platinum
Skipton Building Society
Platinum
Nearform
AI Native
Our Audience
Who attends
Join platform leaders and practitioners from across the UK. From CTOs defining strategy to engineers building the platforms that power modern software delivery.
80
Capacity
30+
Companies
Attendee Roles
Conference Themes
Previous Event
Northern DevOps & Platform Conference 2026
Hosted at CGI Leeds on May 19th, 2026. 156 attendees exploring platform engineering, DevOps culture, and engineering excellence across the North of England.
Featured Speakers
Matthew Skelton
CEO/CTO, Conflux (Team Topologies)
Holly Jukes
Head of Engineering, Lloyds Banking Group
Alexandra Moore
DevOps Strategic Advisor, CGI
Adam Wilbraham
Director of Technology, Flutter UK and Ireland
Brian Walker
Infrastructure Specialist, HSBC
Andy Burgin
Principal Platform Engineer
May 2026 Sponsors
Watch the talks
Team Topologies as the Infrastructure for Agency with AI
Matthew Skelton, CEO/CTO, Conflux
Stop Building. Start Deciding.
Holly Jukes, Head of Engineering, Lloyds Banking Group
Next Up From Community Stack
Northern DevOps & Platform Conference 2027
The flagship practitioner conference for platform engineers and DevOps professionals across the North of England. Real-world implementations, hands-on talks, and a full day of engineering content.
Date
May 18th, 2027
Location
Leeds, England
Format
Single-track
Focus
Platform & DevOps
