Paul Cutting
Paul Cutting
About
Detail
Head of Engineering - R&D
Norwich, England, United Kingdom
With over 25 years in the technology sector, I’ve navigated the evolution from low-level C++ to modern cloud-native architectures, always keeping one foot in technical excellence and the other in human-centric leadership.
As Head of Engineering at Upscale (The Adaptavist Group), I oversee multiple engineering teams, ensuring we strike a critical balance between maintaining a robust technical roadmap and the agility required for rapid experimentation and delivery. My leadership philosophy is built on fostering intrinsic motivation and psychological safety to drive innovation. I don’t just manage delivery; I build environments where R&D initiatives can thrive, allowing teams to prototype and iterate effectively within eco-systems (such as Atlassian, Slack, Monday.com) and beyond.
Previously, as Security & Operations Director, I led global infrastructure transformations, such as migrating to Amazon EKS, and integrated "Shift Left" security cultures that enabled rather than blocked R&D efforts.
Core Focus Areas:
Engineering Strategy & R&D: Balancing technical debt and infrastructure stability with rapid experimentation and high-velocity feature delivery.
Leadership & Culture: Performance coaching, career pathing, and driving engagement through intrinsic motivation in global teams.Security & Compliance: Practical, non-disruptive implementation of ISO standards and modern threat modelling.
Ecosystem Innovation: Deep experience building and scaling products for the Atlassian and Slack marketplaces.
Technical Foundation: React, JavaScript, C#, AWS (EKS), SIEM, and Agile Transformation.
As Head of Engineering at Upscale (The Adaptavist Group), I oversee multiple engineering teams, ensuring we strike a critical balance between maintaining a robust technical roadmap and the agility required for rapid experimentation and delivery. My leadership philosophy is built on fostering intrinsic motivation and psychological safety to drive innovation. I don’t just manage delivery; I build environments where R&D initiatives can thrive, allowing teams to prototype and iterate effectively within eco-systems (such as Atlassian, Slack, Monday.com) and beyond.
Previously, as Security & Operations Director, I led global infrastructure transformations, such as migrating to Amazon EKS, and integrated "Shift Left" security cultures that enabled rather than blocked R&D efforts.
Core Focus Areas:
Engineering Strategy & R&D: Balancing technical debt and infrastructure stability with rapid experimentation and high-velocity feature delivery.
Leadership & Culture: Performance coaching, career pathing, and driving engagement through intrinsic motivation in global teams.Security & Compliance: Practical, non-disruptive implementation of ISO standards and modern threat modelling.
Ecosystem Innovation: Deep experience building and scaling products for the Atlassian and Slack marketplaces.
Technical Foundation: React, JavaScript, C#, AWS (EKS), SIEM, and Agile Transformation.
