About

I'm Rob Stearn. I lead engineering teams, and I write about what actually works when you do.

Right now I'm Consultant Head of Engineering at NHS England, managing across suppliers on a national digital prevention platform. Before that, Technology Director and Head of Engineering at MindGym.

The route here wasn't direct, and along the way I gathered a lot of skill and knowledge that adds to my effectiveness now.

I trained as an aerospace engineer through an MoD apprenticeship, specialising in Avionics, then spent a year on line maintenance for a freight airline. Physical engineering teaches you things software rarely does first-hand: safety isn't a checkbox, design has to account for failure before it happens, and precision isn't optional. Those principles have stayed with me longer than any specific technology has.

I took a left turn into retail when the aviation market was in a downturn gaining commercial and people experience, then into IT support — running networks and systems as the sole IT person for a demanding, high-pressure record label.

Eight years at Apple Retail followed: opening the Regent Street store, running the Genius Bar, then managing in stores at White City and Kingston — the real education in leading people at scale.

When the iPhone and App Stores rose in prominence I took a part-time MSc in Computer Science, in parallel with working full time, and then jumped into iOS mobile app development.

It didn't take long for the my experience to take me into leadership and delivery management. I’ve successfully led teams and organisations of teams at notonthehighstreet, MOO, Cazoo and MindGym before my current role.

Steady State is where all of that adds up: the discipline of physical engineering and the reality of leading people, applied to software and the teams who build it. I write about engineering leadership at scale, shifting quality and assurance left, what contracting inside large organisations teaches you, and the odd lesson from watching both aircraft and software fail in instructive ways.

If you want to talk shop, hire me, or just disagree with something I've written…