From foundational tech skills to global projects, major consultancies and creating change in the public sector – Sarah Ward has a wealth of experience. Now, as our Delivery Director for National Security and Public Safety, she’s focused on driving societal impact by leading delivery teams and contributing to Made Tech’s growth.
Q: What were your first roles in tech and how did they shape your career?
I began in a traditional technology consultancy, where I spent a year coding in Oracle/SQL which provided a strong technical foundation. From there, I moved into business analysis, project management and eventually programme management.
Along the way I worked as a product specialist for Siebel, a CRM tool that predated Salesforce. I was in their fast moving consumer goods team. During this time I spent my 20’s flying around the world looking after projects.
I came back to the UK as I was at a stage in my life where I wanted to get married and start a family. So I joined a consultancy and had projects in the UK which were great.
While I was on maternity leave, Vodafone bought that consultancy I was with because of our expertise in mobile device applications. I spent 14 years under Vodafone doing various different roles. One of which was helping out on their seal implementation. We worked with Accenture on that. It was the biggest programme for them in Europe at the time.
I left to join the civil service and moved into public sector leadership at the Department for Transport (DfT). After that I did a bit of time at Deloitte, and now here I am at Made Tech.
Q: What made you want to make the shift back to working with government departments full time?
Although I had worked alongside the Big 4 for much of my early career, I had never actually worked for one. So, I was thrilled to receive a job offer from Deloitte. While there I spent 18 months at the Home Office on a project to replace one of the legacy applications within the Future Borders portfolio – which was really interesting.
I was leading a large blended team of Deloitte people, other consultancies and civil servants. It was challenging but also fun and exciting, and I really enjoyed it. I then decided to dedicate myself to full-time public sector delivery. I was really pleased to join Made Tech where it’s our sole focus. The passion for public sector and delivery expertise in our Made Tech teams has made my first few months really enjoyable. Long may it continue!
Q: Thinking about your work with the public sector, which project had one of the biggest impacts?
One of my favourite projects was when I worked at Vodafone. We rolled out mobile devices to adult and children’s social care in Nottinghamshire County Council.
The reason I really loved it is because a lot of the people in that role are women with families. They previously worked on fixed office computers with specific deadlines. Many would be out for an assessment on a child or adult and have to race back to the office to write it up within 48 hours or 24 hours – depending on the severity.
By empowering women with mobile technology they could choose when to do their writeup. They had the option to go home and pick their kids up from after school care for example. Being able to give all parents, but predominantly women, the flexibility to work like that was really positive and made a huge difference to their lives. I’m proud of that one.
Q: Let’s talk about your time at the Department for Transport building their digital services team
I joined the newly established digital services team at DfT. I spent 5 years focused on creating the team, setting up project management and digital delivery.
It was a really interesting and challenging thing to do, especially coming into the civil service. It was a significant shift from the private sector. I quickly realised how different government operations were, especially concerning budgets and the annual spending cycle.
Q: That’s a lot of adaptability, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced?
Project delivery is hard. Digital delivery is a really tough thing to get right and it often goes wrong. You can automate parts of it but ultimately it’s a set of people with a desire to get the thing done.
I’ve seen a lot of projects that have stalled over the years across different technologies and sectors for different reasons. It can be really heartbreaking when you’ve worked on something for a long time to not see it actually go live.
However, staying positive – I think that compared to when I first started my career, delivery progress is much quicker and services go live much more frequently now. That’s the benefit of using agile methodology. Focusing on delivering the features that have the greatest value first, taking regular feedback and rapid iterations have all helped improve digital delivery.
Q: How do you get through those challenging moments?
I’ve spent a long time in this career, and I’m at my best when I’m challenged, pushed out of my comfort zone and learning new things—that’s when I’m most excited. I’m best when I’m on a learning curve.
Some advice for those moments? Just say yes and figure it out later. While that may not work every time, I often try to have that in my mind. When someone asks you to step outside your comfort zone, adopting a ‘just say yes’ mindset helps you figure it out along the way.
Q: Finally, what made Made Tech stand out as your next step?
The thing that attracted me to this role was the split between delivery and growth. I joined because the role lets me support delivery, lead delivery teams and contribute to the organisation’s growth.
The growth trajectory we’re on at Made Tech really motivates me. I’m excited by the opportunity to work in digital delivery and specialise in the public sector, watching it grow and mature.
If you’re also motivated by the idea of creating change in the public sector, take a look at our open roles.
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