Technical Director · OTT & Streaming

Dave
Westhead

Engineering leadership for platforms that can’t go down.

I lead engineering and architecture teams delivering OTT and streaming platforms for some of the biggest names in sports and media: Bell Media, BritBox, Dyn Media. Over 15 years building and running software. Now focused on multi-timezone teams, getting governance right, and making sure the right thing ships.

See the work Get in touch
Dave Westhead
£21m
Revenue delivered annually at Deltatre
55–64%
Gross margins maintained
35%
Team velocity uplift at RAC in 9 months
£650m
MoD contract architected
About

Platform delivery for global clients

I’m a Technical Director at Deltatre, accountable for £21m in annual revenue across streaming platforms in Canada, Germany, France, and the Middle East, with gross margins of 55–64%. I lead the 70-person engineering team delivering them: governing architecture, adopting product models, coaching people, and making the right delivery calls across multiple timezones and client contexts.

My background is hands-on. Over 15 years leading, architecting, and building web, desktop, and mobile applications, mostly on the Microsoft stack but also AWS, MongoDB, and related technologies. I’ve stayed close to the engineering as I moved into leadership, and that matters when you’re setting direction for a team of engineers.

Outside of Deltatre, I’m Chair of the Board of Trustees at Fireworks, a Staffordshire charity supporting children’s mental and emotional health. I approach that role the same way I approach any senior leadership position: focus on enabling the people doing the work to do it well.

I’m also Chair at Chase Harriers Road Running Club, and I run: distance events, ultras, the odd marathon. It keeps me honest.

🏗
Technical Director, OTT
Deltatre · Jan 2023 – Present
🎓
MSc Digital Technology (Enterprise Architecture)
Northumbria University · 2020–2022
🎓
BSc (Hons) Computer Science
University of Wolverhampton · 2001–2005
📋
TOGAF 9.2 Practitioner
Northumbria University · Aug 2022
📋
Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management
ISEB · Oct 2010
🎍
Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt
Process improvement and operational efficiency
Career

Where I’ve been

From hands-on .NET development to multi-timezone engineering leadership, via defence contracts, automotive digital, and some of the biggest names in streaming media.

Deltatre
Technical Director, OTT · Jan 2023 – Present

Accountable for £21m in annual revenue across multiple client streaming platforms in Canada, Germany, France, and the Middle East, maintaining gross margins of 55–64%. Leading a 70-person engineering organisation through technical implementation, governance, and product model adoption. Driving infrastructure optimisation that delivered £1.2m in annual savings. Coaching and mentoring distributed teams across multiple timezones, making delivery decisions under real commercial and client pressure.

OTT Streaming70-person teamMulti-timezone LeadershipGovernanceEnterprise ArchitectureAgile Delivery
RAC
Aug 2019 – Sep 2022 · 3 yrs 2 mos
Head of Digital Development & Delivery · May 2021 – Sep 2022
Led 50+ FTEs across development, testing, and delivery, overseeing eight product squads delivering over £5m in annual revenue. Improved team velocity by 35% in nine months through process refinement and culture change. Delivered Rescue Me, which handled 30% of all breakdowns digitally and avoided 300k calls annually.
Solution Architect · Aug 2019 – May 2021
Designed Azure-based microservice architecture for key products, including the original Rescue Me platform. Established peer review processes and architecture governance workflows across Operations and Roadside divisions.
Manager of Managers50-person teamSolution ArchitectureDigital Delivery
Briggs Equipment UK Ltd
Sep 2016 – Aug 2019 · 3 yrs
Solution Architect (MoD Bid Secondment) · Dec 2017 – Aug 2019
Led IT strategy and governance for a £650m Ministry of Defence contract. IT Solution Architect on the MITER bid, covering solution design, vendor assessment, third-party integration, and working with the bid team through submission.
Lead Developer · Sep 2016 – Aug 2019
Delivered multiple projects across business units including MoD, using ASP.NET MVC, RESTful APIs, and broker services. Introduced governance frameworks and change management processes, improving delivery consistency.
MoD Contract£650m ProgrammeSolution Architecture.NET / ASP.NET MVC
Work

Platforms I’ve delivered

£21m in annual OTT revenue. 300k avoided calls at the RAC. A £650m MoD programme. Ten platforms across streaming, defence, digital, and enterprise. Click any card to read the case study.

Bell Media Sports Evolution
Live
Bell Media · via Deltatre
Nov 2025 – Present

Building and delivering the new TSN and RDS consumer applications across AndroidTV, FireTV, Samsung, Hisense, Roku, TvOS, Xbox, and LG, timed to align with FIFA World Cup 2026. Technical leadership of all work streams, client stakeholder management, and keeping governance on track to a hard deadline.

TSNRDSFIFA World Cup 2026AndroidTVRokuTvOS
Challenge
Deliver consumer apps across 8 platforms to a hard FIFA World Cup 2026 deadline. Broadcast rights don’t move, and neither can the ship date.
My contribution
Technical leadership of all workstreams: architecture, delivery governance, cross-functional coordination, and direct client stakeholder management with Bell Media.
Outcome
On track for World Cup 2026 delivery across TSN and RDS. Eight platforms, one deadline, no slippage.
Rogers CityTV+
Delivered
Rogers · via Deltatre
Apr 2025 – Nov 2025

Ongoing platform delivery of linear and VOD entertainment channels for the wider Canadian audience: Discovery, FX, ID, Food Network, Bravo, HGTV, Magnolia Network, Motor Trend, SCI, Cooking Channel, and OWN.

LinearVODArchitecture GovernanceCanada
Challenge
Sustaining delivery across 11+ channels simultaneously, linear and VOD, without letting the volume dilute the quality of what reaches the screen.
My contribution
Architecture governance, delivery management across multiple workstreams, and ensuring technical decisions stayed coherent across the full channel portfolio.
Outcome
Successfully delivered across the CityTV+ portfolio Apr–Nov 2025 on schedule and within margin.
Bell Media: Crave & CTV
Live
Bell Media · via Deltatre
Apr 2024 – Present

Ongoing platform delivery supporting Crave and CTV for entertainment subscribers across Canada. Multi-channel platform engineering, operational support, and client stakeholder management across Bell Media’s premium entertainment properties.

CraveCTVEntertainmentMulti-channel
Challenge
Maintaining premium entertainment delivery for Crave and CTV across multiple channels, with direct client relationships that require regular technical and strategic alignment.
My contribution
Platform engineering oversight, live operational support, and Bell Media stakeholder management as part of Deltatre’s £21m annual portfolio.
Outcome
Ongoing. Stable, high-margin delivery across Bell Media’s premium properties, maintained since April 2024.
Dyn Media
Live
Dyn Media · via Deltatre
Apr 2024 – Present

Build and ongoing operation of the OTT streaming platform for Handball, Basketball, Table Tennis, Field Hockey, and Volleyball in the German market.

OTTGermanySports StreamingPlatform Build
Challenge
Build a new OTT platform from scratch for a streaming service entering the German market across five sports disciplines, then operate it at scale.
My contribution
Platform build from initial architecture and technical design through to live operation, owning the full technical lifecycle of the product.
Outcome
Live in the German market since 2024. Ongoing multi-sport streaming delivery across Handball, Basketball, Table Tennis, Field Hockey, and Volleyball.
BritBox International
Delivered
BBC & ITV · via Deltatre
Jan 2023 – Apr 2024

Delivery of BBC and ITV content to subscribers in the US, Canada, Nordics, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Part of the Deltatre portfolio contributing to £21m annual revenue. Platform engineering, architecture governance, and operational support across six territories.

BBC / ITVGlobalSVOD6 Territories
Challenge
Maintain a consistent subscriber experience for two of the UK’s biggest broadcasters across six countries, each with different regulatory, rights, and technical requirements.
My contribution
Platform engineering, architecture governance, and operational support across all six territories. One of the first major programmes I ran as Technical Director.
Outcome
Stable multi-territory SVOD delivery contributing to £21m annual revenue. Successfully transitioned to other portfolio work in 2024.
Digital Breakdown
Delivered
RAC
Feb 2020 – Aug 2022

Designed and delivered in initial response to Covid, then evolved with a product and agile mindset into a permanent platform. Handled 30% of all RAC breakdowns digitally, avoiding 300k calls annually and delivering measurable cost reduction. A crisis response that became a core service.

Agile / ProductRoadsideDigital Transformation
Challenge
Covid hit in February 2020. RAC needed to digitise roadside breakdown reporting fast: call centres couldn’t operate normally, and members still needed help.
My contribution
Designed and delivered the initial platform under crisis conditions, then led its evolution into a permanent service using product and agile thinking. Drove a 35% improvement in team velocity within 9 months.
Outcome
30% of all RAC breakdowns handled digitally. 300,000+ calls avoided annually. A crisis response that became a core part of how RAC operates.
Briggs Defence
Delivered
Briggs Equipment · MoD
Sep 2016 – Aug 2019

Portal for the Defence Mechanical Handling Equipment contract, part of a £650m Ministry of Defence programme. Integration via brokers into existing ERP systems. Introduced governance frameworks and change management processes that improved delivery cadence across the programme.

Ministry of DefenceERP IntegrationHigh Compliance
Challenge
Build and integrate a portal for the MoD’s Defence Mechanical Handling Equipment contract within a £650m programme. Strict compliance, complex ERP landscape, no room for slippage.
My contribution
Architecture, broker-based ERP integration design, and establishing the governance frameworks and change management processes the programme needed to move with confidence.
Outcome
Delivered within programme parameters. Governance improvements had a measurable impact on delivery cadence across the wider £650m contract.
MITER Bid Team
Delivered
Briggs Equipment · MoD
Dec 2017 – Aug 2019

Working with a bid team to define the IT solution for the MITER bid encompassing Mechanical Handling, Construction Equipment, and Protected Engineering for the Ministry of Defence.

Bid ArchitectureMinistry of DefenceSolution Design
Challenge
Define a credible, deliverable IT solution for a complex multi-scope MoD bid covering three equipment categories, with the technical architecture as a key factor in winning.
My contribution
Full solution architecture for the bid: technical design, integration approach, and the documentation needed to give the bid team confidence and evaluators clarity.
Outcome
Contributed a technically robust IT solution to a competitive MoD bid submission within the defence mechanical handling programme.
Options ISA: ESB / AX
Delivered
Police Mutual
May 2015 – Sep 2016

Enterprise Service Bus implementation based on RabbitMQ, with integration into a Microsoft Dynamics deployment for financial services operations.

RabbitMQESBMicrosoft DynamicsFinancial Services
Challenge
Police Mutual needed a reliable integration layer between their new Microsoft Dynamics deployment and existing financial services operations, without disrupting live financial processing.
My contribution
ESB implementation using RabbitMQ, integration design into Microsoft Dynamics, and ensuring the messaging architecture was robust enough for financial services requirements.
Outcome
A working enterprise integration layer enabling financial services operations at Police Mutual, delivered within a regulated environment.
Personal

What I build for myself

Side projects built outside client work: tools, clubs, and platforms I’ve designed and shipped because they needed to exist.

Race Calendar
Live
race-calendar.co.uk ↗

Race discovery platform for Chase Harriers members. Find races from 5k to ultramarathon, share events with the club, add race reports, photos, and ratings. Built with Claude Code, CI/CD via GitHub Actions, with Atlassian integration to auto-publish architecture documentation and product roadmap.

Claude CodeGitHub ActionsCI/CDAtlassian
Fireworks Charity Website
Live
fireworks.charity ↗

Custom website for Fireworks, the Staffordshire charity supporting children’s mental and emotional health. Built to give the charity a proper digital presence that reflects the quality of its work in schools.

Custom buildCharity
Team of Daves
Live
teamofdaves.com ↗

This site. Personal professional portfolio, single-page design hosted on Firebase. Built end-to-end using Claude Code, starting as an experiment in AI-assisted development that became the finished product.

Claude CodeFirebaseSingle-page
Chase Harriers Website
Rebuild planned
chaseharriers.org ↗

Club website for Chase Harriers Road Running Club. Currently WordPress. A rebuild is scheduled to modernise the stack, bring it in line with the Race Calendar platform, and give members a better experience.

WordPressPlanned rebuild
Strava Gamification Platform
In design

Automating the Strava API for Chase Harriers to introduce gamification and community challenges. Leaderboards, progress tracking against club goals, and the kind of healthy competition that keeps training interesting over a long season.

Strava APIGamificationIn design
Charity Funding Tool
In design

A tool to help charities find and apply for grants and funding. Covers the full cycle: discovering opportunities, tracking application deadlines on a shared calendar, and building and maintaining the application pack templates that make submissions consistent and reusable.

Grant fundingDeadline trackingTemplatesIn design
Capabilities

What I bring

Technical depth, leadership experience, and delivery know-how, built across streaming media, defence, automotive digital, and enterprise.

📡
OTT & Streaming Platform Leadership

Technical direction across multi-client streaming platforms: architecture governance, product adoption, and live operational support. Currently across Bell Media, Rogers, Dyn Media, and more.

🏗
Enterprise Architecture (TOGAF)

TOGAF 9.2 Practitioner with an MSc in Enterprise Architecture. I bring a structured approach to complex system design, vendor assessment, and architectural governance across large organisations.

👥
Engineering Leadership at Scale

Manager of managers. Led teams of up to 50 FTEs at RAC, now running distributed multi-timezone engineering teams at Deltatre. Team health and delivery cadence treated with equal seriousness.

🤖
AI-Augmented Delivery

Integrating AI and agentic workflows into engineering delivery, from code generation to automated review cycles. Applied to real delivery work, not explored in the abstract.

⚙
.NET / Cloud Engineering

Hands-on background in .NET, ASP.NET MVC, RESTful APIs, and broker/ESB patterns. Also AWS, MongoDB, and related technologies. I understand what I’m asking of my engineers because I’ve done it.

🤝
Senior Stakeholder Management

Comfortable working directly with C-suite and client stakeholders. I’ve spent time translating engineering trade-offs into business terms for media rights holders, government bodies, and consumer brands.

How I work

Principles over process

Process is a means to an end. These are the things I actually believe in, regardless of which methodology is on the wall.

01

Keep things moving

The biggest risk on any project is inertia. I make decisions, surface blockers early, and treat momentum as something to be actively managed. When you’re under commercial pressure with client eyes on the work, stalling is not an option.

02

Lead from the front

I don’t run teams from a distance. When the pressure is on, I’m close to the work, visible to the engineers, and accountable for the outcomes. People perform better when they know their lead is across it.

03

Outcomes over ceremony

I’ve seen enough agile transformations to know the ceremonies aren’t the point. Outcomes are. I focus on faster feedback and keeping delivery visible. Good enough and shipped beats perfect and stalled every time.

04

Build teams that can handle it

The best investment I make is in the people. Teams that understand the context, own their work, and don’t need hand-holding through every decision are the ones that deliver under pressure. That takes time to build, but it’s the only thing that scales.

Community

Beyond the day job

Trustee roles, charity leadership, volunteering, and putting the miles in for good causes. The same values I bring to professional work: accountability, enabling others, showing up.

🔥 Chair of Board of Trustees
Fireworks Charity

A Staffordshire based registered charity working in primary and secondary schools, supporting young people in their mental and emotional health through singing, signing and mindfulness. The pressures on children and young people today are real, and confidence and resilience can be built. I serve as Chair of the Board of Trustees, overseeing governance and helping the people doing the work to do it well.

fireworks.charity ↗
🤝 Trustee & Vice Chair
C.C. Walker Charity

A grant-making charity supporting children and young people under 25 in Walsall who need help with education or training. Priority is given to those who have lost one or both parents and have a connection to the Borough of Walsall. As a Trustee and Vice Chair, I contribute to grant decisions, governance, and the charity’s long-term direction.

Volunteering

Regular volunteering

Outside of trustee responsibilities, I give time regularly on the ground, marshalling, timing, and helping events that rely on volunteer communities to function.

🏃 Regular volunteer
parkrun

The free, weekly, timed 5k run that runs entirely on volunteer power. I marshal, scan, and help keep events moving. The running community only works if people show up to make it work.

🎍 Regular volunteer
Runthrough

One of the UK’s largest running event series. I volunteer at Runthrough events to help runners have the kind of race day experience I know matters, from registration to finish line.

Raising money through miles

Marathons, ultras, and long days out in the countryside, all in aid of causes worth running for.

🏃 ~£5,000 raised to date
London Marathon 2026
TCS London Marathon 2026
Fireworks Charity

26.2 miles through London in aid of Fireworks. Tower Bridge in sunshine is a sight that makes the training miles worth it.

2026
Race to the Stones 50k 2025
Race to the Stones 50k
Rotherham Hospice

50 kilometres along the Ridgeway in the heat of summer. One of the UK’s iconic ultramarathon routes, run for Rotherham Hospice.

2025
Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon 2024
Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon
Fireworks Charity

Named in honour of rugby league legend Rob Burrow. A full marathon through Leeds, finishing at Headingley. Completed with Charlotte, my partner, and medals to show for it.

2024
TCS London Marathon 2023
TCS London Marathon 2023
Leonard Cheshire

26.2 miles for Leonard Cheshire, supporting disabled people to live, learn and work as independently as they choose. Running in the rain doesn’t dent the occasion.

2023
Contact

Worth a conversation?

If you’re thinking about OTT platform delivery, engineering leadership, or AI-assisted development, I’m reachable.

Email me LinkedIn