Gumtree has bolstered its IT leadership team to speed up its digital transformation efforts.
Arman Abbasi has been appointed as head of engineering, and Alastair Bradley has been announced as site operations manager, with both roles contributing to developing and managing new tech processes to help the company grow.
Abbasi’s responsibilities are to build its current tech team with an additional 14 engineers to develop new ideas and enhance Gumtree’s e-commerce. He will focus on recruitment and retention to make sure the business has a wide set of tech skills to drive it forward and will apply his experience at businesses including PhotoBox, Marks & Spencer and ING.
“Having already bought and sold cars through Gumtree myself, I’m excited to be joining such a vibrant online business with large audience capabilities,” he said.
“My focus will be on creating value and remaining agile in a digital environment to improve how users perceive and interact with the technology interface.”
Alastair Bradley will bring his DevOps experience to the table, ensuring anything Gumtree offers puts the value stream at the centre of everything, including enhanced speeds, even when using a more complex application.
“DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering principles have advanced the state of the art of doing things, and the further application of these principles will help Gumtree continue to evolve as a platform, as it has done historically,” he said.
Bradley‘s tech experience expands across mobile platforms, applications and more, with previous management roles at Hitachi Vantara, Accenture, Nokia, Symbian and Psion under his belt.
“With more than a third of the UK population visiting the Gumtree site each month, it’s imperative we have the technological infrastructure to support that,” Barry Frost, chief technology officer at Gumtree UK said.
“Arman and Alastair bring the expertise we require to support the business and help it grow – we’re delighted to welcome them to Richmond.”
