ABOUT STEVEN SHARP
Infrastructure support.
Engineering delivery. AWS capability.
My background is infrastructure support and IT operations, with 20+ years in IT support, including ten years at NHS Business Services Authority. I have built production servers, restored services, delivered deployment tooling and led a migration workstream. I now apply that operational experience to practical AWS delivery.
At NHSBSA, while my official titles included Senior Service Desk Analyst, my responsibilities extended into infrastructure support, major incidents and controlled change, alongside a dedicated Server Engineer secondment. The examples below show the systems I worked on, the actions I took and the operational results.
What I have built and operated.
Production infrastructure
During my Server Engineer secondment at NHSBSA (November 2016–November 2017), I built and configured Hyper-V virtual servers for production services, maintained Active Directory and Group Policy, verified backups and supported patching and maintenance windows.
I diagnosed an intermittent production server motherboard fault, executed failover to the high-availability standby and coordinated warranty repair and return to service.
Change and operational ownership
In my Senior Service Desk Analyst role (2022–2024), my infrastructure support and operations responsibilities included leading an AD-to-Entra ID migration workstream: risk analysis, testing, deployment, fault resolution and post-go-live support, coordinating engineers, suppliers and users up to C-suite level.
My responsibilities combined hands-on troubleshooting with incident coordination, escalation ownership, runbooks and mentoring. PowerShell supported day-to-day diagnostics and repeatable administration.
The engineering behind the results.
Recovery designed into the workflow
I designed, built and maintained a Windows Deployment Services imaging solution over Ethernet so the service desk could rebuild devices in-house. The availability initiative I led reduced high-impact device turnaround from around five days to two hours, with annual productivity value above £100K.
The productivity value reflects reduced staff downtime and faster return to work.
Continuity under pressure
During a major backbone outage affecting hundreds of customers, I coordinated a secure connectivity workaround to restore cloud-hosted telephony for a 24-person contact centre within 30 minutes. I secured Director approval, coordinated rollout and supplied offline call-logging sheets while the core ITSM system was unavailable.
I also owned SOP and runbook standards that helped increase first-time fix from 25% to 66% and customer satisfaction from around 45% to 75%.
Recent AWS work: practical delivery.
Since September 2024, following voluntary redundancy from the NHS, I have expanded my infrastructure support experience into AWS through self-funded study, certification, pro-bono delivery and self-directed projects. The work below was for small businesses, solopreneurs and personal or professional contacts.
Controlled video delivery
Requirement: host around 350GB of educational video content and integrate with a third-party distribution platform, supporting peak streaming of around 250GB per month.
My implementation: an S3 video origin, AWS Elemental MediaConvert transcoding, signed-URL delivery, DNS/TLS configuration and source-media backup. I produced storage, transcoding and bandwidth cost modelling and operational handover documentation.
Design priorities: controlled access to content, protection of source media and a supportable delivery workflow. Cost modelling indicated approximately 50% lower projected ongoing overhead.
Secure media archiving
Delivered around 80GB of S3 storage with lifecycle policies to Glacier Deep Archive. A lightweight web front end used time-limited pre-signed URLs for controlled uploads, supported by MFA, least-privilege access, encryption and handover notes.
Small-business hosting
Delivered a WordPress and WooCommerce platform on AWS Lightsail, including domain and DNS configuration, TLS certificates and an admin security baseline. Documented the operational handover for day-to-day management.
Career progression.
2024–present · AWS infrastructure projects
Pro-bono and self-directed cloud delivery, certification and practical development.
2014–2024 · NHS Business Services Authority
2nd Line Remote Support (2014–2018); Server Engineer secondment (2016–2017); Senior Customer Resolution Centre Analyst (2018–2022); Senior Service Desk Analyst (2022–2024), with infrastructure support and operations responsibilities.
2006–2014 · Dixons Retail
Knowhow Desk Supervisor and Technician. Led a four-person support team and mentored sales colleagues in technical knowledge and solution-led conversations.
Credentials and continued development.
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Issued September 2025 · Valid to September 2028.
Verify my AWS credentials on Credly →
Additional learning includes AWS Well-Architected Proficient and HarvardX CS50: Introduction to Databases with SQL. Current development includes practical Terraform exercises and further AWS operations and security study.
Let’s discuss your infrastructure.
For a role specification, a copy of my CV or a conversation about the work above, email me or connect on LinkedIn.