Team Spotlight: Keith Phimister

Welcome to Clue Software’s Team Spotlight, where we showcase the exceptional individuals behind our leading intelligence and investigation management software.

Today, we speak to Senior Release Manager, Keith Phimister.

Hi Keith, tell us a bit about your background? 

I studied Mechanical Engineering at university but preferred the robotics IT side of things. I trained as a developer and did that for the first half of my career. I then went into Non-functional testing and Release & Environment Management for the latter half. It has mostly been in the financial sector.  

What does your role at Clue entail (and how does it benefit customers)? 

As a Release Manager, I manage horizontally across the organisation how software gets delivered and when. A lot of collaboration is required to get the schedule, communications and delivery just right. I’ve worked in Service Teams before so am acutely aware of the impact it has when something doesn’t go to plan so I aim to get it right first time. 

What inspired you to pursue the career you have today? 

My father worked all his life for IBM (albeit in a non-technical role) and when school introduced us to BBC Micros (remember them?), I just liked that challenge of getting a solution to work. 

What excites you about working at Clue? 

Unlike a lot of my colleagues, it’s not an industry I’ve worked in before. I have had to work with Police enquiries and extract audit logs before to support investigations and was intrigued by the process. This was a chance to get my feet well and truly wet in that.

What’s your secret talent no one knows about?

Remembering numbers. I can remember my phone number from when I was 8 (I’m in house no.26 so that is a bit of an achievement!). We got locked out of a holiday home one time on a Scottish hillside (before the days of mobile phones). I was able to walk down to the nearest farmhouse and ask to borrow their phone as I had remembered the agent’s phone number. 

Tell me something about you that most people don’t know. 

Whilst not so active in this anymore, I liked to get vertical in kayaks on big rivers or the surf. At one point, I was ranked 23rd in the country for Canoe surfing! To be fair, that was out of 25 😉 

In terms of successes, which accomplishments are you most proud of? 

A few I can think of but most recently, my youngest son works in the Canadian Rockies and we (me, my wife and eldest son) went out there for his 21st birthday. I got back on a pair of skis on snow for the first time in 42 years and accompanied my 2 boys skiing without breaking anything!

Why do you enjoy working at Clue? 

It’s a vibrant and friendly place to work. I was brought up with strong ethics and it’s fascinating to be able to work for such a worthy industry.  

If you’re interested in joining Keith and the team at Clue, head over to our careers page to view current vacancies.