Rich Hay

I’m an engineer at heart. Twenty-five years in, I still get the same buzz from shipping something that works — and that’s held true whether I’m deep in the foundations or right up at the sharp end with users.

My career has been spent moving between those two worlds. On one side, building the platforms teams depend on — the data platforms and data science platforms that turn messy, scattered data into something people can actually build on. On the other, building the applications that are the “tip of the spear”: the products where the engineering finally meets a real person trying to get something done. Understanding how both fit together — the plumbing and the point — is where I do my best work.

I founded bigspark to do that properly: to build platforms and products with real engineering craft, and to work shoulder-to-shoulder with our clients’ teams rather than throwing decks over the fence.

Right now I’m all-in on AI — not the hype, the engineering. How you build AI systems that are reliable, that earn trust, and that genuinely move the needle for a business. It’s the most exciting shift I’ve seen in 25 years, and it’s where I’m putting my energy.