Mr Christopher Robb

Biography

Christopher graduated in 2010 with a BSc in Computing Science, specialising in software development, project management, and web development.

He joined the university in 2011 as part of the Service Desk team, providing first-line support and leading key projects, including migrating the incident tracking system to a virtualised environment and developing the MyIT self-service platform. In 2013, he moved into the Server Infrastructure team, where he managed server deployments and operations, and drove initiatives such as implementing a secure password management system, deployed a centrally managed antivirus solution for Linux servers, and enhancing student identity management with Microsoft Identity Manager, cutting days off the student onboarding process.

In 2022, Christopher was appointed Technical Lead within Digital Research, where he:

• Leads the university’s High Performance Computing (HPC) service as service owner, overseeing infrastructure upgrades, optimising resource allocation, and ensuring service security and reliability to support a wide range of research activities.
• Chairs the HPC Stakeholders Group, working closely with researchers to align service improvements with evolving computational needs.
• Manages the researcher virtual server sandbox environment, providing a flexible and secure platform for computational workloads and server/service hosting outside of the main corporate VM infrastructure.
• Develops and evaluates new research IT solutions, exploring emerging technologies to enhance the university’s research computing capabilities.
• Leads the Digital Research technical team, line-managing staff, supporting their professional development, and overseeing day-to-day operations.
• Sits on several project boards, contributing to research IT strategy, service development, and interdisciplinary initiatives.
• Is an active member of the Operational Security Working Group, helping to shape security policies, assess risks, and implement best practices across IT services.