About
Clearroute

We're a global engineering consultancy that unlocks multi-million-pound value from enterprises' engineering function.

Our QCE engineers revolutionise the Route to Live using our proprietary QCE framework – freeing teams to move faster, innovate better, and compete more.

Millions
in unlocked value
150+
employees
10+
Years
founding team together
7
Global offices
Our route
to live
For over a decade, ClearRoute’s founding team worked together as leaders in high-profile consultancies at the forefront of modern digital engineering.

They saw lots going right – and plenty that could be better.

car going down road
Milestone

Transformation often stalled because enterprises lacked a holistic, systematic view across the end-to-end Route to Live.

Change efforts were often myopic, siloed, and fragmented and couldn’t cope with...

...the vast complexity and interdependencies that are most enterprises’ operating reality.

ClearRoute's founders also spotted a major missing link: developer experience.

Increasing headcount was often treated as an expensive Hail Mary against dwindling productivity – without tackling the underlying problems causing friction and frustration.

So the team started ClearRoute, built around a holistic Quality Cloud Engineering vision.

Armed with the QCE framework, our multi-skilled QCE engineers help enterprises build a fast, friction-free engineering function that delivers impact faster.
Skip
1960
Development of early mainframe computers; enterprise computing begins with batch processing.
1969
UNIX is created, becoming the foundation for modern operating systems.
1970
Relational databases (e.g., Oracle, IBM DB2) emerge, enabling enterprise data management.
Foundations of Modern Computing
1983
Dev/Test Separation formalized, marking the start of distinct development and operations roles.
1991
Agile Manifesto concepts emerge (formalized in 2001), focusing on collaboration, customer feedback, and iterative development.
1995
Java is released, becoming a standard language for enterprise software.

SCRUM framework introduced by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, emphasizing iterative and incremental development.
Rise of Enterprise Software Development
1997
VMware founded, revolutionizing virtualization and enabling multiple OS instances on a single machine.
From Agile to Automation
2001
Agile Manifesto formally published, solidifying iterative and customer-focused development.
2003
Selenium is released as one of the first tools for browser-based test automation.
2004
Infrastructure as Code (IaC) concepts emerge with the introduction of tools like CFEngine.
2005
BDD (Behavior-Driven Development) introduced by Dan North, bridging the gap between developers and non-technical stakeholders.

AWS (Amazon Web Services) launches its first services, pioneering cloud computing.
From Agile to Automation
2006
Google’s SRE model formalized by Ben Treynor Sloss, marking the birth of SRE.
2009
DevOps term coined by Patrick Debois, focusing on collaboration between development and operations.

SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) role gains popularity, emphasizing automation and code-driven testing.
2011
Netflix Chaos Monkey released, promoting resilience engineering through failure injection.
2013
First Docker release, making containerization mainstream.
2014
Kubernetes open-sourced by Google, becoming the standard for container orchestration.
2015
Terraform released, becoming a leading IaC framework.
The DevOps Era
2017
GitOps introduced by Weaveworks, advocating for declarative infrastructure and CI/CD pipelines using Git.
tick
Blameless Postmortems become a cultural standard in SRE and DevOps organizations.
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Error Budgets introduced as a key reliability metric..
tick
Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) gains widespread adoption as automation tools like Jenkins, CircleCI, and GitHub Actions mature.
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Observability becomes a focus with tools like Prometheus, Grafana, and Datadog enabling better monitoring and incident response.
2020
SRE practices gain widespread adoption across industries, becoming integral to modern enterprise software delivery.
Modern SRE and Beyond
2022
Quality Cloud Engineering (QCE) established by ClearRoute.
2023
AI/ML in Ops begins to augment SRE with predictive analysis and automated incident remediation.
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A new type of role: The Quality Cloud Engineer

Engineers tend towards ever-narrowing specialisation, creating inefficient skills overlap and hall-of-mirrors handovers that slow progress. Enterprise engineering operations become bloated and slow, with teams pulling in different directions.

The QCE framework isn’t just a lens to drive change. It’s also a blueprint for a more effective, efficient engineering role that’s built for software delivery performance: the QCE engineer.

Our multi-skilled QCE engineers bring broad and deep expertise across the whole QCE framework. This holistic expertise creates a layer that connects siloes, dismantles obstacles, and creates a shared language — to help teams get better at getting stuff done.

It’s the engineering function of the future.

Our leadership team

Charlie

Charlie Whaley
Chief Executive Office

Charlie is the visionary CEO and co-founder of ClearRoute, where he leads the company’s mission to help enterprises transform their route to live. With a career defined by scaling technology businesses, Charlie brings a proven track record in commercial acumen, deep technical insight, and an entrepreneurial spirit.

Before founding ClearRoute, Charlie built one of the UK’s leading Continuous Testing consultancies, driving rapid growth that led to a successful acquisition. He then joined the leadership team of a digital transformation consultancy, where—alongside ClearRoute’s founding team—he spearheaded a remarkable 985% growth in just four years, culminating in a £35M exit to a US-based digital services company in 2020.

These days, Charlie’s focused on building ClearRoute into a world-class team—setting the vision, backing his people, and partnering with clients to unlock real results through modern cloud and AI solutions.

Charlie Whaley
Chief Executive Office

Philipp

Philipp Blum
Chief Operating Officer

Family is where Chief Operating Officer and founding member of ClearRoute, Philipp Blum, draws his strength, values and motivation.

This grounding, combined with a relentless drive shaped by his time as a professional canoeist, has fuelled a long-standing ability to step outside his comfort zone.Doing so has delivered exceptional results. Philipp led one of the largest vendor implementations at his previous company, an outcome that generated $10 million in recurring annual revenue.

Doing so has delivered exceptional results. Philipp led the Customer Success organisation, driving the successful delivery of a £60M+ annual, outcome-based portfolio; supporting the team consistently exceeding client value expectations.

Philipp is currently in training for his second marathon where he is applying the lessons learnt last year to power progress in his next attempt.

Philipp Blum
Chief Operating Officer

Sarndeep

Sarndeep Nijjar
Chief Technology Officer

Sarndeep Nijjar co-founded ClearRoute with a simple but powerful belief: that the path from idea to live product can—and should—be faster, cleaner, and more human. With a background leading large-scale engineering and DevOps transformations across banking, trading, and enterprise tech, Sarndeep brings both technical credibility and strategic clarity to everything ClearRoute does.

What sets him apart is a deep commitment to building not just great systems, but great cultures. He believes high performance comes from high trust—and that delivery velocity, quality, and team wellbeing are all connected. His focus on capability-led change has helped some of the world’s most complex organisations rethink how they deliver, and his leadership style blends calm, curiosity, and conviction in equal measure.

Outside of ClearRoute, Sarndeep finds energy in Muay Thai and football, both of which bring the discipline and flow that show up in his work. He’s also passionate about doing right by people—whether that’s mentoring talent, giving second chances, or creating space for others to thrive. Looking ahead, Sarndeep is energised by ClearRoute’s growing global footprint and the opportunity to shape the future of software delivery.

His mission remains the same: build a team that clients love working with, and a culture where exceptional people do their best work.

Sarndeep Nijjar
Chief Technology Officer

Jason

Jason Man
Global Head of Consulting

As Global Head of Consulting, Jason Man brings a deep understanding of engineering best- practices across the software development life cycle, having worked in a number of different sectors and markets. He plays a significant role in helping customers understand and leverage the full value of ClearRoute which has contribute to ClearRoute’s rapid growth. He has also led engineering teams of over 100 professionals across various sectors.

Jason’s recent experience includes leading dozens of value stream maps, developing an automated deployment system for North America's largest retail chain, and creating a self-service platform for a Nordic bank. He remains committed to learning, supporting his team, and delivering value for clients.

Outside of work, Jason is a proud father of three. His family values align with our company's emphasis on teamwork and collaboration, fostering a supportive environment where everyone can grow and succeed together.

Jason Man
Global Head of Consulting

Arina

Arina Krapivina
Head of Operations & Finance

Arina is a seasoned Business Operations and Finance specialist with over 8 years of experience in the IT and professional services industry. She has a diverse background working in companies of varying sizes, from start-ups to global corporations and unicorn companies. In her previous roles, she has developed a reputation for building and optimizing operations and finance practices from scratch. She has successfully established and nurtured teams, transforming them into fully self-sufficient functions capable of supporting highly demanding and bustling teams in delivery and sales functions.

Arina is passionate about fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. She aims to create sustainable business practices that enable organizations to thrive in an ever-evolving landscape.

Arina has a proven track record of success in building and optimizing operations and finance functions from scratch, leading teams to successfully deliver projects on time and within budget, developing new performance management systems, and implementing new risk management frameworks. She is a highly motivated and experienced leader with a deep understanding of the operations and finance functions. She is also an effective communicator and relationship builder.

Arina Krapivina
Head of Operations & Finance

Matthew

Matthew Lowry
Global Head of Technology and Solutions

Global Head of Technology Matt Lowry’s expertise lies in dissecting challenges and identifying patterns and fixes that others may miss.

He uses technology to solve complex business problems in a way that replaces confusion with clarity. At ClearRoute, he designs scalable solutions that work across all industries, helping our engineering teams break through challenges with ease.

His belief is simple: technical leadership isn’t just about understanding systems — it’s about understanding people. Both require listening, empathy and a response that is more thoughtful than reactive. This philosophy shapes how he build teams at ClearRoute —focusing on potential and passion rather than conventional markers of expertise.

Music, being outdoors and disconnecting from tech play a big role in Matt’s sense of wellbeing. He sees himself as a bridge between today's challenges and tomorrow's possibilities and is committed to keeping ClearRoute at the forefront of digital as it evolves.

Matthew Lowry
Global Head of Technology and Solutions

Gemma

Gemma Simmons
Global Head of Talent

As Global Head of Talent, Gemma Simmons says the favourite part of her job is giving people the chance to work with an outstanding team and watching as they thrive.

Her positive, can-do approach and ability to find exceptional people has played a fundamental role in ClearRoute’s growth. A huge advocate for working parents, Gemma’s number one passion is motherhood and she feels privileged to be working in a team that shares this passion and understands the demands of balancing work with being a parent. Having that support has meant she has been able to progress in her career while never missing special moments with her son.

Looking to the future, Gemma is excited to be playing an integral role in our expanding our business. She is also curious to see what changes AI will bring to the world of talent acquisition as it evolves.

Gemma Simmons
Global Head of Talent

James

James Jarvis
Chief Revenue Officer

James brings an entrepreneurial, "anything is possible" mindset that has been instrumental in ClearRoute’s success. He has a track record of winning major clients like Commonwealth Bank, Barclays, and Avis, and forging key partnerships with leaders like Google. James draws on senior experience at Thoughtworks, Symantec, and UST, where he helped secure logos now generating over £100M annually.

As a Board member of ECS, he helped drive its £120M sale to Global Logic, and he successfully founded and exited Conversion Consulting to a US lead generation firm.

Recognised as a top commercial leader, James has built high-performing global teams, delivered millions in revenue, and opened new markets across the US, Europe, and Australia.A proud supporter of the MacLean brothers’ Pacific rowing expedition for clean water access, James brings that same spirit to ClearRoute, where family values and going the extra mile are part of the culture.

James Jarvis
Chief Revenue Officer

Glyn

Glyn Darkin
Global Head of Delivery

Having worked as a cold caller, marketer and lead engineer in several start-ups to Chief Architect in a Global SI, Glyn Darkin’s jack-of-all-trades aptitude and engineer’s mindset is a winning combination in his role as Global Head of Delivery. Quick to grasp the most convoluted business issue, he has an impressive track record of using technology to solve client problems.His past achievements include developing an award-winning digital mortgage product for a leading bank, and building TescoEntertainment.com.

Fascinated by AI, Glyn’s current obsession is staying ahead of the sweeping changes. At home, he spends his evenings coding to fully understand how the technology will affect not only ClearRoute’s ways of working, but the types of products and platforms we implement for our customers.

Glyn’s hobbies are restoring classic cars and renovating properties, reflecting his yearning for new challenges and honing his persistence and determination to get things done.

Glyn Darkin
Global Head of Delivery

James

James Gordon
Legal Counsel

James is our commercially minded Legal Counsel. Having spent 30 years as a commercial, corporate and litigation expert James has been a Board Member of a top 20 UK law firm and CEO of a P/E backed West End firm. He is entrepreneurial having founded, built and sold two claims management firms. He has been a Non-Executive Director of aerospace and autosport businesses. James is a Non-Executive Director of ClearRoute and brings his vast experience to guide the business through its rapid growth.

James Gordon
Legal Counsel

Kouros

Kouros Aliabadi
Global Head of Engineering

Kouros has throughout his career been fascinated by what’s possible when technology and business come together. He has been the driving force in some of the UKs most successful digital transformations.

Helping enterprise organisations move to agile operating models, adopt test first, cloud native development approaches and revolutionise the way they operate through DevOps and SRE.

With a reputation for creating innovative, highly technical engineering teams he helped to build a world class engineering team at a leading Agile Transformation consultancy, growing their capability and reputation in Continuous Testing, DevOps, Cloud & Digital Transformation until its acquisition.

Kouros Aliabadi
Global Head of Engineering

Jude

Jude Jarvis
Global Brand Director

Global Brand Director Jude Jarvis has worked in many different areas of marketing for leading advertising agencies and global brand consultancies.She is also an entrepreneur, having launched her own cosmetics company and grown it into a global business.

A mix of logic and creativity underpins her drive to understand people and what motivates them and their behaviour. This, Jude believes, has been fundamental to her success in marketing, and her passion for brand strategy.

She has been with ClearRoute since 2024 and her expertise in Challenger brand development, creative communications, and digital strategy, has helped shape the articulation of the company’s purpose and sharpen its identity.

When not working, she can be found cycling across Cuba for breast cancer or in school governor meetings. Jude is married, has two children and loves walking the dogs under the big Suffolk skies, music, art and spending time messing about in boats.

Jude Jarvis
Global Brand Director

Emma

Emma Cumming
Global Head of People and Culture

Global Head of People and Culture, Emma Cumming's person-centric approach began during her time as a SENDCo, supporting teenagers with learning difficulties in schools. This background in educational psychology shaped her focus on understanding and supporting people in corporate environments, which was then transformed during Covid-19. As walls came tumbling down and leaders began seeing the whole employee — their home lives, responsibilities and personal challenges — it taught Emma the power of acknowledging our shared humanity and life beyond work. She believes when business relationships are based on genuine human connection they are stronger, and that when people feel seen and heard, they are better motivated.

When the best fixes often emerge from diverse thinking, Emma is now dedicated to creating more opportunities for people from underrepresented backgrounds.

In her personal life, she enjoys running, swimming, going to the gym, walking, reading and listening to music.

Emma Cumming
Global Head of People and Culture

Vanita

Vanita Elliott
Global Head of Strategic Projects

Vanita brings a global perspective shaped by her journey from a small Indian town to Singapore, Australia, and Scotland. Early in her career, she launched and scaled three UK-based IT delivery centres in Asia—fueling a passion for turning ambiguity into opportunity and growth.

At ClearRoute, she joined a nimble team with bold ambitions. Her vision and drive helped build a world-class delivery centre in India—an initiative that grew far beyond its original scope to become one of the company’s most impactful global hubs. As the centre scaled rapidly, Vanita led key efforts in governance and sustainability, expanding both the organisation’s capabilities and her own leadership journey.

Her life has been shaped by meaningful connections—with travellers, storytellers, and communities worldwide. Though she no longer ties “home” to one place, she finds belonging in shared purpose. Her personal ethos is closely aligned with ClearRoute’s commitment to human connection and collective success—championing a culture where people grow together, thrive together, and truly belong.

Vanita Elliott
Global Head of Strategic Projects
Charlie GORDON
Legal Counsel
Philipe GORDON
Developer
James GORDON
Developer
Sarndeep GORDON
Legal Counsel

join us...?

Delivering impact rests on hiring brilliant, diverse, opinionated people, then building a culture and environment where that melting pot of talent thrives. We’ve won awards — and unlocked extraordinary value for some of the world’s leading organisations — to prove that philosophy works.

See what it’s like working here. We’re always looking for great people to help us keep delivering impact.
race car

Official Digital Engineering Partner 2025 for United Autosports

We’re the official Digital Engineering Partner for world-championship-winning global motorsports organisation United Autosports, bringing groundbreaking technical expertise that helps the team carve out an edge on-track.

Combining United’s mechanical engineering brilliance with our cutting-edge software engineering expertise, we’re thrilled to be part of the team’s explosive success story.

Proud sponsors of elite racing driver Paul Di Resta

ClearRoute’s teams apply passion, drive, and technical excellence to remove barriers, unlock incremental gains, and move faster. Paul does exactly the same.

We couldn’t be prouder to sponsor him as he contests the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship with Peugeot and the 2025 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with United Autosports.
3 men on boat

Sponsoring the Maclean Brothers’ 9000 mile non-stop Pacific row

We’ve always been proud to stand for breaking new ground, thinking big, and making waves. With a planned row of 9,000 miles non-stop and unsupported across the full Pacific Ocean to raise money for clean water projects across the world, the Maclean Brothers are certainly doing that. We’re honoured to support them.

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