~ Keith Churchill - Resume ~

Builder   |   Leader   |   Innovator

Obsessed with solving meaningful problems, I bring a startup mindset to everything I do: move fast, build smart, and back it all with data. You’ll find me at the intersection of Networking, Machine Learning, and AI — where I advocate for automation, drive platform innovation, and unlock new possibilities through intelligent systems.

I’ve led high-performing engineering teams, delivered resilient microservices across multi-cloud environments, and helped challenger brands reshape industries with scalable, high-availability solutions. Whether predicting outcomes or surfacing hidden insights, I'm passionate about using data, ML, and AI to accelerate impact.

A natural collaborator and strong communicator, I lead from the front, manage expectations across C-level and board stakeholders, and bring clarity from strategy to execution. With a “can-do” attitude, practical problem-solving skills, and an eye for detail, I connect big-picture thinking with hands-on delivery — always focused on outcomes that matter.

• Commissioned and led the development of an Automation Framework that significantly accelerated product testing and validation. Reduced test execution time from hours to minutes, while delivering accurate failure diagnostics and reporting. This enabled faster issue identification, improved test turnaround, and shortened time-to-market for new product releases.
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• Successfully developed and productionised a machine learning model using a Density Function algorithm to detect ONTs operating outside normal optical signal thresholds. The model was deployed in a live environment and used to proactively identify at-risk customer connections, directly contributing to quality improvements across the Access Network.

• Designed and implemented an Access Network Availability metric by correlating syslog events with customer data from Salesforce to produce accurate monthly availability reporting. The insights enabled targeted identification of network segments contributing to prolonged outages, driving process improvements that reduced incident response times. As a result, overall network availability improved from 99.5% to 99.95%.

• Mentored team members to use Ansible to automate tasks. Demonstrated the value of writing idempotent tasks to check state before and after deployment, improving automation reliability and reducing downtime.

• Influenced the strategic re-architecture of an SD-WAN product into a Virtual Network Function (VNF), aligning it with emerging Software Defined Networking (SDN) capabilities and the evolving needs of the CSP for Edge Computing. This positioned the product for greater scalability, agility, and compatibility with future infrastructure.

• Designed and built a next-generation test rig leveraging Cisco TRex, an open-source traffic generator, integrated with CI/CD pipelines to enable rapid, automated code testing. This framework exposed critical gaps in network code quality, leading to faster bug identification, accelerated fixes, and significant product performance improvements.

CityFibre — Architect: Automation & Observability

Dates: September 2024 – Present

Reporting directly to the CTO, responsible for defining the architectural principles and strategy governing Network Observability, Automation, and AIOps.

Accountable for establishing scalable, data-driven frameworks that enhance network insight, operational efficiency, and service assurance.

Key Achievements:

> Strategic contributor to Network Management System (NMS) programme, leading the definition of requirements for performance monitoring, capacity planning, and alert management during the RFI/RFP process.

> Led the consolidation of legacy IT monitoring tools into a unified tactical NMS platform, streamlining operations, reducing tool sprawl, and improving data accessibility during the transition to a strategic solution.

> Invited guest speaker at ConnectedNorth 2025, where I participated in the panel “Maintaining a World-Class Network” and presented on the role of observability and data intelligence in modern network operations.

CityFibre — Engineering Manager: Operational Excellence

Dates: August 2021 – September 2024

Led two high-performing engineering teams focused on innovation, automation, and service assurance:

> Lab Team – responsible for product testing, validation, and certification of network technologies.

> Automation Team – responsible for Day 0 and Day 1 configuration automation of active network equipment, as well as broader process automation initiatives.

Accountable for the delivery of the Private Cloud platform, enabling strategic infrastructure capabilities across the organisation.

Key Achievements:

> Established and built two new engineering teams from the ground up, hiring top talent with deep technical expertise and strong collaborative mindsets.

> Commissioned and deployed an automation framework to accelerate product testing and validation, reducing test cycles from hours to minutes.

> Delivered the Universal CPE (uCPE) Private Cloud Platform, a strategic enabler for the product team to offer more flexible and cost-effective CPE solutions to customers.

> Developed and implemented the methodology for calculating Monthly Network Availability, a key operational KPI reported at Board level to measure service performance and reliability.

CityFibre — Senior Network Engineer

Dates: November 2019 – August 2021

Responsible for the design, implementation, and evolution of CityFibre’s Core MPLS network, with a strong focus on data-driven decision-making, automation, and mentoring.

Used machine learning models and operational data to enhance network insight and proactively improve service performance. Championed automation across the team, using Ansible to reduce manual effort and increase consistency in network configuration.

Key Achievements:

> Led vendor engagement and implementation of a Path Computation Engine (PCE), improving traffic engineering capabilities and optimising core path selection.

> Trained and deployed machine learning models to detect GPON segments with poor optical signal levels, enabling proactive intervention before customer impact.

> Automated BAU network tasks such as Metro Fibre and ENNI provisioning using Ansible, improving efficiency and reliability. Code was version-controlled and shared via Bitbucket to support collaboration and reuse across teams.

> Mentored team members on automation best practices, fostering a culture of knowledge-sharing and capability uplift within the engineering function.

Hybrid Access Technologies — Head of Infrastructure

Dates: November 2015 – October 2019

Hybrid Access is an industry leader in software-defined broadband bonding and optimisation technologies, delivering highly resilient virtual connections to business customers.

Led a team of Systems Engineers, with end-to-end responsibility for infrastructure projects, network architecture, and platform delivery. Accountable for timely project execution, operational stability, and infrastructure evolution in support of product innovation.

Key Achievements:

> Enhanced infrastructure consistency and security by automating common server onboarding tasks, reducing manual configuration errors and improving deployment speed.

> Designed and delivered a new data centre network architecture, including dark fibre connectivity between dual sites to support high availability and redundancy.

> Reduced operational expenditure by decommissioning a remote disaster recovery (DR) facility and migrating DR capabilities in-house.

> Implemented a multi-homed BGP network, significantly improving resilience, failover capability, and performance.

> Led the successful migration of company websites from a monolithic architecture to containerised microservices orchestrated by Kubernetes on Google Cloud Platform.

> Established secure multicloud VPN connectivity across the corporate network, Google Cloud, and AWS VPC environments.

> Deployed and maintained an OpenStack environment, enabling the core product to be delivered as a Virtualised Network Function (VNF) for integration with telecom operator environments.

Optinet (a division of Internet Solutions) — Head of Software Services and IT Infrastructure

Dates: December 2014 – August 2015

Optinet was the IT services division of MultiChoice Africa, owned by global media holding company NASPERS. The division was responsible for the core infrastructure — data centres, networks, and software platforms — powering digital broadcast and streaming services across the African continent.

Focused on infrastructure strategy, vendor management, and operational resilience during a period of significant organisational transformation.

Key Achievements:

> Renegotiated vendor SLAs during a merger with Internet Solutions, securing stricter service commitments and improved commercial terms to support the evolving business model.

> Led infrastructure asset separation during divestment, working closely with the finance team to validate net asset valuations and ensure accurate and compliant asset migration.

Optinet (a division of Internet Solutions) — Manager: Network Management Services

Dates: March 2006 – November 2014

Led and motivated a geographically distributed team of 12 network engineers across two regions in South Africa.

Responsible for end-to-end network operations, including performance monitoring, incident and change management, and network planning. Accountable for setting KPIs, defining work objectives, and creating training and development plans to uplift team capability.

Key Achievements:

> Led the design and rollout of South Africa’s first successful Uncapped Broadband ADSL network, establishing a global IP backbone with regional and international Points-of-Presence. The initial deployment was completed within 6 months, with rapid subscriber growth driving continued expansion over a 6-year period.

> Planned and delivered a national Dark Fibre rollout to support a large-scale company WiFi initiative, onboarding over 300 high-footfall sites within the first year. Worked across multiple vendors to optimise for cost, delivery, and route diversity.

> Built scalable data centre and backbone infrastructure to support the group’s content delivery strategy. Successfully hosted global content platforms including Google, Microsoft, Apple, Akamai, and CDNetworks, with peak distribution reaching 30 Gbps.