Where it started — no formal training, just curiosity

My first job in IT, December 1999 — no formal training, just curiosity about computers and a referral from a friend already working there.

Grupo ECIL

A newspaper ad, a psychometric test, and six months before I ever touched IT

Hired at BFA in 2004 through a newspaper ad and a psychometric test, then parked at a branch counter for six months before finally moving into IT.

Banco de Fomento Angola

Hired at Angola LNG, three years after I helped build its first servers

The year Angola LNG hired me directly, after three years of building and migrating its systems from the outside as a consultant they could not make an offer to.

Foundation Year

One year inside a five-year stretch the record has not yet broken apart

2014 sits inside the 2013–2018 Server Administrator years at Angola LNG — a period the interview record currently treats as one block, not twelve separate years.

Governance & Operations

2015 sits inside the same 2013–2018 Server Administrator years as 2014 and 2016 — the record doesn't yet distinguish between them.

Reliability & Monitoring

2016 sits inside the same 2013–2018 Server Administrator years as 2014 and 2015 — the record doesn't yet distinguish between them.

Audit, Patch & Security Hygiene

The year that was one long Microsoft program

A large Microsoft program covering several updates, upgrades and new technology, with the move from Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 to Windows Server 2016 at the centre of it.

Modernization Under Pressure

A town hall, a new team, and a title I had not asked for

A company restructuring during an industry-wide layoff wave created a new team, moved the Architect position into it, and named me to fill it — which landed as anxiety rather than as good news.

Transition & Consolidation

The title arrived first; the becoming took much longer

My first full year carrying the Architect title, still inside the stretch of feeling lost that began with the restructuring and did not close for years.

Becoming an Architect

The first thing from these years that exists as an actual document

In 2020 I authored the Angola LNG Microsoft Identity Management SLA — the first piece of paperwork from these years that exists as a real, dated document rather than only my own account of it.

Writing the Identity SLA

The document from 2020, closed out with a signature

The Microsoft Identity Management SLA I authored in 2020 carries a digital signature dated 23 April 2021 — the same document, its second confirmed date.

Signing the Identity SLA

A technical-debt assessment, and reviews that started spanning platforms

In 2022 I presented a formal enterprise-architecture assessment on technical debt and roadmap, and multi-platform architecture reviews became a running practice rather than a one-off.

The Rise of Architecture-as-a-Service

The year I drafted the review process I later expanded

I drafted the first version of the Enterprise Architecture Review Process in 2023, and completed the ISO/IEC 27001 Foundation certification that matters most to me. The version of the process the company runs on now was not formalized and expanded until the 2025 masterclass and after.

The Formalization of Enterprise Architecture

Four professional posts, and reviews that kept spanning platforms

Between 2024 and 2026 I published four pieces on LinkedIn — data protection, business continuity, sustainability, and knowledge-sharing — while the multi-platform architecture reviews that started in 2022 kept running.

Writing in Public

A career development plan, and a step into data and identity

In 2025 I completed an Individual Career Development Plan setting out concrete goals, organised an enterprise-architecture masterclass, and my own record of the work shows me expanding into data architecture and modern identity architecture.

Data, Identity & The New Digital Foundations

No new title, no transition plan — just the work, and now I can say what it is

My profile has said for a while that I am in transition toward enterprise architecture. The honest version in 2026 is that there is no new title and no transition plan — there is real governance work, already under way.