Peter joined the HGS Digital team in early 2019 as Executive Director – Cloud Sales, in the sales department. He left two years later for a few months before returning as part of the Delivery team in 2022. He is currently a Delivery Manager for Cloud at the HGS Digital team.

1. What are you currently working on?

For the last 15 months I have been working as Program/Project Manager to enable Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for a major American health insurance provider. As a very large healthcare organization, cloud usage at the company requires compliance with many policies, procedures, regulations, and laws that limit what services can be used, as well as how and by whom they are used. It was my job to couple Google best practices with our team’s cloud experience to navigate those restrictions and coordinate with many other teams at the health insurance company and Google to enable the use of GCP for application teams on the client’s side.

2. How do you maintain strong work relationships in a hybrid environment?

Transparency is key. When people are stuck on an issue and working remotely, it’s very easy to try and get past it alone and lose track of the big picture. It is critical to communicate openly and often to encourage an environment of collaboration and work together to solve problems instead, which leads to better teamwork.

3. What do you like most about working in the HGS Digital team?

The culture of flexibility and adapting to the needs of the business. At first this was difficult to understand and adjust to, as I started in sales and my role was pretty clear. However, being allowed the opportunity to change course and become a Project Manager, and then successfully deliver a substantial project with one of our valued clients has been an amazing experience.

4. What have been your top three learnings as part of the HGS Digital team?

Making clients happy is our bread and butter, and being able to communicate effectively with them and with HGS management yields tremendous dividends. Second, cross-training is extremely valuable. Learning skills that are not necessarily part of your current role can really help the company. Third, we are all in sales. Maintaining that attitude of helping to look for that next opportunity for those of us not in sales roles is vital for the health of our future business.

5. What are some skills you’d like to pick up in the next year or two?

I would like to continue to increase my skills in project and program management as well as Agile. I aim to complete my PMP and the next Scrum Master certification (PSM II). Also, everyone is talking about AI, and I would like to get specific with my skills in that area and delve into how AI will be affecting application teams’ use of AWS, GCP, and Azure.

6. What is your pro tip for people just starting out?

Always be learning, and always be ready to raise your hand and say, “I can do that.” The needs of our clients can change very quickly, and we need to be ready to adapt to help them with those changes.