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Manuel Villarejo
IT Director & Enterprise Engineering Leader
Enterprise engineering leader with 19 years designing and scaling internal technology platforms, enterprise integrations, and automation for high-growth organisations. Currently Director of IT at Expenti, setting enterprise technology strategy and cascading business objectives into department-level OKRs across a post-carve-out organisation — from ERP and HRIS integrations to agentic AI automation. Brings a buy-or-build philosophy — defaulting to integration and configuration but leveraging agentic AI to deliver bespoke automation where no off-the-shelf solution fits — hands-on M&A and carve-out programme experience across corporate separations, divestitures, and spin-offs, and a strong compliance track record (ISO 27001 — 5+ audit cycles) — with a consistent record of treating internal technology as a product that drives business outcomes. MBA with Distinction, Imperial College London.
Experience
My Professional Journey
A timeline of my career progression and key milestones.
2024
Director of IT
Expenti.com
Málaga, Spain
- Defined the annual technology strategy and cascaded business objectives into department-level OKRs, aligning Engineering, Product, and Operations around shared outcomes and establishing cross-functional accountability
- Led IT through a corporate carve-out — building the entire function from 12 to 25 engineers for a newly independent gaming organisation of 250 employees, establishing governance, vendor management, and service operations from the ground up
- Migrated and integrated all core enterprise systems — Microsoft 365, Slack, JIRA/Confluence, HiBob (HRIS), TravelPerk, SAGE (ERP) — with SSO and RBAC rollout and end-to-end user provisioning, onboarding, and offboarding for the entire workforce transitioning from the parent organisation
- +6 more highlights
2023
Director of Engineering and Architecture
TheWorkshop.com
Málaga, Spain
- Led digital transformation and consolidation of engineering across Europe and APAC, directing a team of 90 engineers across disciplines and seniorities
- Directed the full technology carve-out and separation programme following corporate divestiture — replicating and integrating all core enterprise services on-premise to ensure operational continuity across Europe and APAC
- Delivered a multi-year infrastructure and software modernisation programme across Europe and APAC — OpenStack/VMware cloud, NetApp storage, SD-WAN, network refresh, and Dynamics 365 migration — ensuring platform resilience and operational continuity
- +3 more highlights
2020
Head of IT
TheWorkshop.com
Málaga, Spain
- Rebuilt the IT function from 20 engineers following a corporate restructuring, scaling to 60 IT professionals across Europe and the UK and modernising operations with Agile delivery squads with follow-the-sun coverage across Europe and APAC
- Secured three consecutive ISO 27001 certifications, building the repeatable information security management programme later extended across subsequent organisations
- Designed and maintained IT governance, risk management, and change management frameworks across a globally distributed organisation
- +1 more highlights
2018
Head of Infrastructure
TheWorkshop.com
Málaga, Spain
- Restructured and modernised infrastructure across virtualisation, storage, network, and security domains, improving platform resilience and reducing operational risk
- Managed vendor selection, procurement, and contract governance for infrastructure refresh programmes
- Established change management and business continuity processes, improving infrastructure resilience and reducing incident impact
2015
Monitoring and Corporate Tooling Manager
TheWorkshop.com
Málaga, Spain
- Managed Atlassian Jira/Confluence suite for 2,000+ users across HR, finance, engineering, and operations
- Built the organisation's monitoring stack from scratch (Prometheus, Loki, Grafana, InfluxDB, New Relic, Elastic APM, AppDynamics APM, Icinga), taking it from zero to full-stack real-time detection and alerting across on-premise products and infrastructure
- Led vendor evaluation and tooling strategy for enterprise monitoring and corporate productivity platforms
2013
DevOps Engineer
TheWorkshop.com
Málaga, Spain
- Supported the core platform team across 500+ products using Java and Atlassian CI/CD stack (Bamboo, Bitbucket, JIRA)
- Developed a critical configuration management component adopted across all company products
- Introduced initial CI/CD pipelines and change management practices, working cross-functionally with engineering, QA, product, and project management
2012
DevOps & Monitoring Engineer
Riplife Technologies
Málaga, Spain
- Rebuilt monitoring infrastructure across 5+ data centres covering distributed corporate and enterprise systems
- Implemented initial CI/CD pipelines and full change management practices for core platform and bonus team products
2011
Senior Linux Administrator
IGT
Gibraltar
- Delivered IGT's first cloud service in Europe — from a greenfield facility to a fully operational custom-built data centre in 12 months
- Designed and built Linux server infrastructure and systems for a cloud-hosted gaming platform from scratch
2010
Technical Project Manager
Stan James
Gibraltar
- Led technical project management of a video streaming solution integration with a major streaming provider
2006
IT System Administrator / Network Engineer
Stan James
Gibraltar
- Managed on-premise distributed platform spanning three locations
2006
IT Engineer
Tellonline
Spain
Education
Academic Background
My formal education and academic achievements.
MBA with Distinction
Imperial College London
Imperial Business School
Imperial Business School
London, United Kingdom • 2024 - 2025
BSc (Hons)
UMA - Universidad de Málaga
Computer Systems Engineering
Computer Systems Engineering
Málaga, Spain • 2001 - 2005
Skills
Core Competencies
Technical expertise and professional capabilities.
Strategy & Programme Delivery
IT Strategy & Roadmap Planning, M&A & Carve-out Programme Management, Complex Programme Delivery, Globally Distributed Team Leadership (Europe, APAC, UK)
Enterprise Architecture & Integration
Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Integration (ERP, HRIS, CRM), Digital Transformation, Cloud Platforms (GCP, AWS, Azure), Microsoft 365 (M365), Infrastructure Modernisation
Compliance & Governance
ISO 27001 (5+ audit cycles), GDPR & Data Protection, IT Governance, Risk Management, Change Management, Business Continuity & DR, Vendor Management
Leadership & Operations
Team Leadership & Coaching, Stakeholder Management, Budget & P&L Management, IT Service Management (ITSM — Jira SM, Freshdesk, ManageEngine), Agile, DevOps, ITIL, SLA & KPI Management
Emerging Technologies
Agentic AI & Workflow Automation, Generative AI, AI-Powered Internal Products (Claude Code, agent-based frameworks), AIOps, Human-Centred Design
Certifications
Professional Credentials
Industry-recognized certifications and qualifications.
- ✓Lean IT Foundation & Lean IT Kaizen — Lean IT Association (2017)
- ✓Scrum Master — Scrum Alliance (2016)
- ✓ITIL Foundation — ITIL (2016)
- ✓PRINCE2 Foundation — ILX Group (2010)
- ✓Technical foundation: RHCSA, CCNA Security, MCTS 2008, CCNA, MCSE 2003
Languages
Communication
Languages I speak and my proficiency level.
English
Full Professional
Spanish
Native
Interests
Beyond Work
What I enjoy outside of technology and leadership.
- AI and life automation — applying agentic tools and smart systems to home and daily routines
- Travel, the sea, and adventure with two young kids
Get in Touch
Let's Connect
Have a project in mind? I'm available for consultation and collaboration.
or reach me at mjvillarejo@gmail.com