Charlotte Walters

Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK in 2025.

Charlotte (Charlie) Walters has worked in tech for 27 years in a range of roles, primarily across software delivery but also operations at large insurance and finance corporates, as well as in a VR start-up.

Charlie’s speciality of managing transformational change and agile ways of working has allowed her to deliver on what she truly values: building high performing teams and delivering efficient, resilient and reliable services. She also seeks to foster diversity and inclusion in the tech industry through volunteer roles such as being an ambassador for Everywoman, as a careers enterprise advisor for local schools and for One Million Mentors.

What's the most exciting part of your current role?

The opportunity to bring about an engineering uplift transformation of 4,000 team members in CTOi to be more focused on an engineering mindset.

What do you consider your greatest IT achievement of the last 12 months?

In October 2024, HSBC’s strategy for the 30% engineering uplift programme pivoted: team members were no longer transitioning into the central engineering team to be trained (wash in, wash out style), but were to be upskilled while remaining within their existing, specialist infrastructure domain.

Due to my experience in transformational change and engineering uplift, I was asked to lead and reshape the people development programme for 4,000 team members (engineers and technicians) in these CTO Infrastructure teams. I devised a series of "kick-off," onboarding activities for engaging with each domain and built a collaborative relationship with Heads of each infrastructure domains to specify specific objectives for relevant growth and determine a tailored uplift plan.

The kick-off steps have included elements such as capturing team skill profiles against core engineering skills and principles as well as engaging teams with an activity where they self- selected certain ambitious but achievable goals and challenged themselves to improve aspects such as operational resilience, automation and adherence to engineering standards.

In the last six months we have made great strides to the start of this journey, with over 50 agile teams currently in-flight.

What's the biggest challenge facing IT leaders today, and how are you tackling it?

There is always more to do than is actually possible. We work in incredibly complex environments and high pace is demanded. The challenge is therefore doing the right work, fast enough.

The engineering-led journey cares about the tech capability of our teams, but I've also looked to weave in elements of the product- and customer-focused transformation into Eng Led (they all align ultimately to the same goal of high performing teams delivery value, in my mind) and sought to ensure we prioritise "extra" demands on the teams i.e. don't pull them in different directions.

I've also worked to amplify the successes of the domains as they progressed, with more work to do here as we stride forward. Positively reinforcing where things are successful.

What piece of technology could you not live without, and why?

My phone - games to destress, photos to record special moments (mainly with my dog) and contact with people I care about.

What excites you most about the future of IT?

How it weaves into the world and we seek to use it positively. For example: where we think about sustainable IT (e.g.GreenOps rather than FinOps), and where we look to use AI to support rather than replace people – giving, for example, faster access to knowledge and information.

What’s the strangest job you’ve ever had?

Erm... I’m just in the process of finalising my qualification as a "Canine Hydrotherapist" ...my hobby job. :-)

If you could instantly master one new skill, what would it be?

I'd love to be a bit more hands on with coding, maybe by refreshing my Statistics and data skills into machine learning experience.