Sam Barton
CTO specialising in pensions, wealth and fintech platforms. I build and scale complex, regulated technology businesses and work closely with investors and boards on strategy, due diligence and transformation.
I’m an experienced technology leader with over 20 years working across fintech and ecommerce, most recently as Group CTO at Blackfinch Investments and previously CTO at Smart Pension where I spent ten years delivering Keystone, our investment technology platform, in the UK and across the globe, leading teams of up to 300 people.My focus is on designing and scaling platforms that operate at real-world complexity — supporting millions of users, handling billions in assets, and meeting the demands of regulated environments.Alongside my CTO roles, I’ve worked closely with investment teams and boards, including participation in investment committees, technology due diligence, and M&A activity. This has given me a broader perspective on technology as both an operating function and a strategic asset.I enjoy working at the intersection of engineering, product and business, building strong teams and delivering platforms that are resilient, scalable and commercially effective.
Recent work
2024-2026
Blackfinch InvestmentsGroup CTO responsible for engineering, data and platform strategy across a diversified investment business.I joined Blackfinch Investments as Group CTO, responsible for engineering, data science and IT across the group. Blackfinch supports customers in building and managing diversified investment portfolios, including tax-efficient and long-term investment products.In addition to leading technology, I worked closely with the Ventures team and Investment Committee, contributing to technology due diligence and supporting investment decisions across the portfolio.
2014-2024
Smart PensionCTO for 10 years, building Keystone: a cloud-native retirement platform supporting millions of users.As CTO at Smart Pension, I spent ten years building and scaling Keystone, a cloud-native retirement platform supporting workplace pensions in the UK and internationally.The platform grew to support over 1.6 million members and significant assets under management, integrating with a wide range of payroll providers and financial systems. I led the technology organisation through this growth, scaling teams to over 300 people and delivering a highly automated, continuously deployed platform.
How I work today
Alongside my work as a CTO, I regularly work with leadership teams, investors and founders on technology strategy, platform design and due diligence. This includes supporting investment decisions, assessing technology risk, and helping organisations shape operating models that can scale in regulated environments.I’m particularly interested in how modern development approaches, including AI-assisted and agentic workflows, are changing how software is designed, built and operated. In practice, I structure development around specialised agents that support different parts of the lifecycle: from product definition and architecture through to testing, compliance and delivery. These approaches can accelerate iteration, improve quality, and make complex systems easier to reason about.I’ve applied this in a number of areas, including multi-agent workflows to support product development, automate compliance processes such as ISO 27001 evidence generation, and assist with R&D tax claims. Most recently, I developed a retirement planning application using an agentic approach: combining financial modelling, user interaction and document generation into a single, chat-driven experience.I tend to work best where technology, product and commercial decisions intersect, helping teams move from ideas to robust, scalable platforms. I also work selectively in an advisory capacity, typically alongside leadership teams and investors in pensions, wealth and regulated platforms.
My approach to work
I believe in a people-first approach to engineering having fostered a strong culture in all of the organisations I have been involved in. My leadership style is hands-on, I enjoy working with teams to build new solutions whilst always using data to drive the decision-making. I’m an entrepreneur at heart and love the problem-solving side of building a new solution.I’m used to being client-facing, often being part of the sales process for new clients and explaining technology in an accessible way to stakeholders.My work has covered operational design, M&A, fundraising, due diligence and many aspects of business-process and security. This has given me a full range of skills across the technology field, from the human aspects of technology to matters including infrastructure scalability, and protection at scale.
Things I'm proud of
Designing the technology platform that has become Keystone and powers the Smart Pension Master Trust and other financial institutions.
Delivered automated payment and investment processing handling £80m+ per month in the UK
Built an engineering platform enabling 25–30 production deployments per day, supporting a large-scale pension platform
Infrastructure as Code (IaC). A move to Kubernetes plus a process to deploy the infrastructure as part of the same CI/CD pipelines.
Deployment: A green/blue review app process that enables a new Pull Request to be deployed with replica infrastructure for testing and deploying to prod.
Countless payroll integrations via the Keystone API that validates data and automates member onboarding and contribution collection.
Led the development of Thrive a financial wellbeing platform combining pensions, benefits and financial education into a single, user-centric experience.
Building teams comprised of some truly amazing people who have made the above possible.
I wrote a science fiction novel exploring how complex systems: technological, organisational and societal all evolve under pressure.Set in deep space, the story brings together ideas from software, artificial intelligence and platform design with themes of discovery, conflict and long-term consequence. It draws on my experience building real-world systems, where early decisions often determine what a platform, or a civilisation, is ultimately capable of becoming.
Foundations
Earlier in my career, I spent over a decade as CTO at ArenaFlowers.com, where I led the evolution of the platform from a B2C ecommerce business into a broader B2B-enabled platform supporting partners such as Moonpig through APIs and shared logistics.This experience shaped much of my approach to platform design, particularly around scalability, integration and operating across both direct-to-consumer and partner-led models.Arena is still a market leader and has delivered over 10 million bouquets.
A short video of me talking about Keystone, the retirement technology platform.
My Experience
How I Lead
I bring over 20 years of hands-on experience in building and scaling technology platforms, from early-stage environments through to large, established organisations.My focus is on turning strategy into delivery, shaping roadmaps, building teams and creating platforms that operate reliably at scale.I take an entrepreneurial approach to technology, particularly in greenfield environments, and enjoy working closely with stakeholders and clients across product, commercial and leadership teams.
Platform & Engineering
Deep experience building cloud-native platforms using AWS & Azure, Kubernetes and Infrastructure as Code, with a strong focus on continuous delivery.API-first design, enabling scalable integrations and partner-led growth models.Proven track record building and leading teams from early stage through to 300+ engineers.Strong data platform experience, including data warehousing, ETL pipelines and analytics platforms.
Delivery & Governance
Experienced in designing and implementing operating models that support scale, governance and effective delivery in regulated environments.Focus on automation and straight-through processing to reduce operational overhead and improve reliability.Extensive experience working within regulated frameworks, including ISO 27001, Master Trust authorisation and regulatory reporting.Comfortable operating across technology, product and business contexts, adapting to the needs of each organisation.
Endorsements
I have had a pleasure of working with Sam for more than 4.5 years. He is the most articulate, creative and enthusiastic CTO I have ever worked with.Sam always finds a way to engage with all engineers, managers and stakeholders at all levels and encourage an overall improvement in performance. He has always followed delivery of small stories to major initiatives. As someone who has been hands on the code base before he can always offer advice without being a micro manager. He has real passion for technology in general and always happy to explain these to non-technical people with great patience and care.His commercial experience and his sales skills are all quite impressive. He is very much a team player and everyone enjoys his company. I highly recommend Sam and I would welcome the opportunity to work with him in the future.
Ali Nazarboland
Director of Engineering
I have been part of the Smart Pension team for 4.5 years, during which I have witnessed the company's remarkable growth. Through these retrospective lenses, Sam's influence on the organization becomes vividly apparent. One of his most notable traits is his ability to translate complex technical concepts into comprehensible language for business stakeholders. I have observed this skill in action multiple times, particularly during townhall meetings and various other discussions.Beyond his contributions to the business, I deeply appreciate Sam's personal qualities. Specifically, his ability to stay connected with people even as the company undergoes a significant expansion, whether it be 3x or 5x times. Rather than distancing himself in an ivory tower, Sam genuinely strives to understand the intricacies of what's happening on the ground. This is a quality that many leaders overlook, but Sam consistently demonstrates it. Maintaining such an approach demands considerable mental energy, yet, in the end, what truly matters are the human relationships forged. Sam has excelled in building bridges, not walls.
Alexander Shagov
Senior Software Engineer
I worked with Sam for almost 7 years whilst at Smart. To say he was someone I would always turn to for support and guidance is an understatement.Sam's technical knowledge and ability to find a creative solution to a problem is unmatched. We worked on many market leading partnerships, and Sam was the gateway to many of the barriers we were faced with being overcome. Aside from his technical brilliance, Sam also supported my role on the events committee for NextGen, and was a frequent panel member or speaker on topics such as integration, AI,and all things tech focused.Sam has got fantastic personal skills and will go out of his way to support colleagues in any way he can.
Ceri Thomas
Strategic Platform Partnership Director
A few articles I have written with my CTO hat on.I also participate in industry working groups (such as PASA and PSLA) and am often asked to speak at conferences.
| Type | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Article | Culture in engineering. | Read Here |
| Article | Using AI in a regulated industry. | Read Here |
| Article | Github Copilot. AI for engineers. | Read Here |
| Podcast | How I transitioned to being CTO. | Listen Here |
| Article | Demystifying Pension Administration. | Read Here |
| Article | Reinventing Digital Transformation. | Read Here |
Designing and scaling platforms in pensions, wealth and regulated environments.