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Henry Hill’s journey to the frontlines of cloud and artificial intelligence

Henry Hill’s path to a career as a high achieving technology sales leader has been an unconventional one. 

Now as Head of AWS Sales team at Devoteam, he looks back at a very different starting point: “I studied geology and marine biology at university, quite different to technology,” Hill recalls. Fascinated by earth sciences, he once imagined a career surrounded by rocks and ecosystems. But his entrepreneurial instincts and love of gadgets pulled him in another direction.

Photo courtesy of Henry Hill.
Photo courtesy of Henry Hill.
Photo courtesy of Henry Hill.

Opinions expressed by Digital Journal contributors are their own.

Henry Hill’s path to a career as a high achieving technology sales leader has been an unconventional one. 

Now as Head of AWS Sales team at Devoteam, he looks back at a very different starting point: “I studied geology and marine biology at university, quite different to technology,” Hill recalls. Fascinated by earth sciences, he once imagined a career surrounded by rocks and ecosystems. But his entrepreneurial instincts and love of gadgets pulled him in another direction.

Hill points to a mix of traits including entrepreneurship, curiosity, and strong people skills as what ultimately drew him into sales and technology: “Your skill sets will always drive you to be in a role that fits and suits you,” he says, and for him, those skills aligned with tech even if the path there was far from direct.

Innovation and rising through cloud on the back of AI

Hill’s early career wound through foodtech, an industry that gave him an early view of how innovation could reshape traditional markets. The experience taught him that agility and scalability matter everywhere, whether in food production or digital services.

It also showed him the value of staying curious: “Every business, no matter the sector, has to look at how technology can help it adapt,” he explains. 

Five years ago, he joined Ubertas Consulting and quickly rose through the ranks, helping steer the company through the transition in 2024 when it was  acquired by Devoteam. The most recent change since then, he says, has been the explosion of artificial intelligence.

“It’s challenging to do AI well without cloud computing because of all the data that it requires and the scalability,” he explains. “That convergence has driven demand from customers who need both migration support and AI-driven solutions.”

The surge has been dramatic. By the end of 2024, Devoteam had secured AWS’s generative AI competency, and Hill’s team has since been inundated with projects that deliver tangible results. “There are a lot of generative and agentic AI requests, for productivity, efficiency and ways of working,” he says. “Companies want the ‘right’ wins that prove return on investment, not just experiments.” For Hill, the urgency is unlike anything he has seen before, and it has powered what he calls the best year the business has had as companies want to adopt AI quickly but struggle to identify a strategy and use cases.

That gap between ambition and execution is exactly what Devoteam UK, in partnership with the AWS Generative AI Center for Innovation, set out to close with ADAPT, the AI and Data Acceleration Program for Transformation.

Photo courtesy of Henry Hill.

ADAPT provides a clear way forward. It translates a company’s AI vision into measurable business value in only four weeks. The process begins with a complimentary discovery session where our technical team works alongside the client to surface pain points and uncover potential use cases. This pre-commitment stage allows business leaders to see the potential for return before making  any investment.

Why falling behind in AWS can take just two months

AI may have given momentum, but competition inside AWS’s vast partner network keeps the pressure on. With more than 140,000 partners jostling for influence, maintaining an edge is relentless.

“Everyone who works in the industry is always vying for as much time as they can get with AWS and building the strongest relationships they can,” Hill says. “It takes a remarkably short amount of time to be off the boil and for things to change. It takes less than a month, and then somebody else is already there.”

The acquisition of Ubertas by Devoteam could have complicated that race. For Hill, it expanded his remit, giving him a larger team, a broader set of customer relationships, and new product offerings to bring to market. What did not change was the culture.

“One of the success stories for us with this acquisition is that not a lot has changed. We are the same business that we were before with the same leadership and ways of working, but now we just have the support that Devoteam can provide on a wider scale.” That continuity has reassured AWS while giving Hill’s team more resources to deliver.

When growth means planting forests too

Business expansion at Devoteam is not just about revenue. Through a partnership with TreeApp, the company has planted thousands of trees tied to projects, from UK woodlands to mangrove forests in Indonesia.

“We have planted almost 2,500 trees. When you actually think of that, it is like a forest. And to put that into context, every 20 trees planted equates to an AWS Well-Architected Framework which has been delivered,” Hill proudly states. The initiative adds a tangible environmental impact to business growth, and Hill sees sustainability as inseparable from technology’s future. AI and cloud are resource-intensive, and providers are under pressure to make models more efficient. For Hill, balancing progress with responsibility is part of the long-term play.

Always looking ahead

At 31, Hill’s path shows how unexpected turns can define a career. Born in Basingstoke, raised between Hampshire and West Sussex, and with family roots in New Zealand, his combination of entrepreneurial instinct, curiosity about innovation, and an ability to connect with people have carried him into his current role. 

Those qualities now matter more than ever. The rise of AI has made cloud computing indispensable, while the AWS partner ecosystem demands constant reinvention. For Hill, success comes not only from adaptability but from anticipating client needs, scaling teams, and sustaining partnerships. In a sector this competitive, he knows momentum can be lost in just two months, hence why he is keeping his foot firmly pushed hard on the pedal. 

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Written By

Jon Stojan is a professional writer based in Wisconsin. He guides editorial teams consisting of writers across the US to help them become more skilled and diverse writers. In his free time he enjoys spending time with his wife and children.

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