How we work
Senior engineering teams, one standard, everything written down in your repository.
Every engagement is run by a lead engineer and delivered by senior engineers to one written standard. Everything they build is kept as code, runbooks and documentation that you own.
Who does the work
Every engagement has a lead engineer, who scopes the work with you and stays accountable for it, and a named backup engineer. Specialists in cloud, security, network and platform join as the work needs them.
Engineers are senior, with hands-on delivery experience in the domains they work on. You meet the people who will work on your environment before the work starts.
North Ark is founder-led. David Goulding set the engineering standard, and it is written down as patterns, runbooks and review checklists, so every engineer works to it from their first day.
How an engagement runs
- Assess: an Infrastructure Review or a focused assessment gives a written position, a ranked risk register and a plan.
- Transform: projects deliver the plan in fixed-scope phases, built as code and handed over with runbooks.
- Operate: Managed Engineering takes on the domains you choose, under a signed responsibility matrix.
- Improve: every incident, change and review feeds the improvement plan for the next quarter.
You can start at any stage
Each stage is scoped and priced separately. Some clients start with an assessment, some with a project that is already overdue, and some with the operation of one domain.
Everything lands in your repository
From the first day, the work lives in a repository in your tenant. You can read every line, and it stays with you whoever runs the environment next.
- Infrastructure as code for everything we build or change
- Pipelines that deploy it, with peer review on every change
- Runbooks for operational tasks and recovery
- Architecture diagrams and decision records
- Change records and incident root cause write-ups
Nothing depends on one person
- Documentation as code: the environment is described in your repository, so any qualified engineer can pick it up.
- A named backup engineer for every client, who knows the environment and takes part in the review cycle.
- Written scope and handover: every engagement starts with a written scope and ends with a written handover.
- Peer review: no change reaches production on one engineer's say-so.
The review cycle
Ongoing work runs on a weekly operations review, a monthly service and risk review and a quarterly architecture review, each with a written output. The Managed Engineering page sets out what each one covers.
Where automation and AI fit
Repeated tasks become automation and runbooks. AI-assisted tooling helps engineers triage alerts, gather evidence and draft documentation, so their time goes on decisions.
Engineers make every decision and approve every change. AI output goes through the same peer review as any other change, and your data is never used to train AI models.
What we ask of you
- A named contact who can make decisions about priorities
- Access set up the way the Trust and security page describes
- Time for the review cycle
- Early warning of business changes that affect the environment
Work delivered
- Several hundred virtual desktops moved from VMware to Azure Local in three months
- Microsoft Dynamics ERP delivered through Azure Virtual Desktop in three months
- Audit findings and Essential Eight gaps closed across around 14,000 users and devices
Questions buyers ask
Who will work on our environment?
A lead engineer and a team of senior engineers, chosen for the domains in your scope. You meet them before work starts. The standard they work to is set by our founder, David Goulding, and checked through peer review on every change.
Who will we deal with day to day?
Your lead engineer, backed by a named backup engineer. Both take part in the review cycle, so either can pick up any issue.
Where are your engineers based?
In Australia.
What if we want to bring the work in-house later?
Everything is already in your repository. We run a handover and can train your team on the code and runbooks.
How do you use AI on our environment?
As a tool for engineers: triage, evidence gathering and drafting. Engineers approve every change, and your data is never used to train AI models.
Can we see everything you change?
Yes. Every change is a reviewed commit in your repository and appears in the monthly engineering report.
Start a conversation
Meet the people who would run your environment.
Book a call and we'll walk you through how an engagement would work for you.
Talk to an Engineer