BJSS, the British-headquartered technology and engineering consultancy has today appointed former EY Director Julian Gilchrist to lead operations in Melbourne.

As Melbourne’s Head of Delivery, Gilchrist is the most senior BJSS appointment in Australia, following its expansion into the region last year.

Gilchrist, who held the role of Director Technology Consulting at EY, will oversee the growth of BJSS’ local team and customer base, with a focus on the recruitment of skilled consultants, including senior architects, software engineers, and cloud consultants.

Established in 1993, BJSS is a Queen’s Award for Enterprise-winning technology and engineering consultancy of over 1,800 consultants – with offices across the UK, United States, and Europe.

The establishment of BJSS’ Melbourne office was announced by Victorian Minister for Economic Development Tim Pallas in November last year. The office is BJSS’ first location in the Asia-Pacific region.

Previously, Gilchrist led digital transformation programs for Fortune 500 companies in the US and spearheaded the company’s Australian growth in cloud engineering. Gilchrist is also a certified Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Scrum Master (SM), and Release Train Engineer (RTE).

Throughout the Covid pandemic, BJSS has continued to look for ways to establish its presence in Australia. Helped by the eventual easing of Covid restrictions, BJSS expects to grow its Melbourne operation team significantly to support its technology, engineering, consulting, cloud, data and AI services. Government, retail and financial services are key sectors for BJSS in Australia.

Julian Gilchrist, Melbourne Head of Delivery, said: “BJSS is renowned for delivering high-quality technology solutions to the world’s leading organisations. BJSS has a strong and proven engineering heritage, and I am looking forward to helping the company grow its capability and presence in the region.”

Amir Soufizadeh, Head of International Expansion, said: “As Covid restrictions ease, we can continue our growth plan in the APAC region. We’re delighted to have Julian lead our Melbourne operation. Julian’s experience in the Melbourne market, coupled with his delivery and consulting background, is hugely significant as we embark on the next phase of our growth and expansion in the region.”

BJSS hired 750 people globally since March last year.