Ben Towner
Technology Leader — Strategic Thinker, Cross-Functional Builder, Problem Solver
I help teams make practical decisions, align around what matters, and deliver results.
About Me
I’m a technology leader with a business background and a broad technical curiosity. My formal education is in maritime administration, and my career has grown through operations, software delivery, observability, data migration, and platform leadership. That combination gives me a strong appreciation for both business priorities and technical realities.
I lead by understanding the full picture. I’m not limited to one discipline, because I’ve learned that the best decisions come from connecting architecture, engineering, operations, product, and delivery into one coherent view. I like getting close enough to the details to challenge assumptions, evaluate tradeoffs, and make sure we are solving the right problem in the right way.
I believe in thoughtful execution, but I also believe in momentum. Planning is important, but progress matters too. Sometimes you just have to go live.
What I Bring
- Cross-functional leadership - I connect technical and business teams to drive alignment and execution
- Systems thinking - I evaluate problems in context, not in silos
- Practical decision-making - I help teams balance quality, speed, risk, and value
- Hands-on credibility - I understand enough about infrastructure, software, data, and hardware to ask informed questions and spot weak assumptions
- Delivery focus - I care about outcomes, not just ideas
Selected Experience
- Led a Technical Product Owner effort for Terminal Metrics Analyzer, applying metrics, correlation, ML, and LLMs to improve terminal visibility
- Built an observability team and platform using the Elastic Stack, helping establish a foundation for a global competency center
- Managed five software migrations across the United States, Argentina, and the Netherlands, with project budgets ranging from $600k to $3M
- Led data migration for 15 container terminals moving from Oracle to SQL Server
Outside of Work
I’m naturally curious and enjoy building and learning across disciplines — from 3D printing and home automation to woodworking, RC crawling, and mountain biking. That hands-on mindset shapes how I lead: stay curious, understand the system, and build with purpose.