Andy’s journey to become our Technical Director

Recruiting the right people and supporting them to achieve their ambitions is a key part of our growth strategy.

We want to have the best people on board and give them the opportunity to deliver only the highest standards of service for our clients.

A great example of this strategy is Andy Dyer, who joined us in 2015.

Following in family footsteps

Growing up in the Northeast, Andy’s father and grandfather were both qualified tradesmen, so it was perhaps natural that he would follow in their footsteps.

In 2007 he took an apprenticeship position at a local fire safety and security company. He gained his engineering qualifications and quickly becoming an integral part of their installation and service team.

In 2014 Andy sought a change of scenery. He relocated to Suffolk when an opportunity arose at JD Sports for a system engineer.

In his first week at JD Sports Andy was flown over to Agon System’s Swiss premises for training on our security systems. This was his first meeting with our CEO, Sean.

Seeking new challenges

While he enjoyed his time at JD Sports, Andy felt that he needed a more challenging role. With his habitual flair for spotting talent, Sean gave Andy a call a couple of weeks after he’d left JD Sports and offered him a job.

Andy joined us as an installation engineer, one of only two at the time. He supported our clients across Europe, which involved a lot of travel.

I wanted to join Agon because it was a company in its infancy in the UK, so there was a lot of opportunity to help develop the company and for my own personal progression.

As our organisation grew we needed to create more structure and, as part of this, Andy was promoted to Head of European Technical Support. This role involved assisting and training our growing team of engineers, and project managing our new developments.

This company has a real family feel to it. Nothing’s ever a problem, you can always get help when you need it.

As part of this new role, Andy returned to our Swiss location, spending time learning from Hans U Liechti, our then Head of Engineering and one of the company’s founders.

While Andy missed the almost constant travelling he did as an engineer, it was a good point in his life for him to switch to a more office-based role, with more conventional working hours.

During this time Andy also made the decision to move back to the Northeast, which he managed to do just weeks before the covid pandemic lockdown. All this with the added (but delightful) complication of a newborn baby girl!

I like the management style at Agon, it’s very flexible so long as you get the job done. It feels like you’re self-employed, there’s no micro management from head office. People can work in the way that suits them.

Promotion to Technical Director

To meet the requirements of new, larger clients, we realised the need for an overseeing technical role, to continue our drive for innovation excellence. We also needed to provide consistent support across our UK office and our new Spanish location.

In January of this year Andy was promoted to our new role of Technical Director. We coupled this promotion with training to give him the (non-engineering) skills to adjust to his new responsibilities.

I enjoyed my role as Head of European Technical Support, but having done it for several years I wanted a new challenge which would take me outside my comfort zone. Becoming the new Technical Director has given me just that.

While this role is predominantly office-based, Andy’s an engineer at heart and takes every opportunity to get out and about – ensuring that he’s never too distant from the experiences of our clients and engineers.

What does the future hold?

Andy’s looking forward to developing the role of Technical Director. He’s currently focusing on the production side of the business, working with our suppliers and R&D department to ensure that we’re always at the cutting edge of retail security.

He’s also looking forward to working more closely with our other departments, as well as our clients, to get insights from them to shape our future innovations.

And, with the flexibility that comes from working for Agon Systems, he’s also able to spend more time with his daughter, Leila.

Agon’s flexible approach to working means that I can look after my daughter each Monday morning, which helps us manage our childcare responsibilities and gives me precious time with her before she starts full time nursery in September.

Join our team

We’re always looking for ambitious people like Andy to join our team, across a range of office- and engineering-based roles.

Find out more about working for Agon Systems by emailing us at elaine.allen@agon-systems.com.