Woody Holtmere
né Daniel Woodward · Forward Deployed Engineering · Team Lead
UK technology leader in production AI and solution architecture. I lead forward deployed engineering pods that embed with enterprise customers to ship agentic and conversational AI, and I'm happiest when I'm first on the ground: in a new market, a new team, or a customer's hardest problem.
Experience
NiCE Cognigy
Team Lead, UK · Forward Deployed Engineering, NiCE Labs (Jul 2026 to now)
- Lead two pods with 6+ direct reports; a founding member of the leadership team scaling forward deployed engineering towards 50 people by the end of 2026.
- Embed with enterprise customers to ship production agentic AI; partner with their CTOs and feed what we learn in deployments back into product and research.
- Cognigy's first certified Master Builder (Cognigy Mastery Program, issued January 2026): hands-on building alongside leading the team.
Senior Presales Engineer, AI · Nordics Lead (Jan to Jul 2026)
- Established the Nordics go-to-market and the first land-and-expand opportunities.
Senior Solutions Engineer (Jan 2025 to Jan 2026)
- First UK presales hire: built an enterprise pipeline from zero and won early deals through multi-agent architectures, technical discovery, workshops and proofs of concept.
Apptio, an IBM Company
Senior Solutions Consultant · Agile Transformation Overlay, EMEA
- The second dedicated Agile overlay in EMEA; developed AI-driven use cases and spoke at partner events on transformation at scale.
Quantive (formerly Gtmhub)
Director of Solutions Consulting, then Enterprise Solutions Architect, EMEA and ROW
- First EMEA and ROW presales hire; grew the team to six, then moved into enterprise architecture to accelerate a new AI and ML platform.
- Connected engineering and sales through solution design and demo strategy.
Sprinklr
Global Strategic Accounts, Solutions Consultant · EMEA Lead
- First EMEA Solutions Architect, progressing to lead; closed $2–5M opportunities across consumer goods, financial services, automotive and the public sector.
Lupine Consulting Ltd
Director and freelance consultant
- Short freelance assignments between permanent roles in technical presales, product management, CX and broadcast.
Earlier career
Operative · Sintec · Pilat Media · Imagine Communications · Tracx
Expertise
AI and architecture
Enterprise and leadership
Education and community
First Class BSc (Hons), Animal Behaviour and Welfare, University of Chester, 2008 to 2011
PreSales Collective, member since July 2020
Awards
Presidents Club: Sprinklr (January 2017, February 2020), NiCE Cognigy (January 2026) · Quantive Guiding Principles: "Own It!" (August 2023), "Win as a Team" (February 2023) · Sprinklr: Presales of the Year (January 2016), "Fix It, Don't Complain" (December 2016, global and EMEA), "Never, ever ever ever ever, give up… ever" (May 2019)
Outside work
Travel, zoology, music, brewing, farming, motorbiking and anything outdoors.