Workhuman’s Noel Barry discusses his role as a senior director for back office engineering.
For Noel Barry, a senior director of bac- office engineering at human capital management firm Workhuman, learning and development opportunities have enabled him to progress his career in a rapidly evolving sector. And it was in early childhood that he first discovered he might have an aptitude for the sector.
“It all started with video games,” Barry told SiliconRepublic.com. “Santa brought me a ZX Spectrum 48k back in 1984. I typed out BASIC [Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code] code on its rubber keyboard, and it felt like magic when it came to life on the TV in our living room. That was my first glimpse into the fun of writing software.”
What first stirred your interest in a career in this area?
In college, I did a business degree and quickly realised I was more interested in innovation than in macro-economic theory. Schumpeter and his theory of creative destruction, that progress comes through disruption, resonated with me and it’s influenced how I think about innovation and leadership ever since. I graduated in 1997 as the dotcom era was dawning. With a job offer from a Dublin bank in my hand, I decided my path lay elsewhere and headed to Belfast to do a post-grad in computer science. From my early encounters with gaming to lectures on innovation to the dawn of the internet, I kept finding myself drawn to technology and to the possibilities that come with moments of change.
What brought you to your current role as a senior director of engineering?
The biggest factor in my journey has been my fit with Workhuman and the chance to grow my career as the company transformed. When I joined in 2004, we were fewer than 50 people. Today, we’re a global organisation with more than 1,000 employees.
As Workhuman scaled, new challenges and opportunities emerged, and I was well-placed to step into them, from senior engineer to team lead and later into leadership roles working with our largest customers. Each transition required me to adapt, learn, and expand my perspective on leadership.
What were the biggest surprises or challenges you encountered on your career path and how did you deal with them?
One thing my career has taught me is to expect surprises and challenges, there’s always another one just around the corner. Some are operational, like a major new customer deal suddenly reshaping my team’s roadmap. Others have been far more profound, such as the impact on colleagues during the Covid pandemic or the disruption caused by political unrest in Belarus, where some of our partner teams were based.
When these moments arise, I start by trying to understand what’s really happening, and just as importantly, by listening to the people most affected. That mix of context and perspective gives me the basis for a constructive response and it proved invaluable in 2020, when both the pandemic and political unrest tested my teams in different ways.
Right now, the rapid evolution of AI is the change that comes most immediately to mind. I’m on my own AI learning journey alongside my team and the wider organisation. That reflects how I try to lead more broadly, being open to new ideas, learning with others and helping my teams see the opportunities in times of uncertainty.
Was there any one person who was particularly influential as your career developed?
The person who was most influential as my career developed is Jonathan Hyland, our CTO at Workhuman. He hired me as a senior software engineer when the company was still a small start-up and has been central to my leadership journey. He gave me my first opportunity to lead a team, promoted me into senior management, and trusted me to represent the company with some of our largest customers. Just as importantly, he always had my back offering guidance when needed but also giving me the space to grow and deliver. That combination of trust, support and challenge has been invaluable in shaping my career.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
What I enjoy most is working with my team and colleagues to get great things done. I led the teams working on the search and personalisation aspects of our new homepage experience, the Culture Hub. Our goal was to provide a more meaningful, personalised experience to our users by surfacing the content most relevant to them.
The project brought together people from across data, product, engineering, platform and customer-facing teams, many of whom had never worked so closely together before. Striking the right balance between staying in sync and avoiding the drag of too much coordination was a challenge, but we found a rhythm that worked and got the job done.
What aspects of your personality do you feel make you suited to this job?
Curiosity and adaptability have always been part of who I am. Outside of work, I’ve lived in and travelled to different countries, which gave me an early appreciation for how people see the world in different ways. Music is another passion, I enjoy exploring all kinds of genres, always open to trying something new. And with parents and siblings who are teachers, I grew up in a family where learning was valued and encouraged. Those experiences taught me to enjoy variety, to be open to different perspectives and to keep seeking out new ideas.
In my career, those same traits have been essential. Over 20 years at Workhuman, I’ve moved through very different roles and seen the company grow from a small start-up to a global organisation. Each stage has demanded adaptability, whether moving from engineer to manager, leading cross-functional projects or most recently stepping into back-office engineering, an area of the business that is relatively new for me. These qualities continue to shape how I lead today.
What are you currently working on and what impact might it have going forward?
This year, I stepped into leading back-office engineering. This team underpins our e-commerce engine, supporting order fulfilment, stock purchasing, supplier integration and invoicing. It’s an area where improvements directly affect both the experience of employees redeeming awards and commercial outcomes for the company.
Personally, I’m using AI to accelerate my own learning of our back-office systems. This way, I’m learning on the double, getting familiar with how to get the most out of AI tools and getting up to speed on our back office systems. I’m also keeping a close eye on the Culture Hub roll-out.
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