Experience
M5L's experience has been forged across some of the world's most demanding infrastructure environments. Below is a selection of the roles that have shaped our thinking.
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Cloudflare¶
Joining Cloudflare as one of its first 200 employees, the experience of helping the company through a period of extraordinary growth left a lasting mark. Leading mixed development, network, and operations teams across London, San Francisco, and Singapore — supporting 200+ data centres and millions of customer properties — gave M5L its foundational belief that great teams and great infrastructure are built together, not in sequence.
"Working with Michael Daly at Cloudflare was one of those rare professional pleasures where you realize very quickly: ah, this one's the real deal. Smart in the ways that actually matter..."
— Martin J. Levy, Cloudflare
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Subspace¶
As one of Subspace's first 50 employees and VP of Global Network Reliability, leading the complete rebuild of the global network — 130+ locations worldwide and over $100m in customer interest generated — reinforced a belief that infrastructure and commercial outcomes are inseparable. Restructuring Global Operations from a NOC-focused model to an SRE-driven approach, while hiring globally for time zone coverage and diverse talent, showed what a focused and empowered team could deliver at pace.
"Michael brought C-suite thinking to everything he touched at Subspace — shaping strategy and organisation design while leading multiple teams through a complete network rebuild at global scale."
— Zachary Thacker, Lead Software Engineer, Subspace
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Imperva¶
Imperva brought a different kind of challenge — refocusing and re-energising globally diverse teams spanning SRE, Infrastructure, Network, and Software Engineering. Modernising the network automation platform, driving infrastructure-as-code adoption, and rebuilding cross-departmental relationships — all while navigating Imperva's $3.7bn acquisition by Thales Group — demonstrated that transformation and stability are not mutually exclusive.
"Michael is one of those engineering leaders who genuinely understands that great teams don't happen by accident. A true partner for HR leaders."
— Einat Leham-Livnat, VP Human Resources, Imperva/Thales