{"id":854358,"date":"2025-06-09T06:12:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T11:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/09\/interview-manish-jethwa-chief-technology-officer-ordnance-survey\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T06:12:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T11:12:16","slug":"interview-manish-jethwa-chief-technology-officer-ordnance-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/09\/interview-manish-jethwa-chief-technology-officer-ordnance-survey\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Manish Jethwa, chief technology officer, Ordnance Survey"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Manish Jethwa, chief technology officer (CTO) at Ordnance Survey (OS)<\/a>, has a career-long passion for turning geographical data into useful insight<\/a>. At the UK\u2019s national mapping service, he\u2019s leading the organisation\u2019s development of next-generation geospatial technologies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jethwa studied engineering science at the University of Oxford, where he focused on what were then considered niche areas, such as robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision. He subsequently honed this interest in a doctorate at MIT, researching how images could be used to create models of city spaces. The opportunity to work for OS two decades later felt a bit like coming home.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of that loop had been reconnected,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019d been in the world of creating city-scale models. And then, before I knew it, I was helping to map the whole nation at the OS.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jethwa joined OS in late 2023. He was previously CTO at construction software specialist Causeway Technologies, a role he\u2019d held since August 2022, following the company\u2019s acquisition of asset management software firm Yotta. Jethwa had worked at Yotta for 20 years, leading product and technology. As OS CTO, he\u2019s putting his data experience into practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe explosion in AI means it\u2019s in every organisation\u2019s business strategy,\u201d he says. \u201cAI and computer vision are a core part of the research we do here, such as automatically extracting features from aerial imagery and at street level.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the majority of his 18 months at OS, Jethwa says he\u2019s been more focused on the \u201cchief\u201d part of his CTO role than \u201ctechnology\u201d because he\u2019s helping to drive wide-scale organisational change. That focus is understandable for an individual who has worked in entrepreneurial businesses and joined an organisation that\u2019s 234 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving come from a product-led business to an organisation that was more focused on delivery, we\u2019ve had to change certain things, and that\u2019s been reflected in our strategy,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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<\/i>Creating a value chain<\/h2>\n

Jethwa says his focus on organisational change has helped break down OS into a value chain of key service pillars that deliver benefits to customers.<\/p>\n

The organisation has five pillars that cover the following areas: positioning \u2013 meaning the capability around the UK to make accurate measurements; data sourcing \u2013 aggregating and collecting information; refinery \u2013 adding value to data and merging insights; distribution \u2013 pushing data feeds to clients; and application \u2013 delivering insight to customers.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n We\u2019ve built up this value chain from sourcing data to delivering benefits to the customer. Customers don\u2019t want lightbulbs, they want light. At the OS, customers don\u2019t want data, they want insights. Having that model helps define our approach
\n <\/figure>
\n Manish Jethwa, Ordnance Survey<\/strong>
\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve built up this value chain from sourcing data to delivering benefits to the customer,\u201d he says, before using an analogy: \u201cCustomers don\u2019t want lightbulbs, they want light. At the OS, customers don\u2019t want data, they want insights. Having that model helps define our approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jethwa says the result is lots of conversations about the value chain. \u201cI get wheeled out to talk about it,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it\u2019s a nice way to visualise the work and relationships of an organisation of 1,400 people. We now have a high-level structure to explain how we operate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jethwa says he can\u2019t take sole credit for the organisational change programme. A drive for transformation<\/a> pre-dated his arrival. His emphasis was on defining clear business services. As a result of this work, from the start of April, OS has a service model for operation across the five key pillars.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have service leads across those areas, and those services are broken down into further components,\u201d he says. \u201cThe nice thing about that approach is that, within those components, we can manage our technology stack using the same framework.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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<\/i>Focusing on product delivery<\/h2>\n

Jethwa says the new organisational structure has enabled a shift from project-based ways of working. Rather than focusing on smaller initiatives that fix short-term issues, the IT team looks to meet objectives as part of an enduring programme of work.<\/p>\n

\u201cStaff put forward a programme proposal that will then get accepted,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have a budget, you formulate a team, you execute against that. But to deliver a long-term vision, you typically have enduring teams that work on your technology products, so they understand the customer, they know how to deliver results, and they also manage systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jethwa says the result of this shift from projects to products is a fundamental change in how OS operates. \u201cThese enduring teams have a specific, defined vision about what they need to deliver, and how the results will be passed on to internal or external customers,\u201d he says. \u201cThey have the opportunity and power to work out the best way of delivering products.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jethwa says the teams always focus on an element of transformation. He refers to the development of products within the sourcing pillar. The professionals consider how to collect data and the optimal way of fulfilling that process, whether it\u2019s through drone capture or street-level surveys.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe approach to sourcing shifts continuously depending on the landscape and the types of features we want to deliver,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge for us is that our data is not delivered in one specific year, and then we\u2019re done. Once we\u2019ve delivered that data, we have to provide consistency and deliver updates henceforth until we decide to retire a product, which may take at least 10 years. It could be longer than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This requirement for continuous delivery creates a new set of challenges, such as dealing with the roll-out of emerging technologies and extracting information and features from source imagery. Jethwa says AI can help automate these processes. However, care must be taken to ensure that AI-enabled technologies don\u2019t make assumptions about images.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, AI can boost productivity and efficiency,\u201d he says. \u201cBut an automated method for analysing images can be fooled. So, we must consider how to manage uncertainty as we deliver insights to customers. That area presents a fresh challenge for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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<\/i>Embracing technological innovation<\/h2>\n

Another issue is technical specifications. Jethwa says OS wants to democratise data access for customers. While the premise is simple, the process must clear some obstacles, notably the fact that most data comes with detailed technical specifications.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\u201cThe explosion in AI means it\u2019s in every organisation\u2019s business strategy. AI and computer vision are a core part of the research we do here [at OS], such as automatically extracting features from aerial imagery and at street level\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Manish Jethwa, Ordnance Survey<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cA good example might be a customer who says, \u2018I want to know good areas to go out and exercise\u2019,\u201d he says. \u201cNow, our data, from a technical standpoint, might not reference the word exercise anywhere, but it will include things like sports stadiums, fields and skateboard parks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jethwa says the traditional approach to building a connection between data and technical specifications would be to use natural language processing. Building that mechanism wouldn\u2019t be straightforward. The good news now is that large language models<\/a> (LLMs) are perfect for creating a relationship between data and specifications.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you fine-tune a large language model agent, and point it to our data and documentation, you can ask a question, such as, \u2018Tell me about places to exercise\u2019, and have that question directly translated into an API [application programming interface] request that will say, \u2018Here are some sports facilities in the buildings data and here are some recreational areas in the green spaces data\u2019,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Jethwa says OS is tapping into the full breadth of AI technologies. The organisation builds many of its processes on mainstream models, undertaking fine-tuning based on internal documentation. However, one significant issue is that many high-profile LLMs are trained on commercially available data.<\/p>\n

To overcome this challenge, OS taps into the high-precision UK geography data its teams have collected over decades of work. In this core area, where the organisation extracts geographical information, such as roof materials or biodiversity features<\/a>, the technology team is building foundational models from the ground up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK landscape is very different from other geographies,\u201d he says. \u201cWe know that training models on our data will give a richer and more reliable output than trying to rely on models that have been trained on imagery taken directly from the web.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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<\/i>Leading the way<\/h2>\n

Jethwa says senior executives at OS regularly discuss how people might interact with geospatial data during the next decade. One thing is already clear \u2013 the relationship has already changed and will continue to transform.<\/p>\n

OS has traditionally been known for producing paper-based maps that help people navigate their environment. These maps are designed to make it easy for people to filter the data they require. Jethwa gives the example of someone on a hike who can see contour lines on a map and understand the elevation of their walk.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n If you look ahead five or 10 years, the relationship has to be one in which people have much more of a conversation with the map and the interface
\n <\/figure>
\n Manish Jethwa, Ordnance Survey<\/strong>
\n <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

However, the traditional relationship is changing. Rather than focusing on filtering, a large proportion of the organisation\u2019s work is now centred on analysis. OS is developing AI-enabled processes that customers use to draw insights from data. Jethwa expects the nature of this interaction to intensify.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look ahead five or 10 years, the relationship has to be one in which people have much more of a conversation with the map and the interface,\u201d he says. \u201cThis relationship will be one where customers ask a question and get a response back from the map, but they\u2019ll also get questions from the map.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jethwa says emerging technology is the key to unlocking this capability. Alongside explorations into AI, OS uses the Snowflake Marketplace<\/a> to share open data with public sector organisations and explore new commercial avenues. The priority now is ensuring OS is ready to embrace the next wave of data-led advances.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to ensure we\u2019ve enabled all the mechanisms internally. So, how easy is it to ask the questions and receive answers via APIs<\/a>? Are we providing the data across the right sources, whether it\u2019s Snowflake, AWS or elsewhere? And are we providing hooks into the right outlets to ensure that, as models are built, insight is accessible?\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to lead the way because we don\u2019t want to be late into the game. If we\u2019re late, there\u2019ll be other providers of data that might be less authoritative, but because they\u2019re easier to access, they\u2019ll win out. We need to be at the forefront.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Image: \u00a9Crown copyright 2025 Ordnance Survey. Media 045\/25<\/em><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Sharie Pingree<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Manish Jethwa, chief technology officer (CTO) at Ordnance Survey (OS), has a career-long passion for turning geographical data into useful insight. At the UK\u2019s national mapping service, he\u2019s leading the organisation\u2019s development of next-generation geospatial technologies. Jethwa studied engineering science at the University of Oxford, where he focused on what were then considered niche areas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":854359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22316,128200,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-854358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-interview","8":"category-manish","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}