Daniel Burbridge,
Middle East Service Manager

Tell us a little bit about your career experience and how you got started with OSSO.

I’ve been with OSSO for 12 years now. When I first joined, I had just completed 5 years of service with the military as an electrician. OSSO was running a scheme to hire ex-military personnel and so that was the initial foot-in-the-door opportunity I needed to launch my career. I started as a trainee service engineer, working in Aberdeen on a three-year programme, doing hands-on work and developing my understanding of the engineering side of things. After the traineeship, I qualified as a fully-fledged service engineer, but was also getting involved in some technical sales and continuing to gain that important experience in delivering for customers as part of projects out in the field. I’ve been able to come in as a trainee and work my way right up from there, so OSSO has given me a huge number of opportunities. In 2016 I was given another big chance to move to the Middle East as a service manager, which I was eager to take.

Why was the opportunity to move to the Middle East appealing for you?

From starting out, I’ve always been willing to go anywhere or try my hand at anything and have never wanted to turn down any job. I’m definitely a career driven person, so that opportunity to expand my horizons and work internationally, but also take on a job role with the ability to break through into the managerial side of things was hugely appealing.

When I first came to the Middle East, it was a smaller team, with just the two of us, and I was lucky to receive a huge amount of mentoring and support from the team, which has really helped me to grow and develop further since making that step.

Tell us more about your current role

My job role primarily focuses on operations and ensuring things are running smoothly and to a high standard across our full offering in the region. I oversee everything in the Middle East, right through from the procurement side of things to logistics.

My time as a service engineer has given me an incredibly helpful grounding. Having been there and done that, I totally get what the team are doing when they’re out in the field delivering for customers. I do a bit of technical sales as part of my role too and having that background means that when I speak to our customers, I can provide that level of consultation on how we can best support their projects.

Across our key markets in the Middle East in Saudi, the UAE and Oman, local partners are a key part of the service, and my role includes working closely with them to ensure we are delivering top quality work. Being able to understand and manage how things are done in the region is absolutely vital to any success we’ve had, and I’ve been lucky to be able to grow my experience in working in this way.

Earlier this year, we signed a new partnership with National Horizons in Saudi Arabia, and it’s been fantastic to hear from our customers the level of service that has enabled us to continue providing in the country at a key time for our Middle East offering.

Are there any achievements you’re most proud of during your career?

I have quite a few things that stand out. When I came to the Middle East, we didn’t have an in-region mud cooling and chilling offering like we do now, and it was essentially a new service for us. After initially moving, I spent a huge amount of time in Saudi Arabia, building the onshore cooling service and establishing that side of the business. To see what we’ve been to achieve, with the recognition and revenue we now drive is hugely rewarding and being a key part of growing it from it’s earliest stages to a really established offering has been incredible.

In 2023, we made significant investments to expand our fleet and provide a full turnkey offering in region. Seeing the immediate results from that, with several new contracts secured and a 250% growth in revenue from the region during the year has also been brilliant. Since I came to the Middle East, we have built a team with more than 20 people to help develop the business with the view of further expansion, so it’s amazing to look back at what we’ve been able to build and know my role in accomplishing that.

As someone who is working out in the Middle East, how does the broader OSSO team support you in your role?

Despite being out in the Middle East, I think we all feel lucky to be part of the broader and close-knit team. A big part of the appeal of moving out here was really being able own things in the Middle East and build out this business unit, but we’ve always had close support when needed from the UK, while having the chance to make our own mark. We also really do feel like we’re part of the team and despite the distance, there is a real open-door policy when talking to anybody across the whole business.

Click here to learn more about our Middle East offering.