Moving forward as one: How cross-functional collaboration drives success at Nine

The Spark awards recognise outstanding work within these teams, highlighting how individuals truly embody Nine’s values. We caught up with three members of The Allied Response Team to hear how this value guides their work and helps them tackle complex technical challenges.

The innovators behind the award

The Move Forward as One award was presented to a cross-functional project team of 15 members who perfectly embody this collaborative spirit. While each member resides within our digital and technology teams, their daily roles vary greatly. For this award-winning project, they came together with one shared purpose: respond to the security incident, determine the impacts and contain the threat. 

We sat down with three of the award winners, Senior Platform Engineer Joshua Giumelli, Cyber Security Operations Manager Andrew Burnell, and Data Engineer Intern Rania Malibari, to chat about how they blended their unique skill sets to tackle a major challenge, and why Nine provides the ultimate landscape for collaboration.

Solving complex puzzles in real time

Cyber security and infrastructure management are rarely predictable. When a complex technical incident arose, the team had to look beyond standard protocols and work dynamically across departmental lines to find a resolution.

Andrew Burnell has been leading a small, agile team for the past 18 months, placing him on the front lines of responding to cyber threats and keeping Nine’s digital ecosystem secure. He explains that dealing with custom applications means managing a massive web of complex dependencies. 

“There are so many technologies and moving parts in custom applications that it can be difficult to get the context and insight we need from a single security tool,” Andrew says. “This incident was a great example where we had to look at the data from our own tools but also leverage experts in other teams and their data to understand what is suspicious and what is normal.”

Instead of working in isolation, the teams pooled their data and technical expertise. This environment allowed them to test theories and explore data patterns collectively, turning a high-pressure situation into a masterclass in collaborative problem-solving.

What moving forward as one really looks like

For The Allied Response team, the award is a reflection of a deeply ingrained company value. It is the understanding that major breakthroughs do not happen in silos.

Joshua Giumelli and his team build the vital infrastructure and tools that enable Nine’s developers to seamlessly run their applications. For Josh, the formula for success comes down to a simple philosophy. 

“Success comes from the work of a group rather than an individual. A unified team focused on a goal will produce a result greater than the sum of its parts.”

Andrew echoes this sentiment, highlighting the humility required to solve big problems. “Responding to incidents like this is absolutely a team sport. No one has all the answers; we rely on the expertise and experience of everyone involved to get to the best resolution for Nine together.”

A launching pad for continuous learning

Perhaps the greatest testament to Nine’s culture is how it supports emerging talent. For Rania, entering a fast-paced incident response environment just months into her internship was an incredible opportunity to learn by doing. Rania is part of Nine’s Data Platforms team and focuses on the infrastructure and tooling used by data engineers across the company.

“To me, ‘Move Forward as One’ means looking ahead rather than backward. After a major incident, we move forward by taking what we learned, sharing that knowledge across teams, and working together to build a more secure environment for Nine.”

Rather than fearing mistakes or unexpected hurdles, the team treated the challenge as a shared sandbox for growth. It provided Rania with a unique foundation that she will carry throughout her professional journey.

“I’m excited about taking the hands-on experience and knowledge I’ve gained from this incident response and applying it to the next chapters of my career.” 

At Nine, we believe that the best innovation happens when we experiment, test, play, and explore together. By leaning into our Move Forward as One value, our teams thrive on curiosity, celebrate collective success, and turn everyday challenges into opportunities for growth.