When Rob Harper joined the army at just 16, he couldn’t have imagined he’d one day be leading a high-growth engineering company working with government agencies across the UK.
Harper began his career in the Royal Signals as a radio operator – “the stereotypical guy with the massive antenna that’s slightly more nerdy than all the manly men”, as he puts it.
Serving during the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns, he completed multiple tours and was eventually awarded an MBE in his twenties for his role supporting overseas counterterrorism operations. He downplays it with modesty, describing his job in the 216 (Parachute) Signal Squadron as simply “jumping out of planes with radios”.
That part of his journey came to an abrupt end following a serious parachuting accident that left him with a broken back. Desk-based roles followed, and although less physically demanding, they opened a new chapter in Harper’s career.
Learning the system from the inside
Working in defence procurement gave him a front-row seat to how the Ministry of Defence sources and rolls out new equipment. “It was an eye-opener into regulated procurement, from learning how the Treasury spends money to understanding what people on the ground actually need,” he told The Times.
The experience was eye-opening in another way too. Despite the technical sophistication of military equipment, Harper was struck by how little access frontline personnel had to basic digital tools. “I could set up whole radio networks, do very technically complex things, but I didn’t have a work email account. I didn’t have a work computer until I was 25.”
Starting something new
With a young family and a growing awareness of the gap between operational needs and technological capability, Harper left the army at 28 and started doing consultancy work. It confirmed what he already suspected – many of the tech providers working with government agencies were underperforming.
“I thought, I want to grow an engineering company,” he said.
That company became Rowden Technologies. Founded in 2016 in Bristol, it now employs 90 people and recorded £20.4 million in revenue in 2024, with £3.8 million in ebitda. Despite its growth, Harper remains grounded. “I wouldn’t say, ‘Oh yes, I’ve made it’. There’s still a lot of work to do.”
Building where others can’t
Rowden specialises in what’s known as “edge” systems – information infrastructure that functions in locations with poor connectivity or heightened security needs. That includes remote areas, critical missions and situations where cloud-based solutions aren’t viable. Harper calls it “the not particularly sexy plumbing – but without it, literally nothing works”.
He offered the example of the Scottish Fire & Rescue Service, who often operate in the Highlands with limited 5G or broadband access. “What do you do when there’s no 5G but you still need to communicate effectively?” he asked.
The answer lies in smart, decentralised infrastructure – combining satellite links, radio systems, and custom-built software that operates close to the action.
“You’re trying to move most of your communications and processing as close as you possibly can to where the action is happening,” he explained. “A shopping centre might be the edge for one company, but for us, we’re pushing that all the way to, for example, fields and ships, and it’s in mission-critical situations.”
Risk and reward
The early days of Rowden were far from easy. Wanting to compete with large defence contractors rather than work under them, Harper decided to fund the business independently. He remortgaged his home to raise enough capital to lease an office and hire 12 engineers.
“It was incredibly risky,” he admitted. “But I wanted to know as quickly as I possibly could, am I wasting my energy and my career on something that’s never going to take off? But I’ll be honest, it left us in a pretty binary position.”
Initial contracts were small, and money was tight. The breakthrough came when Rowden won a major MoD contract – against much larger competitors. “The next smallest company bidding had a market cap of £1 billion,” he said.
Harper believes their success was partly down to timing and partly to a shift in government attitudes. “We started winning because of a change in customer attitudes, with the government identifying contracts where they believed they could take what they perceived to be more risk,” he said. “Perhaps the timing was lucky, but we showed up with our hearts on our sleeves, emphasising transparency and technical knowhow.”
A vision for UK engineering
Today, Rowden continues to grow without venture capital backing. The firm has secured smaller contracts in the US and has ambitions to expand into other “Five Eyes” countries, including Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.
Harper is adamant that selling the business isn’t part of the plan. “Us selling to a US company in three years’ time should be viewed as a failure,” he said. “That is not the plan. I really want to build something and be able to say that it was possible – in a country with incredible engineering heritage, with really good universities, and brilliant available talent – to grow a multinational engineering company.”
This article is based on an original interview published by The Times
