I’m a polyglot Software Engineer and Architect with an operations mindset. I’m a technical leader and mentor, and specialise in scaling and optimising technical teams. I enjoy tackling technical debt in legacy applications. I like scaling systems and eking out every last bit of performance. I work well with product people and explain technical concepts clearly for non technical staff.

Experience and Projects

October 2016 to present - Lead Developer at Government Digital Service, London

  • Overall responsibility for development practices and delivery on GOV.UK
  • Mentored, managed and lead a team of 40+ developers
  • Worked with Product Managers and senior leadership to define GOV.UK roadmap
  • Created well-regarded process for managing 6 years of technical debt
  • Coordinated GDS developer community with other leads and Senior Civil Servants
  • Systems and infrastructure architecture including migration to AWS
  • Technical strategy including build vs buy decisions and architectural vision

April 2015 to Oct 2016 - Senior Developer at Government Digital Service, London (Contract)

  • Developer and later Technical Lead on GOV.UK’s Core Publishing team
  • Migrated a large legacy publishing system to new unified API
  • Worked with Product and Delivery Managers to shape and prioritise work
  • Identified requirements for new API and built features
  • Worked across programme to improve and automatically check code style
  • Coordination of mentoring of junior developers across the community

June 2014 to April 2015 - DevOps / Software Engineer at Lyst Ltd, London

  • Switched to Docker for build, CI and production deployment
  • Moved from fortnightly releases to deploying 5 times a day
  • Built an analytics pipeline for Cloudfront Logs with Lambda, DynamoDB and Redshift

February 2012 to June 2014 - Senior Software Engineer at Global Personals Ltd, Windsor

  • Focused on scaling backend services
  • Scaled email delivery to 13 million messages per day
  • Vastly improved unit test coverage and implemented Continuous Integration
  • Ported microservices to more suitable languages and frameworks to increase throughput
  • Interviewed, welcomed and mentored new hires

June 2009 to February 2012 - Technical Director at Rawnet Ltd, Windsor

  • Ruby Web Developer later promoted to Technical Director of award-winning web agency
  • Overall responsibility for all development and server infrastructure
  • Direct management of team of 9 developers of varying levels and seniority
  • Leading technical contributor in a wide range of client projects
  • Built a bespoke CRM for a large legal publisher
  • Created automated broadcast video library for a PR firm
  • Scaled Williams F1 website to handle load spikes using dynamic includes at the CDN
  • Accompanied Sales executives on pitches and provided bid-winning technical ideas

August 2007 to June 2009 - Developer at Multiplay (UK) Ltd, Southampton

  • Created large scale file distribution site before CDNs were affordable
  • Maintained and improved legacy Perl system for game server control
  • Worked as an Event Manager during 2,000+ attendee gaming shows

December 2005 to August 2007 - Lead Developer at TNWA Ltd, London

  • Initial employee of cash-gaming startup
  • Ported outsourced ASP Classic application to ASP.NET
  • Created Python backend for game server communication and financial transactions
  • Implemented Python application for Windows anti-cheat application

May 2004 to December 2005 - IT Support / Developer at Simply Stuck Ltd, Andover, Hants

  • Created automated printing system for customised children’s clothing labels
  • Saved hundreds of hours of labour per month and reduced errors