Senior / lead developer

Part of Realla's agile and highly productive development team building the company's commercial property search portal.

• Built new features for the site using Rails, ElasticSearch, JavaScript and Vue.js
• Orchestrated data collection, and built a suite of reports for the sales team to show how their clients' advertised listings were performing and which companies were looking at them, using Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, BigQuery and Data Studio.
• Fully localised the site, so it could be launched in France, USA and Canada
• Automated reporting of Core Web Vitals statistics to ensure the site was performant and valid, and ranked highly in Google searches
• Created a suite of browser tests with Jest and Puppeteer to ensure that Google Analytics events were still being triggered correctly
• Ported the core map search function (Google maps) from jQuery to Vue.js to improve performance and maintainability

Technologies used: Rails, JavaScript (ES6), Vue.js, ElasticSearch, Google Analytics, Data Studio, BigQuery, jQuery

Consultant

Integrated two companies' insurance tax and compliance data, and built a comprehensive tax calculation and compliance tool to give their customers the advantage of their combined expertise.

• Analysed the two data sets, and designed a schema to accommodate information from both
• Built a workflow allowing tax experts to identify and resolve discrepancies between the two sets of data
• Designed and built an API and tax calculator to prompt users for the required information, then present a breakdown of tax and compliance information
• Built a synchronisation system to ensure updates from both data sets were fed into the workflow, so the system was kept up to date with the latest data

Technologies used: JavaScript, Haplo repository, Redux, Tableau, jquery, underscore.js, Fossil SCM

Developer

Student Loans Company

Developed the Postgraduate Loan platform; a collection of Clojure and Java microservices with a JavaScript front-end, used to manage post-graduate loans

• Built microservices in Clojure and Java
• Ported a knockout-based frontend to React+Redux
• Upgraded the database to Mongo Enterprise

Technologies used: Clojure, Java, Javascript (ES6), React, Redux, Ruby, Mongo, Go CI, DropWizard, Chef, Capistrano

GOV.UK Verify

• Re-wrote the Verify front-end, which was a Java web application, in Ruby on Rails
• Developed the Verify platform (Java) which allows users to prove their identity and authenticate against many government systems.
• Improved performance of the system to ensure its ability to handle anticipated load
• Formulated a strategy for detecting attacks on the system, such as attempts to hijack a user's session and steal their identity

Technologies used: Ruby on Rails, rspec, Java, DropWizard, SAML, Guice, Gradle, Python, Sphinx, JavaScript, Jenkins, Puppet, Fabric

Ofgem

Extended a suite of MVC.net applications used to collect, process and manage data for customers of the Renewable Heat Initiative scheme.

Technologies used: C#, JavaScript, knockout.js

Zopa

• Extended and refactored a financial transaction platform used to create, match and administer loans, written in C#
• Added functionality to the customer-facing portal website, built with Ruby on Rails
• Refactored and automated the deployment of a Python machine learning system to identify loans that should be declined, reducing workload on the team

Technologies used: C#, Ruby, Rails, Sinatra, Capistrano, Python, Jenkins

Software Development Manager

Built software to generate revenue from the company's intellectual property, and automate as much of the core business function as possible:

• Insurance Premium Tax calculator and tax return generator that guided users through the process of importing clients' data, correcting errors, calculating tax, requesting funds, making payments and submitting tax returns. This reduced the burden on tax specialists, allowing them to handle more clients, and reduced financial losses due to miscalculation of taxes or late filing of returns.
• Web-based tax calculator product for underwriters and brokers to determine the correct taxes for a policy prior to providing a quote to their customer, eliminating financial losses and reputational damage. This was sold as a SaaS offering to customers, allowing the company to further monetise its tax and compliance database
• Client portal providing secure access to tax returns and financial statements, a customised tax calendar, and a knowledge bank of tax legislation and articles, removing the burden from staff.

Technologies used: Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, HTML, JavaScript with Prototype and jQuery libraries, Git and Subversion source control systems, Linux and Solaris operating systems

Freelance Developer

Worked directly with clients to see products through from conception to sign-off, and as part of a larger team of subcontractors.

Mobix Ltd | May 2005 - April 2009

Audio conferencing platform front-end built using PHP/HTML/JavaScript, companion mobile phone applications for Blackberry and Symbian, Novell Groupwise plugin.

Minetoo | July 2007 - February 2008

Social networking website using Ruby on Rails; based around the idea connecting with people sharing the same birthday.

Routo Telecom Ltd | November 2006 - March 2007

J2ME application for sending and receiving SMS and internal messages between Routo Telecom's customers, mimicking a typical handset's inbox, outbox and 'sent messages' setup.

Yview | October 2004 - April 2005

Scheduling and resource booking system for an oven cleaning company, written with a custom framework that used a combination of C++ for the business logic, and Perl scripts generating C++ to build HTML for the user interface, to produce a fully compiled stand-alone web application.

Onboard Consulting | October 2004 - December 2004

Java applet providing in-browser scanning functionality from any device attached to the local machine using the TWAIN interface.