.Net Candidate

Principal Software Engineer and Tech Lead

Summary

I am a highly motivated and proficient principal software engineer, architect and technical lead. I am able to work in many different programming languages and development stacks, easily learning new technologies and toolsets.

I love software development, and will always work on the technical side. Although the technical side is my passion, I am also a great communicator and technical lead. I am able to inspire/educate others, and I am usually the person people will go to with technical questions due to my knowledge, friendliness and team mentality.

I have a broad range of skills, including an understanding of commercial needs and I’m more than happy to work directly with the customer.

Core skills

C# (.net framework/core), Javascript, Java, C++, CSS, YAML, WinForms, WPF, ASP.NET MVC, Node.js, jQuery, Angular, Boost, Json, ServiceStack, NHibernate, Entity Framework, Devops, TDD, CI/CD, ORM, Design Patterns, Scrum, Agile, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Git, TFVC

Secondary skills

Azure, AWS, Docker, PowerShell, PHP, Python, Pascal/Delphi

Education

M.Eng Cybernetics (First class honours) University of Reading

A levels - Maths A, Further Maths A, Physics A, Computing A, General Studies B

S Level - Mathematics (Distinction).

GCSE - 4A*, 6A

2001-2005 (M.Eng Cybernetics)

I graduated with an M.Eng in Cybernetics (First Class Honours) from The University of Reading.

During my studies I was awarded several prizes (‘Best part II project’, ‘Best Part III M.Eng. Group Project’, ‘The Siemens Automation & Drives Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement’ from the Institute of Measurement and Control, ‘Master of Engineering Best Degree Result’, ‘External Examiners Commendation 2005 – Commendation for new approaches in Artificial Intelligence’)

For my final year project, which involved studying the role of emotions in Artificial Intelligence using Learning Classifier Systems, I was awarded a commendation (see above) and also had a paper published ('An Autonomous Explore/Exploit Strategy' in 'Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO2005) workshop program'). I was also part of the committee responsible for organising a conference for the Cybernetics department where all 3rd and 4th year students present the projects they have been working on.

(A- Levels)

I got 5 A Levels (A, A, A, A, B) in Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Computing with the B in General Studies. I should probably remove the B from my CV, but I like to think it shows that I’m more rounded. I was also entered for an “S Level” in Mathematics, in which I achieved a distinction.

At GCSEs (Gawthorpe High School) all my grades were A* or A.

Employment History

Sept 2007 – Present,

Principal Software Engineer, Technical Lead and Architect

During my 14+ years I have worked on many different products and projects. The majority of the time I worked in a team (of about 15) responsible for a product suite that has been on the market for over 20 years. This allowed me to learn a great deal about maintaining/improving a large product, with legacy components, over an extended period. Within this suite I have been responsible for taking several brand-new products from prototype through to production (and long-term maintenance). Very early on I was considered the technical authority on several of the products, and took the lead on developing them. More recently I have become the principal software engineer, architect and technical lead for the entire suite. As technical lead I have been responsible for onboarding and training several new team members as well as directing the development effort of the entire development team. For the past 2 years I have also taken on a mentor role for several interns and recent graduates, which I have found tremendously rewarding.

Over the past few years this product has been experiencing large growth because we have added a cloud-based offering (AWS), that is more easily scalable, and allows us to add new customers cheaper and faster. While a change of this magnitude involves many team members, I was a key part in both developing the new functionality, whilst maintaining an oversight of the project and making sure that our existing customers were not impacted by any changes.

I also took an informal secondment for just over a year where I worked on a product that is primarily developed in the USA. This has given me experience of working as part of an international team, and given me the opportunity to face a host of different challenges, working in a dramatically different way. The technology stack for this project was very different than what I was used to, but I was able to quickly apply my existing skills and learn the necessary new skills so that I very quickly became one of the key team members. On this placement I was instrumental in making a huge success of a challenging project (with an incredibly challenging deadline) for a major US airline. This then led to further business, with the customer specifically requesting my involvement.

Whilst working at Rockwell I have acted as an agent for change and have been instrumental in making the following changes amongst others:

• Migrating from SourceSafe to TFS with a custom template that fitted with existing process while allowing for future changes, this involved working with corporate IT to provision and administer the server. I then became the “go-to” person for our processes and systems, maintaining this system for many years
• Migrating from TFS to Azure Devops (cloud), making sure that we maintained access to all historical data while modernizing our toolset and processes
• Introducing the use of an ORM (NHibernate/FluentNHibernate); gaining team/national/international corporate approval
• Introducing an automated and structured database migration process
• Developing a clear and effective branch/merge process that leverages TFS and removes a lot of the current development pain-points. With the recent migration to the cloud, I have also migrated the source code to git, and switched to a GitFlow process, including documenting how this will interface with our existing processes
• Introducing TDD and unit testing as a whole, including the use of mocking frameworks
• Moving towards a more agile/lean development approach.
• Introducing a thorough CI process that is fully integrated with the release, branch and merge processes.
• Added an alternative database platform (PostgreSQL) to the entire product suite including an old monolithic C++ application to massively reduce the database costs.

Sept 2005 - Sept 2007, Software Developer (Graduate Scheme)

I joined the graduate scheme as a software developer working on the DVLA project, where I was involved in a software migration project. This assignment allowed me to learn the skills and processes required to work on a major government project.

After 6 months on this project, I secured a secondment to the “Technology Innovation” department, where I spent 5 months working in a varied role including analysing technical papers for potential issues/opportunities for the company, I was also responsible for the delivery of an internal tool for managing the reuse of IP within the company along with championing its uptake.

When my secondment finished, I went back to a technical role working as a developer on a project creating a new offering in the SOA space. As a green-field project this gave me the opportunity to work with a lot of the latest technologies and methods, allowing me to achieve a high level of specialisation in SOA, Agile, .net etc.

As a member of the graduate scheme, I played an active role, writing articles for the graduate newsletter and also designing and running a workshop for the graduate community that has now been made part of the overall graduate scheme.