18+ years of turning messy problems into working software

BT Business · Manchester

• —Built a reusable way for engineers to deploy their own Java and Node.js applications, with security, reliability and monitoring built in from the start rather than bolted on afterwards.
• —Created ready-made templates so new applications came with automated testing and deployment already wired up, cutting weeks off every new project.
• —Built the small building blocks used to set up every new cloud account safely and consistently.
• —Delivered and hosted new customer-facing websites so customers could sort things out themselves rather than phoning in.
• —Coached engineers and managers one-to-one, helping teams adopt the delivery practices proven to work best by DORA's State of DevOps research.

Plusnet · Sheffield

• —Led the build of a private cloud platform that gave the business the same speed and self-service ease as the big cloud providers, at a fraction of the cost.
• —Put comprehensive monitoring in place across networks, storage and infrastructure, so problems were spotted before customers noticed them.
• —Moved the systems that run sales, customer relationships and support onto the new platform, cutting running costs and getting new ideas live faster.
• —Championed sensible risk management and training, and set up a forum that introduced a new container platform with a much simpler deployment process.
• —Built a timesheet tracking application end to end, making it easier to account for project time and less of a chore for engineers.

Plusnet · Sheffield

• —Transformed the internal engineering cloud platform, making it more secure, breaking it into smaller independent services, and automating the build process.
• —Introduced self-service access, cutting the time it took to set up a new environment from 3 hours to 5 minutes.
• —Grew the number of test environments from 19 to 100 so more teams could work without waiting for each other.
• —Led the build of a pre-production environment purpose-built for testing failures, non-functional issues and migration dry runs before they hit customers.

Plusnet · Sheffield

• —Overhauled the business release process, moving from a monthly out-of-hours event to a routine in-hours release every two weeks.
• —Led a change to how every engineering team managed and versioned their code, bringing consistency across the business.
• —Improved the release tooling, making development environments more stable and removing common blockers to shipping.
• —Delivered Plusnet YouView TV, growing the offer from two services to three, and led the rollout of BT Sport.
• —Managed two UK-based teams (12 engineers) and coordinated with 10 offshore teams (8 engineers) as part of a major programme to rewrite Plusnet's legacy order-processing system.

Hitachi Capital · Leeds

• —Stabilised a set of large, tangled Java web applications and rebuilt them as a clean web API that could be used both internally and by outside partners.
• —Introduced the company's first automated testing and continuous integration as part of that rebuild.
• —Delivered new features requested by external clients on a steady two-week cycle, backed by automated tests.
• —Added a consistent way for applications and users to log in securely, with role-based permissions to control who could do what.
• —Built a notification system to keep partner organisations automatically up to date.

Artistry Solutions · Sheffield

• —Built Otaten.com, a website and online booking system for event equipment hire, hosted on Digital Ocean with automated deployment via CircleCI.
• —Built RooneyChase.com, a website and online booking system for a salon, hosted on Amazon AWS.
• —Delivered RODI end to end and installed it on site — a system for recording and transcribing video and audio.
• —Built Business Brain for ZUUK, a desktop application for secure, instantly editable documents with a full audit trail.