2001 - 2004

I graduated from the University of Exeter with a B.Sc. in Computer Science.

2004 - 2007

My first job out of university was at Risk Decisions. Some of the work included:

  • Managing the Australian branch office (where the right-hand photo above was taken)
  • Developing a Java-based reporting framework
  • Writing SQL queries and stored procedures targeting Oracle (PL/SQL) and Sybase (Transact-SQL)
  • Maintained the company website

2007 - 2008

I spent a year and half working for BAE systems in Yeovil (photo in nearby Portland). Whilst there I worked on Tactical Data Links (TDL) and mission planning software for the defence industry. The work included:

  • Developing a Windows geographic mapping application that was written in C++ and Java
  • Developing and testing C++ software that made use of Link 16, Link 11, UDP and DIS
  • Writing design documentation to comply with CMMI
  • Active involvement with the IET

2008 - 2013

I worked for IBM Storage Systems for 5 years (photo of IBM Hursley in the snow). The software is written in a mixture of Java and C and runs on Linux. Overview of activities:

  • Developing and defect fixing for a real time storage system
  • Taking the lead in re-factoring to improve software quality and maintainability
  • Collaborative design using MediaWiki and UML
  • Coaching other staff members on use of tools and code writing techniques
  • Taking out-of-hours support calls for our international customer base
  • Writing a patentable idea for which I have a US filing

2013 - 2019

I worked for Roke Manor Research for almost 6 years (headshot was taken on location). This was one of my favourite places to work as the projects were extremely varied and the grounds were stunning. The work included:

  • Being a technical scrum master and team lead for multiple projects
  • Being a line manager to 13 staff members
  • Using Python for test automation, data conversion and protocol emulation
  • Leading lunchtime DevOps learning sessions
  • Developing and defect fixing for radio monitoring systems written in C++, C# and WPF
  • Writing software that orchestrates a network of devices written in Java
  • Getting my AWS Solutions Architect certification

2019 - 2021

June 2019 is when I started my first company, Westsmith, which began as a way to deliver software projects for IBM Global Business Services. I also did some interesting freelance work during this period, which is described in more detail here.

Whilst at IBM I worked on the following projects:

  • Writing new features for a Spring Boot-based application
  • Creating Python-based test frameworks using Robot and PyTest
  • Mentoring developers on how to use AWS cloud services
  • Creating a monitoring solution for systems using OpenShift
  • Business analyst for a team writing Go microservices running on Kubernetes
  • Clean room requirements gathering, re-design, re-write and system testing of an undocumented legacy feature
  • Improvements to multiple monitoring tools based on disparate technologies. These include Elasticsearch, Prometheus, Thanos, Grafana, Kibana and Nagios

2021 - 2023

This two-year block in my career was when I broke away from longer-term engagements to work on a series of shorter projects. As this was post-Covid, most of these were remote. The photo above was taken during a visit to the London headquarters of Babylon Health.

I worked for the following organisations:

2023 - 2024

I spent a year working remotely for the University of Cambridge’s IT department on cloud migrations to GCP. The photos above were taken during a DevOps away day. The work was mainly focused on a single project which is described in more detail here.

Today

I have moved my business (and myself) to the Incuhive space in Hursley. Looking forward to what lies ahead in this creative space.