Leading Effective Software Engineering Teams

In my 15+ year career I have so far:

• Headed up software engineering and development at Go Ape, the UK's best outdoor adventure company.
• Worked as a software engineering manager at ABL 1 Touch, a fast growing technology-driven vehicle repair company.
• Worked as an engineering technology lead manager at LloydsDirect, the UK's leading online pharmacy.
• Consulted as Lead Backend Developer for Nigella Lawson's Foodim app.
• Built a digital product that got acquired by Crown Worldwide for a considerable sum.
• Lead the development of seedata.io's initial MVP; just in-time for investors to review the result.
• Worked with small startups to establish game-changing products in their field.
• And of course, much much more!

Working Locations

Collaboration is very important to me; but please note that I work remotely at my co-working space and home office the majority of the time. I can make accommodations to visit in-person regularly where we think it is beneficial to do so.

Salary / Day Rate Expectations

I would not be able to consider a role that pays less than £90,000 per year if PAYE or £450 per day if contracted.

Industries I Don't Work For

There's a few industries that I choose not to work for. I don't want to make a moral thing of it, it's just a personal preference so please do not be offended. These industries include:

• Gambling
• Crypto
• Alcohol
• Marketing / Ad-Tech
• Government

Technical Caveats

It should be noted that my technology experience has been using:

• React / Next.js
• Laravel
• Tailwind CSS
• Go

I will never pretend to be capable of something I'm not and so if you're using something that I don't think I'll be effective in helping you with then I'll let you know. This naturally only applies to roles where you need a more hands-on approach to the work; after-all; a captain cannot be an expert of every system of their ship.

Advice / Technical Partner

Sometimes my clients / employers don't need active managerial or software development services. For example: sometimes they need to hire a dedicated resource in-house but have no technical knowledge within the company to know how to hire the right person. I offer advice, interviewing and reviewing candidates and technical direction at a consulting rate of £75 per hour.

Below is a curated selection of previous works and collaborations. I'd love to show more, but unfortunately strict NDAs prevent me from divulging the details of some engagements.

Nigella Lawson's Foodim App

I acted as the early-stage technical partner for Nigella and her Pabulum team define the product direction and execution of Foodim, the food-based social media app. The app is designed and built with performance as a number one priority. Instant scalability was key.

This wasn't a small app to be used by a handful of users; the scale to which this would grow would be huge and the software had to handle that. As Lead Backend Developer it was my responsibility to ensure that the software was built to scale and that the team were able to deliver on the ambitious roadmap.

Foodim runs from a lightweight Laravel application API and has a native Swift iOS application built in collaboration with Ben Dodson.

Industry Leading Estimation Tool

Hambro Roofing have been using technology to optimise as many parts of their business as possible. I have partnered with them extensively to help create a central platform that all jobs, estimates, accounting, assets and more are managed in.

I spent a huge chunk of time working closely with them to help build out a next-generation estimation tool that is now being turned into a standalone digital product to sell within their industry.

I lead a small team of engineers and co-ordinated the development work on this project to build their new estimation tool.

Product & UX Direction for Sterling Lexicon & Suddath

I was hired for my software development experience in the global relocation industry to help Suddath and Sterling Lexicon map out and design their new suite of customer-facing tools and portals.

I helped the companies understand their user's requirements and map out the feature sets required for a multi-stage, long term software development project. I was able to lean on my network of designers and developers and work in collaboration with Ekrem Elmas to provide the internal software development teams with platform brand guidelines and user experience assets.