Curriculum Vitae
Because it sounds cooler in Latin
What You Probably Want to Know
I've been rolling code since 1999. I started in Perl, then did PHP for a decade, and for the last 15 years or so, Python has been my home. I've built stuff ranging from websites to vending machines, and am generally at home making things that push packets around a network. These days I'm happiest leading a team and mentoring other budding engineers.
I'm very comfortable working with Python/Django, Docker+Kubernetes, and PostgreSQL, but like getting my hands dirty with every layer of the stack.
Experience
Kraken Technology (Octopus Energy Group)
A short-term contract wherein I worked with Kraken's water division and consulted on architecture for the wider application.
Notable Technologies Used
Celery Django ElasticSearch Kubernetes PostgreSQLUtility Warehouse
UW is a sort of "utility aggregator" combining residential services for electricity, gas, home phone, mobile phone, internet, and insurance. I managed the "Stress Free Energy" team, where we were building and maintaining the infrastructure that ensures people can keep their lights on and their homes warm.
Notable Technologies Used
Docker Go Kafka Kubernetes PostgreSQLLimejump Ltd. (later, Shell Energy)
I lead the "Data & Reconciliation" team that handled the company's data collection & billing systems primarily through two flagship systems: a custom Python daemon that consumed data from multiple external sources, and a largish Django-based app that understood all the different ways of doing billing in the energy industry (there are just too many). In my time there, we built something beautiful and when Shell came along and dismantled the company, ours was one of the few projects they didn't destroy. I hear they're expanding its use to global markets so... yay?
Notable Technologies Used
Agile Amazon Web Services Architecture Celery CI/CD Django Docker Git Kafka Kubernetes Redis TerraformWorkfinder
Workfinder is a for-profit spin-off of the Fouders4Schools charity. Its focus is to connect young people and business with the work experience they both need.
Money Mover
A fintech startup that handles big money transfers across currencies and international boarders, I led the technical development of the web application. Primarily a Python/Django/PostgreSQL stack, we make use of a series of APIs to facilitate transfers by individuals and companies through a 3rd-party broker to destinations all over the world.
Primary roles include: Software architecture & development, hiring, and sprint management.
Elder Nerd Ltd.
A freelance consultancy specialising in web architecture. I primarily helped companies with systems design and hiring & retention. My contracts included:
UK Trade (formerly UKTI): Technical architect
A short-term contract with the British government to help design & build some of their internal systems. As technical architect I directed the layout of two projects and one demo using some fun tactics like splitting Django forms across a REST API using metaclasses and scraping email into a calendaring system in real time.
Cyan/Connode: Senior developer
Contract work wherein I assisted in assessing & fixing a bottleneck in their energy readings & storage infrastructure and helped work out some kinks in the hiring & retention process.
Side Projects & Freelancing
Zishi Cornerstone
After the success of my "Linux for Beginners" course, Zishi asked me to develop and deliver a new "Intermediate Linux" class as well. This resulted in a single presentation in excess of 165 slides and spanning 8 hours. It was delivered on-site on four separate occasions. I've also since been asked to reprise my presentations on Linux for Beginners and Docker.
Zishi Cornerstone
A side contract to run a few days of training for engineers new to two topics: Linux and Docker. The sessions included lectures with slides I prepared in advance, questions, and workshops.
BG Consulting
A side contract, I produced and led two remote training sessions for engineers hoping to expand the scope of their knowledge around security hygiene and technical debt. The sessions included lectures with slides produced by me in advance, Q&A, and a workshop.
Gynii-Me
I consult occasionally for a women's fertility platform. Primarily my role is advisory: I audit proposals from agencies offering to build the site and ensure that the medical data storage & transfers adhere to good security practices.
RxLenses.ca
I served as the primary technical contact and software engineer. The site was a simple Django/Bootstrap blend, patched into a transnational ordering system.
TheChange.com
A company I co-founded, the site was meant to serve as a "platform for change", or a way for companies to reach out to the public (and other companies) to help make everyone involved develop a more sustainable way of doing business.
Club Detailer
A family business that I was involved with from its inception in 2007. The product was a vending machine that used a series of sonic generators and pumps coupled with a PLC and a tiny headless computer, to handle credit card transactions, remote monitoring, and operate the golf club cleaning process.
Education
Simon Fraser University
Attended courses in world religions, African history, macroeconomics, and political science.
Vancouver Film School
Certificate of new media design.
Kwantlen Community College
Russia from Lenin to Gorbachev. One course to learn more about something less technical.
Notable
- Real social skills
- Exceptional Nerf dart accuracy
- I teach people how to code at Codebar sessions in Cambridge.
- Two-time hackathon winner: once building a monitoring system for networks at the RIPE Atlas hack, and again building a diagnostic and coping tool for macular degeneration patients at the Sudo:Immerse hack.
- Led two presentations and live demonstrations on software I developed at London Django Meetup.
- Prepared and led a workshop for learning Python & Django at DjangoCon Europe 2015.
- Author/maintainer of a number of reasonably popular Free software projects including Paperless, a document indexing system that's since been widely adopted by the community and forked into a variety of sub-projects, Aletheia a less-popular, but (I think, anyway) novel way to combat fake news / deep fakes online, Majel a voice-activated desktop automation system, and MT103, a parsing library for the Swift payments network.
- Presented a personal project, "Aletheia" at PyCon UK (video).