Introduction

Highly skilled Developer with a strong preference for front-end architecture and extensive experience in designing and implementing web applications for major organisations, including Deloitte UK, Government Digital Service, and NHS Digital. Proficient in TypeScript, JavaScript, React, Next.js, Vue.js, and Node.js, with expertise in build shareable optimised packages, and enhancing front-end performance. Brings product startup experience and a focus on creating modular, scalable, and accessible solutions. Demonstrated ability to lead UI/UX development, manage sensitive data, and ensure seamless integration across multiple product teams. Skilled in mentoring team members and fostering effective communication with stakeholders.

Background

After 6+ years in the tech industry, this provided key commercial experience and developed vast transferable skills such as communication, teamwork, and organisation. Such examples are in addition to the technical programming skills gained at Makers Academy and General Assembly. I am familiar with working in tech teams from both a Software Engineering and Agile delivery stance; this, I feel, gives me a unique ability to add value to a business.

Objective

I'm looking to work for an organisation where I can make a meaningful contribution, learn a lot and have a positive impact on team success. I am a fast learner, and I am willing and enthusiastic to learn new technology stacks and skills.

Key Technologies

JavaScript (ES6), React, Node.js, Express, Sinatra, Git workflow, SASS, CSS, HTML.

Reengage Portal Full Stack application used to help with my volunteer work with the elderly for Reengage charity built using React, Node, Express and Mongodb. To hear more about the tech stack and agile workflow - here is a short video about the project from the final project demo day. Live site: here Username: admin-example Password: passw0rd-portfolio	Acebook Full Stack application which is a simplified dupe of social media website - Facebook built using React, Node, Express and Mongodb. Tested in JEST and Cypress	Makers b&b Full Stack application which is a simplified dupe of booking website - Airbnb built using Ruby, Javascript, Sinatra, PostgreSQL. Tested in RSPEC (unit) and Capybara(feature) Deployed
Personal Website Front-end application showcasing my personal portfolio built using Javascipt, jQuery, HTML, SASS (currently converting to React) deployed	News Summary API Front-end application using the Guardian newspaper API to display news articles on a single page application built using Javascript and Fetch API	Weather API app Front-end application using the Open Weather API to display current weather conditions on a single page application built using Javascript and Fetch API deployed
Bank Technical Test This technical test demonstrates test driven development, high code quality and Object Orientated Principles. Users can withdraw and deposit cash and print statement via REPL Built using Vanilla Javascript and Jasmine for testing	Bowling Kata Users can input bowling scores and keep record of the game built using Vanilla Javascript and Jasmine for testing	Thermostat API app Front-end application allowing users to increase or decrease temperature with configuration settings Built in Vanilla Javascript. Using Open weather API to pull in current temperature information

• JavaScript, Node and React - I have a variety of projects using full-stack capabilities and comfortable tackling efforts solo or working in collaborative groups
• RESTful APIs - I can build using REST to send and receive requests
• TDD approach - Makers academy reinforced the value of using a test drive approach and the importance of thinking behaviour first, while maintaining high code coverage via unit tests and acceptance tests.
• Object Orientated Programming - Able to write code by breaking the objects into classes and methods/functions.
• Debugging - I have a calm and rational approach to debugging, by gaining visibility of the bug, and tightening the loop until fixed.
• Documentation writing - I can write clear and concise documentation for anything I write, allowing for the next developer to understand the code

In my previous role I have used:

• GoCD (pipeline instrumentation)
• Fastly (cache management)
• AWS: Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) (cloud-computing platform)

Passionate about UI During my time at Beamly my strengths were in being able to take a visual design in sketch, and transforming this into a fully functioning website/campaign page through Javascript, React and HTML/CSS, with pixel-perfect precision. I collaborated well with the UX team and was able to help meet the delivery deadlines which delighted clients.

Keen eye for code detail while re-platforming the legacy websites from Drupal to React, this required redirecting legacy URLs to the new URLs, this taught me about regular expressions as all redirects were implemented through a JSON file, and needed a keen eye for detail. Additionally, this was sometimes in Russian or Chinese, so required special attention.

Accessibility - After Topshop was sued for lack of accessibility in 2018, this was due to alt images not having appropriate 'alt' tags and colour contrasting below satisfactory standards. I suggested to the next company I worked for that this be addressed to avoid any legal issues in future.

Performance - While running site tests at Arcadia, I spotted that the images provided by the Design teams were huge and slowed site performance down. I suggested we reduce the imagery size (while not compromising quality) for faster site performance; This improved the website load speed by 50%.

UAT testing, A/B testing - While working at Arcadia, I was running site analytics on Adobe Omniture (homepage tracking report) every week. I noticed that the homepage hero's second and third image on the slider was not generating many clicks. Therefore no traffic was reaching those pages. We decided to run A/B testing to see if the website homepage could be improved, I coded a few different examples, and the analytics proved over the coming months that this was the right decision as the visitors preferred to see all imagery upon landing on the homepage.

Mobile-first mentality - When building a website for a new client, I used my knowledge gained from General assembly. When queried on how to mobile optimise, I suggested we as developers use a triple nested flexbox as the design was in a grid-like format so would be the best approach. I had noticed that 80% of the audience was mobile users, so Mobile-first decisions should be at the forefront of decision making and flexbox allowed this. We built the website using mobile-first, and it launched in 2019.

Junior Software Engineer - Beamly - part of Coty,London

Contributed to the build of web platform and design system, utilising a third party headless CMS using HTML 5, SCSS, JavaScript, React.js and Redux. The product was designed to decrease the time to build performant sites of global beauty and consumer brands by 65%. Here I updated and improved suite of components as part of a dedicated agile squad,

• Utilised component library to build pages and redesign websites, adhering to S.O.L.I.D engineering principles
• Re-platformed brand websites Rimmel, Sally Hansen, Max Factor and Marc Jacobs within the broader development team from Drupal to React. Working on large codebases allowed me to work with legacy code as well a build new react components
• I am confident using Visual Studio Code to build and test code, Github and command line for version and branch control, GoCD and Fastly for pipeline instrumentation and cache management.
• Jira for ticket management and Confluence for documentation.

Technical Delivery Manager - Beamly - part of Coty, London

I was the first point of contact for 87 global clients, determining business needs and led the team to deliver projects on budget and on time.

• Managed end-to-end innovative projects - interactive quiz campaign pages, chatbot and website, builds across global markets.
• Led scrum ceremonies - stand-ups, sprint planning, refinement and sprint reviews. Stakeholder management including gathering requirements, demonstrations and presenting KPI's
• Worked with in house and offshore development teams in Poland to ensure smooth and efficient workflow within agreed SLA's. - Internally planning team resource, timeline, budgets and drawing up Statements of Work.
• Managed maintenance through Chrysalis ticketing system, prioritised web tickets based on business needs.

Digital Production Coordinator - Arcadia Group, London

Managed content delivery and optimisation of UK + 5 International Miss Selfridge e-commerce websites, mobile sites and apps, led a team of on-site digital assistants and offshore developers in India.

• Product Owner for migration of 6 sites to a new responsive website, lead the A/B testing strategy working with third party 'Qubit' and trained team on the platform.
• Managed all BAU content through CMS and product migration, improving order volumes by 5% and additional product filter attributes, increased CTR of 10%.
• Built-up in-house email deployment team, and trained staff on the email service provider, HTML email campaign creation and processes, thus reducing cost by approx £20,000 a year.
• Selected from over 100 applicants to meet regularly with the CEO and highest stakeholder of Arcadia – Sir Philip Green to partake in extra projects. Promoted from Assistant to Coordinator, six months into the role.

Digital Campaigns Assistant - SAGE publications, London

• Created HTML email templates and campaigns for all 20 markets Designed and built web forms, surveys and pages
• Liaised and presented email performance insights to stakeholders

A 16-week intensive software engineering boot camp. I was working in a group setting following an Agile framework, using daily standups to ensure delivery of our target features. We used a TDD approach to create a series of full-stack applications using a combination of Ruby and Javascript with frameworks such as Node and React.

• Always aiming to sharpen my toolset & craft well-written, readable code
• Staying curious with new and popular technologies
• Mentored a student in a later cohort, this helped embed the information I had learnt and enabled me to grasp key concepts of the course fully
• Learning, honing and maintaining best practices for coding (e.g. TDD, XP Values, Agile approach)
  • Languages: Ruby, JavaScript (and jQuery), HTML/CSS
  • Web Frameworks: Sinatra, node.js/Express
  • Databases: PostgreSQL, MongoDB
  • Testing Suites: RSpec, Capybara, Selenium-Webdriver, Jasmine, Jest
  • CI/CD: Travis CI, Heroku

A 10-week part-time course where I learnt to build responsive websites with HTML, CSS, and simple JavaScript. This course kick-started my career change, and I was able to transfer from a Delivery Management role to a Software Engineering role at the company I was working for at the time.

The course equipped me with offers a practical and repeatable methodology that achieves an ideal balance between the standards, rigour and visibility required for proper project management, and the fast-pace, change and empowerment provided by Agile.

• Final Major Project: As a student, I found it difficult to find Adhoc jobs in my local area to help make ends meet. I created a website using PHP, Javascript, HTML and CSS, which hosted jobs postings by employers, and students could sign up using their university email address and apply to jobs via a jobs board. Code can be found here.
• Core subjects: History of the Web, Interface design, Accessibility, Project Delivery and Technical Coding modules. I selected PHP, SQL, Javascript, and HTML/CSS as my focussed technical languages.

Kesteven and Grantham Girls School - A levels in Business, Media, Theatre and Dance.

Communication and social skills: I pride myself of being a 'peoples person'. My commercial experience provided me with the foundations for clear and concise communication with internal and external teams. I was able to communicate with teams regarding the day to day business with internal project/product managers, UX and QA teams, as well as stakeholders on status updates and showcasing the product build. Relaying what can sometimes be technical jargon into layman's terms was an essential skill as it allowed for clear communication and cross-function collaboration.

Adaptable - The scope for a project would often change, as per clients needs. For example, in 2019, we had two weeks to deliver a new website for the Max Factor Swedish market, this had press attached to it, so the deadline fixed. As the clients needs changed due to a change in branding, the engineering team's priorities shifted to accommodate this, this taught me to be adaptable in the face of change, and not to be precious about code.

I documented my Makers Academy learning journey on my blog where all of my Makers Academy. blog.

Once a quarter, I participated in company Hackathons. The last Hackathon as a team of 4, we built a tool to help make reading company documents a fun experience. We built an app where, as a user, so that they can view goals and objectives for the next quarter in a fun and interactive way, the app would display any given document using common slang, as oppose to formal language. We built this using a find and replace script in Javascript. We won top project of the day out of 20 teams, and won £1000 to spend at a restaurant of our choice.

• I love staying fit and healthy by going to the gym. I am a member at At Your Beat Dance Studio and Base Dance studios, where I go to dance classes a few times a week via ClassPass. I also like to mix this up with Yoga and Pilates.
• I regularly go to tech events in London, such as Codebar and DevelopHer when I meet and network with others in similar industries. Since lockdown, I have been going to the DevelopHer virtual meetups.
• I volunteer for a charity - Re-engage (www.reengage.org.uk). This is a charity which connects volunteers to older citizens in the local community (usually 75+) in a bid to tackle loneliness and isolation among the elders. The group coordinator role is to organise tea parties for a small group of elders every month on weekends. I based my final project at Makers was based on my volunteer work.
• I have always been one for getting involved in multiple aspects of company life from social committees to Corporate Social Responsibility societies. I have been part of every social committee for every company I have worked for, even stemming back to university life where I was on the social secretary for the Leeds University Cheerleaders.

Fun fact: I am a qualified scuba diver

I have a keen interest in Typescript, so I am currently building a project with the focus of learning this language as after reading blog articles about the security benefits (particularly on large codebases) of Typescript. Voice Notes is a full stack feature app which is built using Typescript and React in the front end, and Nodejs for the backend. With graphQL as a query language. I am really enjoying getting to know the tech stack and contributing to this project as it solves a real world problem.