Resume ⋮ CV ⋮ About

Role Profile: Technical Lead, Technical Project Manager, Server Management

• Bought into the Istoria Group, to set up and define a new division of the organisation, called 'Tiny Spark'
• The division created to serve new media, online and digital requests within the group; as well as a division that wins it's own work directly
• Defining the server set up, source control processes, project control processes & CI/CD methodologies
• Defining standards to which projects should be produced, deployed & monitored
• Defining reporting methods, to allow the production of consistent output to clients
• Defining method to use rich media and classical website methodologies to create a more immersive experience

Role Profile: Technical (Project) Manager & Senior Developer

• Ekino absorbed the other technical offerings within Havas as part of the London Kings Cross ‘village’ approach. As a result, I was transferred into this department
• Defining and scoping the more complex client projects, working with clients and the project managers to ensure what is required is both fully defined and deliverable
• Ekino absorbed the other technical offerings within Havas as part of the London Kings Cross ‘village’ approach. As a result, I was transferred into this department
• Defining and scoping the more complex client projects, working with clients and the project managers to ensure what is required is both fully defined and deliverable
• Producing lo-fi functioning technical proofs of concept for the more challenging aspects of projects, prior to commitment to build
• Pitching and presenting to clients both for the purposes of new business, as well as to assisting projects through production
• Acting both hands on and as an advisor for WordPress based (and other) projects within the technical team, ensuring a methodology standard and to keep projects moving
• Assisting project managers with Jira flow, project definition and story boarding to make them as suitable as possible for the technical team
• Involved in the UX and design process of projects, to ensure requirements are defined and clear for the technical team
• Reviewing UX and designs to discover and possibly remove any user flow and design choices that would impact negatively on development times or costs
• Producing back end only solutions for use in front end projects, for example APIs and other data hooks; removing the data complexity layer for purely front end React / Vue developers
• Tech lead for projects that required hosting solutions that were not part of the standard offers supported by the wider server team; this included building up new servers (in various flavours), setting up VPN server connections and other required bespoke solutions based upon client’s needs / requirements
• Won a Campaign Media award for the 'Long Live The Local' campaign in 2019 (link) (youtube)
• Won an effie silver award for the 'Long Live The Local' campaign in 2019 (link)
• Won a DMA award for 'Long Live The Local' campaign in 2018 (link)

Role Profile : Technical Manager & Senior Developer

• Bought in to assist the setting up of a new media (technical) department within what was then an ‘old’ media company, known as WebNarrative, as part of a team all from my previous employer. The main objective for this team was to review existing old media clients’ online offerings, to optimise their SEO and accessibility as part of their wider media campaign, as well as building new web offerings from scratch
• The team was further integrated with other teams (social, mobile, SEO & Brand) to create an overall ‘Creative services’ brand offering from Havas
• Creating SEO & accessibility audits for ‘in the door’ clients, highlights web site issues and resolution paths to these issues
• Pitching for new client work, as the technical manager, presenting solutions to clients, as well as costing up and defining project scope and scale
• Optimizing hosting solutions for clients, migrating clients away from legacy or unsuitable solutions
• Assisting migrating clients ‘stuck’ on paid for CMS solutions to free, more suitable, alternatives reserve engineering databases and systems to produce content export pipelines prior to the design and production of new solutions
• Creating a standard starting point offering for clients, often using a WordPress back end, allowing clients to move to an admin system more favoured by their admin staff, but without losing any of the required functionality of complexity they required
• Building strong relationships between this new technical team with other Havas departments and clients alike
• Interviewing for new staff and contractors into the technical team, as well carrying out the company review process for existing staff

Role Profile: Developer, later being promoted to Tech Team Leader

• Initially joined this company as a developer, moving up to senior programmer, then the technical team leader
• Managing the technical team, as well as working with the corresponding UX / Design lead to manage projects
• Managing projects written in .NET, PHP & Coldfusion; offering coding support for PHP & CF.
• Controlling departments staffing levels, skill utilisation, project & task allocation, as well as staff holidays and overtime
• Creating a content & deployment framework to reduce the issue of ‘reinventing the wheel’ at the start of each project (tmgCMS). This processed an array of standard tools that a website might require, but customisable from this starting point based on client needs well before standard ‘blogging’ tools were capable of this level of flexibility
• Working with various government departments to ensure their web offering met accessibility standard
• Working as project lead to integrate the 3 different technical and web offerings from 3 governmental departments when CQC was created. Due to my previous work with the Healthcare Commission, the company was recommended as the most suitable to carry out this work
• Managing the scoping, coding, data importing and hosting of the Healthcare Commissions Annual Health Check, the governmental annual review of the performance of the NHS. This high-profile project was produced on time and on budget every year
• Received a Webby Awards Honoree for my work on the Reed Smith LLP website in 2006 (link)

Role Profile : Intranet Solution Developer & Manager

• Was bought in to produce and manage a new intranet system, to replace an old system that was not fit for purpose
• This was going to be a single place for the running of the company, controlling project plans, resource management, timesheets, invoicing, P/L management & HR. Additional meeting room booking and other office-based functionality
• Spending time within each department to gather their requirements and scope out a solution for their needs
• Scoping out via wireframes how each user requirement flow should function, as well integrating these different tasks into one single offering
• Creating a single internal portal that would be the single point for each employee, to see what tasks they had booked, to check project statues, or whatever their needs were
• Working on client projects when there was a skill or resource gap, however the main role remained the continued evolution of these internal tools

Role Profile : Online solutions manager

• Running the online component of various e-learning software tools (CD-ROM based)
• Creating bespoke interactive forums, chatrooms & email systems to compliment these off-line e-learning systems
• Building systems to allow the CD-ROMs to be updated via online processes, which was ahead of it’s time in the dial up days of the internet

BSc(Hons), Computer Aided Chemistry

• Awarded a 1st for the final year dissertation which discussed the options of using the internet as a tool for distance learning; including creating a proof of concept based upon my final year’s chemistry degree.
• Worked at the University campus radio station (GCR) as the Station Controller and DJ

• 4 - A-levels
• 12 - GCSEs