Summary
Having worked across many technologies and industries, Andy is a Technical Lead and Lead Full-stack Engineer with a track record of setting up teams to succeed.
They thrive in architecting holistic solutions to complex technical and business challenges, identifying and delivering high-value improvements that solve human problems.
Outside of work, they enjoy playing music and sword-fighting at LARP events.
Skills
- Native Mobile Development:
- Kotlin (Android), Swift (iOS)
- Web Development:
- JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Next.js
- Backend Development:
- C#, TS, Java, Kotlin
- Databases:
- PostgreSQL, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server
- CI/CD:
- GitHub Actions, Gitlab Pipelines, Jenkins
- Cloud Infrastructure:
- Terraform, Azure, AWS
- Development Methodologies:
- Agile, Scrum, Kanban
- Communication:
- Knowledge sharing, Workshops, Talks
- Leadership:
- Coaching, Mentorship, Continuous feedback
Work Experience
2024 – Current
Softwire
2025 – Current
Treaty Reinsurance Innovation Team
Lead Technical Consultant
Andy led a small team of junior and intermediate developers in creating bespoke solutions for treaty underwriters.
2024 – 2025
Electorial Integrity Programme
Technical Lead
As part of UK Elections, electors may apply for voting arrangements. These include setting up postal and proxy voting, obtaining a voter authority certificate (VAC), and registering as an overseas elector (OE).
Hundreds of thousands of applications for these voting arrangements come in through digital and paper routes every month, all of which require checks against other government services, making it a challenge for local authorities to process without the support of digital tooling.
Andy led the team of ten developers through a substantial refactor, while continuing to deliver high-impact features. They ensured delivery against tight deadlines, by supporting developers through clear direction, technical guidance, and getting stuck in to code, review, or test whenever needed.
- Impact:
-
Delivered refactor with minimal impact on uptime and zero impact on external intergations, allowing improvements to be implemented across postal, proxy, VAC, and OE application processing, reducing implementation cost by 40%.
Simultaneously delivered high-value improvements to the processing flow, saving tens of thousands of hours of work for electoral registration officers every month.
- Technologies used:
-
Kotlin, Spring, MySQL, TypeScript, Next.js, Terraform, AWS, SQS, Github Actions
Wider contributions
- Internal knowledgebase app:
-
Led a team to create an AI knowledgebase chat app to assist with writing bids and finding other internal knowledge.
- New starter training:
-
Delivered ongoing training for new starter cohorts, teaching them valuable development skills and experience.
- Coaching training:
-
Identified a need for communication and coaching training. Wrote and facilitated training sessions on coaching for colleagues, improving the quality of role mentorship and line management.
- Improving technical capability:
-
Ran events such as hackathons to develop ops skills and improve knowledge around infrastucture engineering.
2023 – 2024
Corndel
DevOps and Software Engineer Apprenticeships
Director of Digital Curriculum
Designed and crafted curriculum and learner experiences for Software Engineering apprenticeships.
Designed hiring requirements, processes, and tests for devops and software engineering trainers.
Delivered insight sessions for business stakeholders, to communicate the benefits of upskilling teams in DevOps, and to tap into the apprenticeship market.
- Impact:
-
Achieved a 100% pass rate on the software and devops courses, with 50% obtaining merits or above, and 25% achieving distinction grades.
Developed and maintained relationships with several clients, found opportunities for selling custom courses and training outside of apprenticeship material.
- Technologies used:
-
Docker, Microsoft Azure, Terraform, Python, GitHub Actions, Java, C#, Javascript, TypeScript
2022 – 2023
Softwire and Corndel partnership
DevOps and Software Developer Apprenticeship Training
Trainer (DevOps Course)
Head of Curriculum (Software Course)
Worked with fellow trainers to create, maintain, and deliver the DevOps curriculum and material.
Led the software team in delivering the first cohorts of apprentices on the new SD4 IFA v1.1 standard, and in communicating the changes in the new standard to colleagues, learners, and clients.
- Technologies used:
-
Docker, Microsoft Azure, Terraform, Python, GitHub Actions, Java, C#, Javascript, TypeScript
2018 – 2022
Softwire
2021 – 2022
Support Team
Technical Lead
On the support team, Andy enabled junior and mid-level developers in managing and maintaining projects for a variety of clients and projects, including:
- DLUHC: Register to Vote
- Flood Forecasting Centre
- Redburn Digital
- Impact:
-
Enhanced the capabilities of a multi-project, multi-technology team by mentoring and upskilling junior and intermediate developers to tackle challenging and unique tasks.
Documented, updated and decommissioned legacy applications and processes in a high-profile environment, discovering and distributing vital knowledge, to safely lower infrastructure and maintenence costs.
Maximised the effectiveness of time and materials for clients with smaller budgets by triaging and prioritising high-impact tickets.
- Technologies used:
-
C#, ASP.NET MVC, PostgreSQL, Ruby on Rails, AWS, React, TypeScript, Docker
2019 – 2021
LNER Mobile App
Full stack Engineer
Andy implemented iOS/Android mobile apps for LNER, providing travellers with journey planning, live information and other useful functionality. They also architected and implemented the underlying backend which integrates several upstream services, some of which were a challenge to integrate due to age and lack of documentation.
They developed across all aspects of this high-impact service, from native mobile development, to server-side TypeScript, to the infrastructure on AWS.
Designed an easy-to-use, well documented API that made integration from the mobile front-end easy, saving development time and effort.
Set up CI/CD to automate iOS, Android, and API building, testing, and deployment; reduced time-to-market by 20%.
Kotlin, Swift, TypeScript, GitLab, Terraform, AWS
2018 – 2019
Zurich Insurance Group - Data Warehouse
Database Engineer
2018
All of America - Reservwire TravelgateX Integration
Backend Developer
Education
2015 – 2018
University of Warwick
Mathematics (Hons) BSc
2.i