I managed this green field development programme to build a large development team to successfully deliver a new cloud hosted solution with a very tight deadline to be live with 25 markets and replace an existing business application platform which had a fast-approaching end of life hard stop. This project also included the end-to-end operational pipeline to support our regular release cycle to production. Using the SAFe delivery framework, I managed the technical delivery across five scrum teams where continuous improvement was key to our success. The externally facing web application and API technical solution has a microservice architecture hosted in Kubernetes using Docker and the Istio service mesh. The solution was developed primarily with .Net Core, Python, and React.js, as well as leveraging managed cloud services such as PostgreSQL, message queues, and storage. The system has a dependency on a number of shared dunnhumby cloud platforms whose teams we work with very closely to support our hosting in either GCP or Azure and utilising fully automated deployments.

I returned to this business area to organise the successful delivery of a development project to re-platform the products' on-demand data insight capability. The adoption of a new accelerator technology and the development of a supporting microservice platform provided faster and more flexible rollouts to new markets. The new platform also supported the delivery of a new external API solution to provide our retail partners access to our science and data for integration into their own assortment systems.

I was responsible for the delivery of an external API solution hosted in Azure that delivered personalised product recommendations to customers of the grocery home shopping websites of our retail partners. I was required to take the early prototype of this API product and deliver a robust and performant global solution that could be consumed directly into the live retail web sites of our retailers around the world. This meant the APIs were required to be highly configurable and support the measurement of the recommendation science with such capabilities as A/B testing. Later, my responsibility also included the Science Engine team for the management of the end-to-end solution and exposure to a world of new and interesting technologies.This role involved me moving away from hands-on development with the management of multiple teams but with a very much continued close involvement in the design and direction of the solution. I also discovered the power of effective DevOps practices and tools to improve the frequency and reliability of our regular release and deployment cycles.

I took on further responsibilities as a hands-on Engineering Manager for a number of product Agile development teams within the Category Solutions business area using the .Net and Oracle development stack. I took on further responsibilities as a hands on Engineering Manager for a number of product Agile development teams within the Category Solutions business area using the .Net and Oracle development stack.

I took the opportunity to join dunnhumby on a permanent basis as a Lead Engineer for a number of web development projects delivering dunnhumby business applications that were primarily built around .Net, Oracle, Flex, and WCF services.

Senior .Net engineer on a number of dunnhumby product development projects.

I worked as a contractor at Marks and Spencer's Head Office in the General Merchandising IT division for nearly 6 years as a Systems Developer/Architect and was heavily involved in both front-end and back-end development on several systems.Contracts Management SystemI was first brought into M&S as a web developer to join a large development team delivering a web system to manage and maintain contracts between M&S and its worldwide suppliers for its general merchandising division. The project used IIS to host the website with a VB6 COM+ business layer and an Oracle application database. GM Supply Chain and Logistics Data WarehouseI was the lead developer for this data warehouse system for which my responsibilities also included system design. The data warehouse database was built on MS SQL Server and several SS Analysis Services OLAP databases. The ETL process was developed to programmatically control DTS to import large daily feeds from various large back-end systems and to clean and merge the data in the database and process the OLAP cubes. The reporting functionality was delivered using a .Net (C#, ASP.Net, ADO.Net) web application which provided the end user with personalised access to both predefined reports using SQL Server Reporting Services and to more flexible reports for more ‘what-if’ scenarios using MS Office Web Components (OWC) and Analysis Services. Financial Data CaptureFDC was a SQL Server based .Net (C#, ASP.Net, ADO.Net) web application developed for the GM Logistics department to allow M&S’s distribution centres, usually run by external contractors, to manage and submit both budgetary and operating figures for financial analysis. Additional authorisation and reporting capabilities, using Crystal Reports and Analysis Services, were developed for M&S application administrators.

ICI Plc As part of a team of web developers I provided web solutions to the Procurement and Logistics function at ICI’s headquarters delivering B2B supply chain capabilities. The systems were developed using ASP (VBScript) and VB COM Objects on NT Servers running IIS and SQL Server. Extensive use of dynamic HTML using JavaScript provided function rich client browser support. WebAspx Ltd I was later involved with the development of WebAspx’s new multi-tier e-business system framework, specifically with the design and implementation of the operations (OLTP) and data warehouse (OLAP) databases running on SQL Server. The work included the data warehouse ETL process from the operations database and the use of SQL Server’s Analysis Services for the design and implementation of Multidimensional OLAP Cubes. The cubes were accessed using MDX and ADOMD and integrated within the Web applications developed using VB, COM+, ASP, VBScript, JavaScript, XML, and XSLT.

Telme.Com’s primary activity involves developing its own www.TelmeGlobalTraveller.com web site to provide worldwide travel services to consumers and bespoke e-commerce solutions to clients. My responsibility involved developing a number of Internet projects using Active Server Pages (ASP), VBScript, JavaScript, HTML, DHTML, VB 6.0, ADO, and SQL Server 7.0. The Global Traveller web site allows users to book scheduled flights and hotels online and it was my responsibility to develop a new service for booking charter flights. This involved the design and implementation of the SQL Server database, and the development of a scheduled ETL process to regularly import tour operator flight data using SQL Server’s Data Transformation Services (DTS) objects controlled from a VB COM object to scrub, transform, and load the data.

A VB 5.0 development of a multi-tier telephone banking system integrating several remote offshore banking systems. COM objects were developed to encapsulate the complexity of the transaction handling and to allow asynchronous calls between the application interface and the back end. In-house transaction middleware was used to communicate with the live remote banking systems, and SQL Server was used to provide access to data whilst live systems were offline. The system was based heavily around the use of ActiveX COM servers and user controls. I was also involved in the development of a prototype system based around MTS and MSMQ.

BCT Business Systems Ltd was a software business delivering its own commerce system for the builders merchant industry. I joined BCT directly after completing my Masters degree and was involved primarily in the development of a number of business applications. I also helped maintain and support the SQL Server DBMS and NT servers in a business more familiar with Unix systems. I am very grateful to BCT for providing me with my first commercial developer role and allowing me the opportunity to gain valuable experience in the wider supporting technologies. Applications DeveloperMicrosoft SQL Server Database AdministratorWindows NT Administrator Client Server Applications:I was involved in the development of a number of client server projects using VB 3.0 in the early projects with DAO and Access, progressing to VB 4.0 with RDO v1.0 and SQL Server 4.21/6.0, and then on to VB 5.0 with RDO v2.0 and SQL Server 6.5. Many of the projects involved integrating other tools and technologies, such as the Crystal Reports report generator and the Microsoft TCP/IP Winsock control to access the UNIX systems. Data Warehouse:The design and implementation of a Data Warehouse system on SQL Server 6.5 for an in-house developed UNIX based Builders Merchant Ordering System and a VB 5.0 developed application to extract, clean up, and load the data into SQL Server using RDO v2.0 and a third-party ODBC UNIX file converter. SQL Server Stored Procedures were used extensively to perform much of the data manipulation on the server. Various tools using VB were developed to provide key users with analytical and reporting capabilities. Systems Administration:My responsibilities included administering the company’s production and development SQL Server databases and NT development servers.