Ben Clark Email & Phone Number

Leading the technology platform at PlayMoreGolf, the UK’s first and most popular Flexible Golf Membership Platform, Overall responsibility for hiring, training, and retaining the DevOps and Business Intelligence teams, including day-to-day management, appraisals, and ongoing performance. As well as this role I also act as the Lead Developer/Architect with overall responsibility for the design and development of the platform, ensuring the needs of the business are met by a robust and continuously improving platformKey Responsibilities:Collaborate with senior leadership to define strategy, manage budgets, drive business growth, and report to the Board.Assume high-level ownership of platform architecture, encompassing payment systems, membership provisioning, third party integrations, and partner invoicing. Notable achievements include successful migration to Stripe and integration of consumer finance payments platform, handling high transaction volumes.Drive product roadmap, technology strategy, and delivery, fostering alignment with B2B and B2C customer needs, as well as enhancing internal tools.Spearhead development and architectural efforts, progressively enhancing scalability, robustness, and performance of the cloud-based platform. Expertise in Asp.Net, SQLServer, Redis, Azure Functions, Cloudflare, Hangfire, Vuejs, and ServiceBus.Ensure seamless cross-departmental operations by equipping teams with necessary tools and streamlined processes. Pioneered the adoption of HubSpot CRM platform and facilitated the design and development of internal tools, boosting productivity and efficiency.Cultivate strategic technology partnerships with external clients, overseeing seamless integration with third-party platforms.Implemented the "DevOps" methodology, revolutionizing the delivery rate and significantly reducing development to deployment time, allowing a small team to deliver and maintain a large product suite.

Swansea, United Kingdom

Senior Software Developer designing, developing, updating and modernising powerful back-office and customer-facing applications for the finance industry.Selected roles and achievements:* Managed the successful development of multiple new software products and internal projects, determining technical requirements, creating development plans, managing developers and ensuring standards and goals are met* Introduced new development and testing practices to improve quality and make use of a modern development stack in ASP.Net MVC and SQLServer* Modernised and reimplemented existing libraries and applications, introducing new architectural and testing standards* Migrated internal libraries from shared binaries firstly to versioned NuGet packages, and later to a fully automated Continuous Integration and Deployment mechanism, which dramatically reduced development overhead and defects* Heavily rearchitected existing API libraries and introduced a high performance public API utilising centralised caching and message queues to increase throughout capability by several orders of magnitude* Lead the move of source code from legacy source code providers to Team Foundation Services* Created a reusable, modern and responsive visual framework for new front-end development; a striking change that was well received by developers and customers

Worked as part of an agile-driven multidisciplinary team to design and develop bespoke software solutions for a wide range of clients and sectors with a broad set of requirements and budgets.Led the development of several large-scale ASP.NET MVC, SQLServer and Windows Presentation Foundation projects with both new and existing codebases; developing system architecture, re-engineering existing codebases and creating intuitive UIs, working solo or leading a team of other developers.Worked with project stakeholders and business analysts to understand and refine customer needs and develop these into working solutions. During project development regularly met with clients to gain feedback, manage changes, demonstrate functionality and shape new features.Led and mentored other developers, helping them to solve problems, gain new skills and implement development best practice. Acted a Lead Developer on many large projects each spanning multiple months of development with many developers.Played a key role in creating proposals and pitches for new business; meeting prospective clients, performing technical requirements analysis and setting project budgets.Developed a wide range of software solutions including interactive visualisations, reporting, data analysis, CRM integration and Desktop applications.Started a company-wide initiative to improve product quality - leveraged the skills of support engineers and developers to integrate a QA process which drastically improved the quality of final products and aided handover of projects to long-term support teams.Led a widespread review of client systems to understand performance and scalability issues, implementing changes that massively improved both of these areas for clients. Provided assistance to other developers in the area of database design and performance.

Swansea, United Kingdom

• Approached by the company to work with a small team creating industry leading predictive analytics business applications in Silverlight, ASP.NET and SQLServer for some of the largest companies and public bodies in the world.• Formed a core part of a complete redevelopment of the company’s flagship system, creating a fully modular and extensible framework allowing for the development of multiple distinct analytical systems from a single codebase.• Represented the company at international summits and ceremonies, pitching software and methodology directly to potential clients and investors.• Initiated and led a radical visual overhaul of the system, creating a striking modern and customisable interface with aesthetics and usability in mind. Also incorporated contextual user help and support systems, which dramatically increased client satisfaction.• Proactively developed new tools and features including user telemetry, spatial navigation, custom reporting and docking to improve product value.• Had an encompassing role in the development of new client systems; from requirements analysis and prototyping to development and ongoing customer retention.• Visited clients and potential clients in the UK and Europe, bridging the gap between client requirements and technical implementation.• Extensively used Iterative and Prototype based software design patterns to develop innovative solutions based on changing internal and client needs.• Initiated and led marketing and promotional campaigns, worked with external designers to improve web and print presence.

• Proactively approached the company to help improve their mobile offering. Was initially employed on a placement and later offered a full-time position after exceeding expectations.• Performed a complete technical and visual audit of their flagship Windows Mobile product, outlining serious usability and technical issues.• Created an innovative working prototype and proof-of-concept for an Android-based successor to their product; utilising multi-touch gestures, custom full-screen mapping, improved data-entry and support for phone and tablet form-factors. This prototype was pitched to clients and was so well received that development began on a now complete Android system, with the prototype forming the blueprint for the product.• Played a lead role in the modernisation of a previously outdated ASP.NET Web Application; upgrading controls, improving aesthetics & usability and solving serious performance and cross-browser compatibility issues.• Communicated with Company Directors to implement much needed improvements to the company’s web and marketing strategy.

Bsc, Computer Science, 1St Class Honours

Education record