Joe Oldak Email & Phone Number

Cambridge, Gb

Cambridge, Gb

Cambridge, England, United Kingdom

Socrates Software works to improve people’s lives through the provision of digital solutions to justice sector organisations around the world.Our Socrates 360 platform combines engaging content, simple set-up and an easy-to-use management portal to provide a dynamic and effective way of helping some of the most disadvantaged people in society.

Cambridge, England, United Kingdom

Voice is the go-to website builder and content management system for over a thousand charity, community, non-profit, and voluntary groups across the UK.* Responsible for all aspects of the business, including management, technology development, creating documentation and help resources, providing training and support to clients and users.* Design and develop accessible and engaging content-driven community websites.* Host Zoom sessions for clients and users, discussing and demonstrating features, answering questions, and gathering feedback and ideas for further development.Key Achievements* Won a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund to provide digital services and training to charities and communities across London.* Created architecture that supports high traffic to thousands of dynamic websites with a small, cost-effective server footprint.

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Created the technology used by local authorities and organisations across Europe to deliver large-scale behaviour change programmes using incentivisation, recognition, and social interaction.* Lead a team of five developers, providing technical leadership, design, coaching, support, and code reviews.* Worked with senior team, clients, and stakeholders through entire project lifecycle, from gathering requirements, discussing and specifying solutions, development, and acceptance.* Software architect and lead developer of the BetterPoints platform – mobile and web applications, database management, APIs, data analysis tools, third party integrations, security, and hosting.* Valued member of client and sales meetings, guiding technical discussion, devising solutions to client needs, and gathering context for future development.Key Achievements* Designed and developed system to automatically track and categorise user activities. This improved user satisfaction and programme results, and increased the value of data for clients. This technology remains unique in the marketplace.* Internationalised the platform allowing programmes to be delivered in different languages and timezones. Ran a successful project in Bologna which had over 20,000 users and was featured on the BBC.* Built visualisation tools allowing employees and clients to create real-time activity heatmaps and charts for analysis, reporting, and modelling. Improved speed and quality of reporting to clients.* Migrated to Microsoft Azure to provide scalability, resilience, zero-downtime updates, and easy replication to new markets. Implemented live updating of code and database, and dynamic scaling of servers.* Instigated agile development lifecycle, delivering timely releases to meet key deadlines, and providing visibility of new features and release schedules.* Created app beta testing programme which accelerated the resolution of problems, and improved understanding of user experience.

Co-founded this business providing web-based consultation and community building tools to public and private sectors. Ten Local Authorities used our technology to provide over 3000 websites for community groups.Cambridge Open Systems was acquired by BetterPoints in 2013.* Lead in all aspects of running the company: business strategy, financial decisions, marketing, sales, project management, engineering, and support.* Managed projects from initial client contact and specification, through to development, delivery, documentation, and ongoing support. Project size typically £10K to £50K.Key Achievements* Developed and supported Greenpeace’s content management system with 40 websites in 37 languages, and over 300 active content editors.* Won a central government contract to provide multi-user community websites for projects and groups throughout the UK. This technology still exists at the core of Voice Online Communities.

Key member of team delivering innovative wireless technology solutions to high-profile clients in commercial and healthcare environments.* Involved in full lifecycle of client-facing projects, from initial meetings, development, to final delivery.Key Achievements* Developed Bluetooth software for a mobile phone headset linked wirelessly to a separate microphone, giving the client a fast product launch.* Created a Windows application to do firmware upgrades on a network of access points with no system downtime, used in live hospital environments.* Designed and implemented a protocol to quickly pair ZigBee devices based on their proximity, and presented a paper at a wireless conference on using signal strength for ZigBee node positioning.* Fixed several high profile and time sensitive bugs in the software for Iridium satellite phones.* As a member of the social committee, helped organise the Christmas and summer parties.

Joined as a Graduate Software Engineer and progressed to both Senior Software Engineer and leader of a small group of developers working on the core speech recognition technology. * Worked extensively on the speech recogniser, written in C and running in an embedded PowerPC environment.* Produced and presented revenue earning training material to internal and external audiences.* The main provider of internal technical support and troubleshooting for the recogniser.Key Achievements* Redesigned the architecture of the core speech recogniser, resulting in large memory savings and increasing the number of concurrent recognition channels.* Designed and implemented library for cross-platform communication between applications and recognisers.* Developed a bug tracking system, which allowed specific issues to be delegated to engineers, and provided greater internal visibility of existing problems.* Elected to a group that improved communication between senior management and employees.

Responsible for the production of a high quality cover disc every month which was relevant to the target audience. Wrote software reviews and conducted interviews with developers.

Industrial placement as part of degree coursePlayed a full part in the marketing team and developed links with technical teams. Involved in new product development and sales support. Acorn provided their first ever bursary for the final year of my degree.