Kent Hawkings Email & Phone Number

United Kingdom

Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

I joined Zappi as a senior Ruby on Rails developer. I was initially tasked with helping to develop and maintain the "Reporting" application which represents the largest and oldest code base in the company. This included doing "medic" rotations which involved being on standby on rotation schedule. While not strictly a full-stack role, I often helped with development and maintenance on the React frontend.After about a year and a half as a RoR dev I was asked to join the new "Storytelling" team that was being put together. This involved creating an Elixir driven backend (using Phoenix) with a focus on speed and fault tolerance. This also entailed providing assistance with the creation of the accompanying React frontend. The app was designed to provide a more streamlined narrative based on Survey results with the assistance of LLMs. Over the course of the team's existence two more developers were added and I was tasked with helping them onboard and providing a certain level of mentorship.Our team uses agile development practices with weekly scrum meetings used to establish work done in the last week as well as planned work for the coming week. Performance was centred on meeting agreed timeline and quality standards. During the bi-annual assessments it was agreed that deadline and quality standards were consistently met or exceeded.

Cape Town Area, South Africa

I've done freelance work on multiple mobile applications. This includes native iOS and Android apps as well as a PWA (progressive web app).

Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Code4Kids is a complete solution, built on Lessonspace, that offers a computer programming curriculum to secondary schools.

Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

Helped found Lessonspace, Inc with the same team from SkillUp (Pty) Ltd. I currently serve as Lead Engineer having developed the Django API. Currently in a remote role with high-paced feature release requirements.My primary responsibilities revolve around serving as a developer as well as working with the sales team when building new functionality. Development included creating a full suite of tests for the Django API as well as some DevOps work relating to managing deployment of the API on AWS. This included weekly meetings with both the product and sales team (i.e. agile development with week long scrums). Beyond this, I also handled integrating Lessonspace into other products (examples include Zapier and Moodle).This entails scoping out potential integration possibilities, presenting potential solutions to the product and sales teams and then executing on the agreed product. Additionally I serve as an executive and shareholder of the company. I carried sole responsibility for building the Django API and helped to build the Vue web app.While each developer on our team (there are 5 of us) is mainly assigned to a single repo, everyone is more or less agnostic; picking up tasks where needed across all the company’s codebases. Oftentimes, I am managing multiple projects of different sizes, in various stages of the development. As such, I often have to perform quality assurance on code for code as well as providing code for review and interacting with developers on other projects. This also included helping guide our junior developer. My role as an executive and co-founder was also carried over directly from SkillUp and as such, my responsibilities followed too.

Cape Town Area, South Africa

Helped found SkillUp (Pty) Ltd as Head of Mobile. Developed both the native Android and iOS applications. My role also evolved to include helping to maintain both the Django API as well as the Vue web application.As the sole maintainer of both applications I was responsible for ensuring feature parity with the web application. More importantly, I was responsible for ensuring that the web app experience was correctly translated into the mobile app environment to accommodate for the design philosophies of both Android and iOS. As the only mobile developerI was required to spend days or hours working through problems myself. My responsibilities extended beyond software development into helping determine the product’s scope and overall direction of the company. Additionally I serve as an executive and shareholder of the company. As a founder I was responsible, in part, for helping to determine the company’s overarching strategies to aid in growth. As such, I often took features from their high level conception all the way through to their development and release. Board member meetings were held every quarter in which we would report to our investors as well as discuss the items such as KPI’s.

Cape Town Area, South Africa

I Joined Superbalist as a software engineer working on the company’s native Android Application. I joined as the company just started looking into developing their Android and iOS applications. I took over creation of the application from a freelancer (who was previously brought on to create the app) and became responsible for its completion and release. Initially I was the only developer on the Android team and my responsibilities largely centered on the creation and maintenance of features within the app.There was another team responsible for the iOS app which consisted of two members and my role also included ensuring feature parity between the apps. Over time, My responsibilities evolved to include taking charge of the mobile API; a Flask application. While the Flask app was built by another developer I took the position as lead developer on the project (while also still working on the Android app).In time, two more Android developers (at junior level) were hired and I was charged with onboarding them onto the app and performing quality assurance on their code. I also acted as a mentor of sorts, helping them further their understanding of the Android framework. Toward the end of my tenure with the company I was offered the position of mobile team lead however I decided to pursue my interests in SkillUp.After leaving Superbalist full time I continued as an independent contractor working 1 day a week for several months. My role echoed that of my full time position: working on both the native Android application as well as the Flask API.

Cape Town Area, South Africa

Joined 2go as a software engineer working on the company’s existing native Android social networking client. My responsibilities involved the creation and maintenance of new features within the app. A strong emphasis was placed on creating a lightweight and robust product for the developing world.I worked in a team with two other developers and we reported to the product team lead (who was also one of the company directors). Additionally, I fulfilled a minor product management role from certain features in the app, taking new features from conception to design and execution along with the apps Product Manager.Our team used agile development practices with weekly scrum meetings used to establish work done in the last week as well as planned work for the coming week. Performance was centred on meeting agreed timeline and quality standards. During the bi-annual assessments it was agreed that deadline and quality standards were consistently met or exceeded.

Cape Town Area, South Africa

Research and development into the creation of a mobile application.

Fish Hoek

Tutored Mathematics to students ranging from grade 7 to grade 12

Bachelor Of Science (Bs) (Hons.), Computer Science

Bachelor Of Science (Bs), Computer Science And Mathematics