Laurence W. Email & Phone Number

I am a software engineering leader with several years of experience accross multiple sectors, including insurance, retail and publishing, where I have led teams, projects, and strategies to deliver innovative and efficient solutions. I pride myself on being involved with all aspects of the business, understanding our customers to deliver great software that exceeds their needs and expectations.In my most recent role as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at UnderwriteMe, I was responsible for steering the technological direction of the company, leading a team of over 60 employees across software, data, quality, and platform engineering. A key part of this role included the creation and execution of a comprehensive technology strategy aligned with business objectives, driving innovation ensuring a competitive edge in the industry. As a Head of Engineering / Engineering Manager I successfully implemented projects leveraging cloud computing, Java, React and SaaS technologies, additionally I introduced initiatives such as the usage of DORA metrics to reduce our cycle time by 11%. Other notable work included;- the transition of our core rules-engine to a SaaS product, reducing maintenance overhead,- cost optimisation of our cloud infrastructure (finops), initial reduction in spend by 9%,- the implementation of observability tooling into our stack, reducing the mean time to resolve incidents,- significantly expanded the engineering team, hiring 25 new engineers. I fostered an agile culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement, as well as overseeing recruitment, mentorship, and professional development initiatives. Lastly I have fundamentally always been a software engineer priding myself on delivering clean code and developing engineering practices to ensure that maintainable, scalable outcome driven solutions are delivered.