Steven Fox Email & Phone Number

Providing technical design input, and driving engineering best practices.Working with 3 Engineering teams (US, Dublin and Newcastle) and liaising with many others, including Live Services Management, Security, and other product teams.Recently working on a product built on the Salesforce platform, and utilising a number of product-specific AWS / .NET Core microservices, enterprise-wide services and 3rd party APIs.Technologies include:- .NET- Lambda- SQS- Fargate- Dynamo DB

Operated as an Independent Contractor, providing software development and delivery services to leading organisations including British Airways, Cubic Transportation Systems, NCFE, Northumbrian Water, GL Education and DXC.

- Engaged to accelerate a drive towards microservices (large software modernisation programme).- Asked to instigate improvements across the whole of the software delivery piece.- Tasked with designing solution / building team to remove 30 "Claim Aggregation" workarounds.- Utilised skills / experience in architectural design, DDD, DevOps, BDD, ATDD, Automated testing etc.Key Projects & Achievements:- Pragmatically delivered value by leading team of 5-8 to automate all workarounds within new .NET Core Azure Function App microservice, completing objective many months ahead of schedule.- Built prototype, based on Domain Specific Language, demonstrating cost-effective next steps.- Embedded agile / BDD principles increasing another team’s velocity from 8–15 to approx 35.- Introduced C4 model and used Structurizr to document both existing and new software elements.- Introduced ATDD using business co-authored Gherkin to drive automated API & integration tests.- Introduced / incubated Kanban within new team providing NCFE with valid alternative to SCRUM.- Liaised with PO and other key stakeholders to launch company-wide Gherkin education initiative.

- Engaged to design / deliver “Standby Message Plans” component for the AUS$35M ICMP project.- Advised on Microservice-Based-Architecture (Service Fabric, SQL, GeoServer, Azure Service Bus).Key Achievements:- Decomposed component into epics and stories, and introduced Example Mapping sessions.- Authored UML diagrams whilst driving project-wide conventions on use of Enterprise Architect.- Pragmatically chose lift & shift of legacy JAVA App, over rewrite, saving £N0,000s -£N00,000s.- Liaised with Global Security Team to ensure organisational security compliance.- Delivered within budget / contractual deadline, and presented as near-perfect example by PM.- Instigated major pivot towards microservice decoupling / use of Eventual Consistency within the wider product and have recently confirmed that the product is still benefiting from this architectural refactoring.

- DXC’s Lloyds Market Association (LMA) account initiated major software modernisation.- Engaged to provide software development and architectural services to envision enterprise-wise strategy, maximise consistency, and build enterprise-wide microservices / components.- Tech: .NET Core 2.1, ASP.NET MVC, REST APIs, EF, AWS (S3, Elastic Beanstalk, RDS), Kubernetes.Key Achievements:- Established principles to deploy 200+ Apps onto new PaaS, clarifying terminology, entities, and cardinality to maximise clarity / drive out conventions across Dev / DevOps activities & constructs.- Assembled / led team to build centralised, enterprise-wide microservices & shared kernel NuGets.- Built “Microservice chassis” Visual Studio Templates to disseminate enterprise boiler-plate code.- Architected automated microservice API tests to ensure new Apps are built on solid foundations.- Empowered new teams to code domain logic into new enterprise-grade microservices from wk 1.- Overall TCO reduction, due to combination of CapEx and OpEx savings, likely to run into £Ms.- Designed / implemented MVP “Claims” App in 8 weeks, enabling DXC to win new client order.

- Engaged to work with Architect and UI Developer to build functional MVP "Leak Spotter" App.- Built REST API using Azure Functions with Table / Blob Storage, .NET Core and strict TDD.Key Achievements:- Delivered App in 6 weeks, with project regularly cited as case study to potential new DXC clients.- DXC / End-client very impressed with UI tests, driven by Gherkin / SpecFlow / Selenium / XUnit.- Actively supported SCRUM process throughout due to poor availability of Scrum Master resource.

- Engaged to lead a team of 5 to build “Quote As A Service” microservice to yield best tariffs. - Provided mid-level architectural advice / coding (Service Fabric, Docker, .NET Core 2.0, RabbitMQ).Key Achievements:- Designed / implemented automated API test framework / mock API gateway- Embedded Gherkin to improve the delivery process.- Successfully handed over alpha-stage code allowing client to take project forward. - Provided two options: Service Fabric Guest Executable vs Service Fabric stateful service.

Initially provided software support for an existing ASP.NET MVC / SQL Server application but was asked after just 2 months to provide Technical Architecture services on their new platform which was built on a similar technology stack. Involved the planning and coordination of a migration from TFS 2013 to 2015 and general improvements around source control strategy, its relationship to build and test environments, coding standards, introduction of Test-Driven-Development and more. Started the journey of decomposing the existing monolithic "Testwise" application using microservice design principals which yielded:- an Error Handling service- a number of Scoring microservices- a Business Intelligence service (used to supply reports in Mandarin for a pilot in China)...and the introduction of reusable code in the form of internal NuGet packages. Azure Service Bus and Azure Redis Cache services were costed, benchmarked and then used to chronologically decouple the application flow and reduce load on the application database. I oversaw the design and development of all of these components, providing detailed documentation and design diagrams, conducting code reviews and more. During the largest project i additionally assumed the roles of Product Owner, Business Analyst and Kanban coordinator, essentially running the entire project alone for many months. Introduced a huge amount of automated integration testing which included the testing of SQL Server stored procedures and the endpoints exposed by each of the aforementioned services. Much of this was achieved using SpecFlow with Behaviour-Driven-Development (BDD) scenarios. Designed a new data warehouse which uses a star schema and an improved ETL process using SQL Server Integration Services, as well as building POCs around various future Business Intelligence features such as SQL Server Analysis Services OLAP cubes and the use of Microsoft's Power BI services.

Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

A short engagement which ended prematurely due to the project being cancelled for commercial reasons. During this time I designed, developed and presented a functional POC website to a financial services client. I implemented this with ASP.NET MVC, SQL Server, Brock Allen's Identity Reboot framework, common design patterns such as the Unit of Work and Repository patterns, and ample unit testing.

Worked with BA employees in both Newcastle and Heathrow. Used Scrum to successfully deliver a complex "Leave Card" application on the SharePoint 2013 Online platform. The application was used by tens of thousands of staff to book and approve leave.System was built as a Provider Hosted App using an ASP.NET MVC 5 web application hosted as a Microsoft Azure Web Application. Both SharePoint screens and custom MVC views were used but styled for a seamless transition across the boundary. Advanced customisations were also used (including Client Side Rendering) to improve the look, feel and functionality of the out-of-the-box SharePoint screens.

Successfully designed and developed several highly complex SharePoint 2010 applications as lead developer, and often as acting Project Manager, utilising Scrum throughout. All systems were built to a very high standard and have a VERY low recurring support cost. Most of the systems allow users to make payment requests (ranging from very small amounts to several hundreds of thousands), some externally accessible via a reusable set of Forms Based Authentication components. User interfaces were heavily customised in order to provide wizard based data entry, with multiple logical tiers, SPMetal generated business objects, a WCF services layer, and integration with the backend Oracle Financials database. Solutions and features were used extensively to streamline the deployment process. A large amount of unit tests were constructed, with the help of Moq and TypeMock Isolator, in order to maximise code quality. Various common components were also written including customised master pages, custom workflow components, and error handling and logging libraries. Some workflows and complex InfoPath forms were also produced.

Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Provided a multitude of services, including solutions architecture, development, support and recruitment, to a fast growing awarding body. Quickly became a key member of the development team; shaping processes and assisting in the recruitment (including technical testing) and coaching of permanent staff members. Acted as Lead Developer on two high profile projects and took a senior role in others. Solely responsible for completing development of, deploying and supporting the company's Portal website responsible for ~95% of all revenue. Technologies included .NET (Web Forms, Win Forms), CSLA (a business logic framework), SQL Server (Database and Integration Services), and Web Services. Used Team Foundation Server 2008 with Scrum methodology.

Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Worked as Technical Project Manager for Credit Suisse, remotely managing a team of developers in China whilst liaising with the client in the UK and US on a daily basis. Worked on site from time to time at Canary Wharf, London at the client's UK head office. Completed the delivery of a large, high profile, regulatory controlled Global Profit & Loss system. Also convinced the Strategic Systems Solutions senior management team to invest in Business Intelligence, and was heavily involved in an internal SharePoint implementation. Technologies included .NET, (Win Forms, Web Forms, Web Services), Oracle, SharePoint 2007, SSAS).

Sunderland, United Kingdom

Hired to rebuild and manage a development team after a number of staff had left en mass. Managed to keep the team's head above water whilst recruiting seven developers and utilising a number of contractors. Improved development consistency by implementing a formal development process, document templates and coding standards. Architected and coded a new saleable product (generic ASP.NET E-commerce platform). Improved software quality, scalability, consistency and reusability by introducing the n-tier CSLA business logic framework. Further improved quality by introducing unit testing and organising internal test cycles. Effectively implemented Service-Orientated Architecture (generic exception, logging, messaging and PAF lookup web services) and reusable code libraries. Reduced training costs by chairing weekly internal training / knowledge transfer sessions.

Sunderland, United Kingdom

Led a team of four .NET developers rewriting a complex, existing SaaS product. Delivered iteratively using a semi-agile methodology using UML and continual unit testing. Interfaced with the Account Handler to ensure accurate comprehension of requirements. Architected several UI frameworks which dramatically improved the reliability and usability of the application, and reduced future development timescales. Architected and developed a number of generic user controls which improved the all round user experience (e.g. wizards, forms, dialogs etc.). Increased the product’s global presence, thus increasing revenue, by implementing an XML based “Phrasebook” module with an accompanying authoring tool. Solely responsible for a peripheral windows application written in VB6 with XML web services (including the documentation of a comprehensive API with accompanying code samples). Completed several bespoke consultancy projects for a number of major clients.

Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Effectively utilised XML technologies within a new VB6 application. Developed and supported several existing Web and Windows based applications. Frequently liaised with the main client (RIBA) to ensure seamless data updates to products.

Newport, Wales & Cheongju, South Korea

Trained as a process engineer in a huge Semiconductor fabrication facility in South Korea, and then assisted in preparing for process start up in the UK. Unfortunately the site was mothballed which led to a move into Software development.

Beng (Hons) Chemical And Process Engineering

Maths, Chemistry And Physics 'A' Levels, Grades A, A And B Respectively

C Programming Module (10 Degree Credits)