Head of Technology at JOE Media

Led coordination of technical operations focusing on developing internal capabilities and expanding the company's product range. Responsible for three main technical capabilities: websites and apps, desktop and network support, and data analysis. Built a distributed development team to replatform 8 websites from external hosting to an in-house purpose-built AWS serverless platform. Integrated support functions in-house while managing external suppliers. Led build of commercial tools and campaigns generating revenue growth. Developed Node.js data analysis tools to gather marketing, financial, and social metrics across sites and channels. Achieved approximately 120% increase in traffic via website replatforming and implemented performance optimization strategies to ensure sub-second loading times. Tuned AWS infrastructure achieving about 10% cost reduction in last 30 days.

Technical Lead at Kaplan International

Provided technical leadership for development and maintenance of various properties (Angular/React/CMS). Coordinated multiple offshore development teams and prioritized work. Designed and led program converting existing sites to React-based Gutenberg blocks. Established new deployment pipelines to streamline developer workflow in preparation for CI/CD. Liaised with product owners and key stakeholders to determine requirements and refine Sprint tickets. Designed and implemented solutions for optimal site stability and performance. Established common ways of working across teams.

Lead Developer / Interim Lead Developer at Tab Media

Maintained and developed new functionality for large multisite WordPress installations for The Tab and babe.net. Initially joined on a short-term contract covering a role gap, liaising with editorial, creative, and sales teams in UK and US. Offered full-time position after impressing with skills. Maintained a library of Node.js microservices and React applications complementing main sites, providing tools for editors, advertising, and analytics. Built a Vue microsite surfacing results from a site-wide survey. Managed AWS infrastructure (EC2, S3, Elastic Beanstalk, Cloud Deploy) and CircleCI for continuous integration.

Technical Lead at Specialist Titles, News UK

Developed numerous properties within News UK, both internal and public-facing. Managed technical architecture interfacing with third-party APIs and developing internal APIs. Streamlined workflow and enhanced portability and reusability of developers across projects by creating common ways of working.

Lead WordPress Developer at Insider Guides, The Times, News UK

Selected to head project after original developer left abruptly. Rewrote back-end code into more structured and manageable form, implemented custom MVC structure using Mustache for template rendering. Created consistent site-wide data layer managing various data sources and caching strategy. Maintained Angular-based site using WordPress as headless CMS. Optimized code for performance by reducing external calls and expensive database queries using transients and object caching.