Ruby Developer / Tech lead (REMOTE WORKING)
The Cococoder aka (Delaney Burke)
Why Me?
I am a confident, amiable, and tenacious self educated developer, with a passion for self improvement and 20 years proven track record in software development on both the Unix/Linux and the Microsoft Windows platform. In my career I have worked for a broad spectrum of clients of ranging from start-ups to multinationals across a vast number of industries, including Media, Banking and Healthcare
My eclectic mix of experience and technical skills have given me an insight into what it takes to bring a product, service or concept through the necessary steps to make it a reality and most importantly a success.
So.fa.dog is redefiing the news industry! We are at the vangauard of moving from traditional long form articles to a short
10 - 30 second video summary
As one of the first techical employees, I built the original version of the API using a mixture Ruby on rails, GRAPE and Sinatra
The front end was delivered in React Native but we recently moved it to 2 native Apps 1 written in Kotlin and the other in Swift
Client : THERRR ( Sunseries Project)
In my time at Therrr working on the Sunseries project I have
- Built the system from the ground up in as par of 2-man development team
- Built the entire web platform on Ruby On Rails migrating to Sinatra for some projects
- Integrating over 100 agents into our external API using a micro services architecture
- Implementing end-to-end testing, CI and CD
Client : THERR (Munich Re Digital Partners)
Munich Re Digital Partners is instrumental enabling insuretech startups like Drover, Bought and Ticker to become a reality.
The problem an insuretech Start up faces is that they require both a bewildering amount of regulatory compliance and access to vast amounts of financial reserves to cover the potential losses associated with the inherent risk in insurance. Munich Re digital partners solves both.
In my time at Munich Re Digital partners I Have
- Implemented a proof of concept reporting solution built in Ruby on Rails
- implemented a proof concept platform similar concept to Shopify but for insurance companies. The system was implemented in Ruby on Rails 5 using rails engines as small compose-able pieces representing the core areas of the insurance business. Quotes , policies and claims.
- We utilized active storage to handle upload policy related proofs and signed documentation.
- We implemented the system using an event driven micro services architecture using kafka message queues.
- For the real-time features we started off with action cable and the we migrated to MessageBus Gem for simplicity.
- To implement the ui we utilized the the webpack integration with stimulus Js
- Implemented a Data Access Layer in ruby using the sequel gem for data access and the whenever gem for cron tab management
- Implemented a data visualisation / reporting solution using ELK stack
Client : safeguardingmonitor.co.uk/
Safe guarding monitor is an application that is helping shools keep children safe, reducing workload and delivering a clear picture.
Responsibilities:
- Working on an existing rails 5.2 rails application , bug fixing and refactoring and implementing new features
Achievements:
- Using Rspec --bisect to fix fault tests in the test suite.
Client : Big Sofa
Big sofa is specialises in treating video as data.
Responsibilities:
- Working on an existing rails 4.2 rails application , bug fixing and refactoring
- Implementing new features
Achievements:
- Implemented a terraform cloud based development environment
Client : Homie.rent
Homie.rent is a Tech crunch featured property tech company. They provide a concierge service for renters.
Once you have signed up with the service, Homie will find you properties that meet your requirements and then they organise everything from arranging viewings to negotiating with the estate agents.
My role as Interim Head of Engineering / Senior Ruby developer was to provide management and technical leadership while they found a permanent replacement to fill the role.
Responsibilities:
- Stabilising the technical department while it went through a transition period.
- Building and leading a cross functional remote team of developers
- Working with the business to clarify how tech was going to help them achieve their business objectives
- Working with external resources to provide support for the legacy system
- Defining a plan to rebuild existing system
- Execute the rebuild plan
Achievements:
- Helped build a remote team of developers in Jordan which reduced costs
- Helped to Introduced Daily Reporting
- Simplified tech stack from 4 languages to Ruby and Ruby On Rails
- Implemented my "Man on the Ground" leadership concept
- I introduced the "Three Questions" performance reviews
- I introduced video demos and reporting using loom
- I introduced Happy Mad Sad testing, mandating we did Happy case test as a bare mimimum
Client : Booking Bug
Booking bug is an award winning booking platform.
Responsibilities:
- Bug fixing
- Mentoring and coaching
Achievements:
- Delivered a presentation on "Lego vs Plasticine" which explains trade offs between dynamic and static languages
- Mentored and coached one of the up and coming tech leads
- Implemented the go card-less integration
Client : IBSC
A software consultancy company specialising in Telecommunications and IT.
As a Ruby developer in the automation team my role is to use my Ruby skills to build tools and frameworks, enabling the business to be more efficient and deliver a better quality service.
Responsibilities:
- Building web applications using Rails and Sinatra (mostly dashboards , user interfaces and internal tools)
- Automating manual processes by using screen scraping (Nokogiri) and data extraction techniques
- Capturing system requirements using automated testing tools like Cucumber and ThoughtWorks gauge
- Automated testing and verification of applications using a happy, sad and bad test case prioritisation process
- Creating full regression test suites to make sure that new changes to the code do not break existing functionality
- Creating testing and QA environments using Docker containers and LXD
- Implementing continuous delivery pipelines with GoCD
Achievements:
- Implemented an automated CV scanning and data extraction tool which increased revenue 30%
Full Six is Digital Agency which is part of the Havas Group.
Responsible for the Sainsbury's Home Made website.
Responsibilities:
- Implementing new features such as the ability to add recipes to a curated list for later consumption
- Testing the existing and new code using RSpec
- Maintaining the existing code base and RSpec tests suite
- Creating and maintaining a suite of regression tests using Capybara and Steak
- Managing all of my commits in Git using Git flow
- Participating in an Agile scrum based team
- Using UML diagrams to communicate design and architectural decisions
- Using active record and Postgre Sql for object persistence
- Using Coffee script and javascript with JQuery to maintain the dynamic client side elements of the site
Achievements:
- Integrated a custom campaign management rest api
- Created a gem for sanitising the staging database
- Migrated the current rails 3 application to rails 4
- Fixed the vagrant development environments
- Create a test framework for outside in testing
- Setup a continuous integration environment
Coach in a Box is an innovative company that delivers executive coaching via the telephone and the internet.
The Coach in a Box operating system has been implemented in Ruby on Rails and is hosted on Heroku. The application is covered by a suite of RSpec and Cucumber tests.
Responsibilities:
- Led and managed a team 4 direct reports and 2 external contractors
- Delivering features
- Supported the growth of the internal and external development teams.
- Assigned and managed the workload and priorities of the IT function to be aligned to the business strategy.
- All system architecture, process and technical direction.
Achievements:
- Implemented an agile software development process which is design and prototype driven
- Handled the migration from Rails 3 to 4
- Encapsulated the whole deployment process as a Ruby GEM, which enabled new members of the team to quickly set up local development environments and deploy the application.
- Initiated the dissemination of the application into a suite of Rails Engines, which enabled us to simplify testing and system maintenance.
- Implemented a micro services platform which utilised DOCKER containers.
- Implemented an Enterprise Service Bus called Yaesu utilised NSQ.io and Redis.
- implemented a Ruby on Rails project tracking tool called Gatwick which enabled us to manage both budget and tasks.
- Introduced Retrospectives after every iteration
- Implemented a new online product called Twelve Shifts which was 3 tier distributed application consisting of a html/css/Coffee Script single page app talking to a rails api (JSON) and utilising PUBNUB RTC.
- Implemented an in app notification system called Tannoy that allowed us to communicate in real-time with groups of users or individual users about system updates
Scribble Squad, A multi-disciplined team of three, specialising in developing process automation, ETL and web applications using Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Sinatra and Grape.
Client : BSKYB
Sky, a UK telecommunications company.
Responsibilities:
- Building web applications using Rails /Sinatra (mostly dashboards and interfaces and internal tools)
- Building tools and API’s using Sinatra and Rails and a small micro API framework called GRAPE
- Test automation using Capybara for websites and Calabash and Achouci for testing Android and IOS applications
- Mentoring and training the team members on Ruby, Cucumber and BDD
Client: Net a Porter
Net a Porter, an online luxury fashion retailer
Responsibilities:
- Implemented an automated test framework that exercised every aspect of the business process using Cucumber and Capybara
- Mentoring and training the team members on Ruby,Cucumber and Capybara
- Mentoring and training external teams on our test automation framework Ruby , Cucumber and BDD principles
- Building tools and API using Sinatra and rails
Client: BBC - Radio
BBC Radio, BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation.
The BBC radio site was comprised of a front-end user interface written in Html, CSS and Javascript with a PHP backend talking to a number of rest services which were implemented in Java. As part of the Cucumber test automation team.
Responsibilities:
- Help the Business analyst turn their requirements into Gherkins and then implement the Ruby step definitions.
- Automating the user interaction with the website using Capybara
- Using the VCR gem to mock out the external dependencies to the website
- Design and implement a test framework on which the developers are to implement future testing.
Client: Headshift - Nokia Socialiser Project
Headshift, Management Consultants
Worked on the Nokia socialiser project, a social media monitoring tool
Arcacell, A Software Development Consultancy
Responsible for developing a web application in both Ruby and C# as part of a joint venture with a Canadian design agency , Saiko Media.
Rabobank, an international financial services provider
The scope of the project, was to create a windows service application to aggregate accounting data and to apply IFRS hedging rules. My primary responsibility was to create an asp.net ajax application to communicate with the Windows service.
Thought Works, a Software Development Consultancy
Working on the "Forever mark" Project as part of multi-disciplined team, my role was to develop a C# windows forms application that modelled the diamond marking process across its entire value chain.
Experience Summary
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2007
Swift Computers
Swift computers are a Microsoft certified partner in London. My role was to work on different client projects writing applications using C# and VB.net. Part of my role was to introduce agile practices including but not limited to, TDD, Mocking, Domain Driven Design and Continuous integration.
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2006
QCA (Qualification and Curriculum Authority)
The QCA , a Government Qualifications Accreditation department. I was tasked to develop a N-tier application using Asp.net and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 written in C#.
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2005
Systems Dynamics – DAON - Sporting Emporium
Developing a Bio-metric Enrolment system for a high profile casino. The application consisted of a C# Windows forms application talking to Java based web service which provided secure persistence of the bio-metric data.
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Greenland Interactive Ltd
Implemented a mission critical application to handle the mass data of Telephone numbers that Greenland had purchased for the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system. I designed the system using a Service Orientated Architecture
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2004
Catalyst Housing Group
Developed an Asset Management Application to provide a centralised view off all the properties held by the group. The application utilised Web Services to provide a facade on each group member’s database of properties
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I Group (GE Capital)
Developed a financial management system to model the mortgage lending process to ensure compliance to new FSA Regulations .
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Inaphone
Developed an SMS messaging component library that enabled anyone using the Microsoft .net framework to send and receive SMS messages in their application.
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2003
Vision Consulting - Royal Bank of Scotland
Developed a trading application for credit derivatives. The project enveloped the design and implementation of a Windows form User interface that talked to a Java/SYBASE Web service. My responsibility was to develop an object layer that wrapped the java web services, use windows .net form controls to provide the user interface for the application.
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Innovations Unleashed
Developed a .net application that allowed estate agencies to put a 5 character code on to their sales board. Using this code a customer receive a sms message with the property details.
Netframework
Designing and developing asp.net applications
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2002
Teletext
Teletext published news and consumer information on multiple platforms such as DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television), WAP, SMS, Analogue television, Satellite and the internet
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2000
Tomato Source
VB/ASP Developer, Tomato Source was an online recruitment solution for the telecommunications industry.
The application was implemented using ASP with VB6 Mid tier components which used ADO to communicate with a Microsoft SQL server Database.
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1996
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