About

I'm a hands-on tech lead and senior backend engineer with 15+ years of experience in the industry. My passion lies in tackling complex problems using a variety of modern technologies. I take a pragmatic approach to programming, valuing simplicity, efficiency, and security while avoiding over-engineering.

Outside of work, I'm an avid learner and enjoy tinkering with side projects at home, including managing smart home devices and hosting this very website on a Raspberry Pi in my home network.

Experience

Currently, I'm Tech Lead at Mayday, where I lead technical delivery and backend architecture, building integrations with platforms like Xero and QuickBooks Online, tackling intricate accounting data and logic, and engineering robust, high-performance processing systems.

Across my wider background, including significant roles at Rungway (Senior Backend Engineer) and Goldman Sachs (VP, Compliance Technology), I have designed and delivered complex distributed systems spanning event-driven notification pipelines, global regulatory surveillance platforms, high-throughput ETL data pipelines, and large-scale multi-database migrations. My career pairs deep hands-on technical ownership and backend system design with team leadership, mentoring, and cross-functional delivery.

While I specialise in backend architecture and JVM technologies, I work comfortably across the full stack and readily contribute with React, React Native, or Python when needed.

Skills

• Languages & Frameworks: Java, Kotlin, Groovy, Python, SQL, Spring Boot, JPA/Hibernate
• Backend & Architecture: System design, REST APIs, Microservices, ETL pipelines, Event-driven systems, OAuth, SAML, JWT
• Cloud & Data: AWS, MariaDB/MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, OpenSearch/Elasticsearch, SQS, Kubernetes, Helm
• Testing & Frontend: Spock, Kotest, JUnit, Testcontainers, React, React Native
• Leadership & Practices: Technical leadership, delivery planning, system migrations, performance optimisation, mentoring, attention to detail