Curriculum Vitae

Alex Ward

alxwrd@googlemail.com
github.com/alxwrd

Python (Flask, FastAPI)
Node.js (Express.js, SvelteKit)
Docker (Containers, CLI, compose)
Javascript (React, Svelte)
Git (CLI, Gitlab, Github)
Linux (RHEL based, Debian based)
AWS (ECS, S3, EMR, MWAA)
CI/CD (Gitlab Pipelines, CircleCI)
SQL (Postgres, Oracle DB, SQL Server)

Experience

Software Engineer

Deepsea Apr 2024 - Present
FastAPI
Postgres
AWS
Docker
Bitbucket
Jenkins
  • Founding engineer on a new team to develop new Python based services. Responsible for estabilshing technical guidance, leadership, and creating best practices.
  • Identified and improved bottlenecks in a data heavy service and reduced response times from ~14s to 4s - a 70% decrease.
  • Drove the addition of metrics and clean logging to services inherited by the new team to improve observability.

Software Engineer

Tessian Feb 2022 - Jan 2024
Flask
Postgres
(ECS, S3, EMR, MWAA)
Docker
Github
CircleCI
Kafka
  • Split up a monolithic build pipeline reducing build time for individual applications from several hours to less than twenty minutes with 100+ CI credits saved per build.
  • Led an intiative to create a suite of tools to simplify and optimize developer workflows for increased productivity. Regularly used by 90+ engineers and winner of 'fan favourite' hackathon award.
  • Developed a tool that automated the decryption of encrypted log data and ensuring secure, hassle-free data access.
  • Created a release tool that simplifies the release process, reducing cognitive load and boosting the efficiency of service releases.
  • Organised and led a team for the Hack the Box 2022 CTF where we placed 173rd out of 7,024 teams.
  • Regularly produced quaility, engaging, and concise tutorials and documentation for internal processes and systems - providing examples and highlighting pitfalls where approriate.
  • Implemented an external API service that tied together multiple backend services to allow customers programmatic access to data and to allow 3rd party integration development.
  • Launched an overhaul of the customer onboarding/offboarding process, giving indiviual services greater control over their data, and implementing reporting mechanisms to prevent unintended data retention. Automated the process to save the Platform team hours of manual work each month - and additionally reducing out-of-hours work as performance-heavy offboarding jobs were scheduled for overnight and didn't require manually starting.

Software Engineer

Oracle Nov 2018 - Jan 2022
Django
Oracle DB
Oracle Cloud
Oracle Linux
Docker
Express.js
Spring Boot
Gitlab
Gitlab Pipelines
  • Established and managed a Gitlab deployment pipeline across multiple OCI instances, handling project builds, test executions, and dynamic deployment to review environments for QA testing.
  • Developed tools to manage local development environments and initiate development Docker containers, facilitating seamless onboarding for new team members and saving valuable development time.
  • Anticipating Python 2 end-of-life, proactively upgraded the application from Python 2 to Python 3, ensuring compatibility and future-proofing the technology stack.
  • Innovated a Python testing framework utilizing Selenium and PyTest, simplifying the complexities of writing Selenium tests and providing a user-friendly interface for QA to automate testing.

Application Developer

GSA Ltd Jun 2016 - Nov 2018
IronPython
SQL Server
TFS
  • Engineered a bridge application facilitating communication between a legacy application and a new external system, ensuring seamless integration and interoperability.
  • Built developer pipeline tools to improve efficiency:
  • Developed tools to synchronize changes with remote development environments and run linters, minimizing deployment issues and improving efficiency.
  • Created tools to significantly reduce release and deployment times, enhancing overall development speed.
  • Designed and maintained internal Python libraries, ensuring they meet evolving development needs and standards.
  • Provided technical assistance to the support team and actively maintained existing systems.

Administrator

Npower Jan 2014 - Jun 2016
Python
  • Developed a Python application that generates and emails HTML reports from booking system exports, eliminating the manual creation of reports and saving several hours daily.

Open Source

textstat/textstat maintainer

A Python package to calculate readability statistics of a text object - paragraphs, sentences, articles.

trailassociation.uk maintainer

A resource for trail associations in the UK to help with promotion and organisation.