Rob Lacey

Senior Software Engineer (April 2023 - December 2023)

Working remotely as a Senior Software Engineer in a new team. Primarily working to help stablise a new application after a new product launch, introducing a stable testing base for all teams to work from and targetting areas where performance could be improved. The role involves code reviews, mentoring and being the point of contact for all teams for hard problems.

The autonomy and ability to contribute to the development of colleages, shaping the platform and introducing new patterns to the application is one of the reasons I loved working here.

The Ruby project was abandoned in October 2023

Senior Software Engineer (January 2023 - March 2023)

Working mostly remotely as a Senior Software Engineer in an expanded global team from India, Ukraine, UK and USA maintaining internal gems and the automated build processes. The role focuses heavily on providing good quality automated API documentation, working closely with external developers to maintain high quality tested code and liasing with backend and front end developers. The role also involves building and maintaining internal tools which help visualise our internal gems and their dependencies.

I did not stay long with this role after it became clear I would not be contributing more than a few hours a week on writing any code.

Senior Developer / Rostering Team Lead (March 2019 - January 2023)

Working remotely as a Senior Developer in a team of 8 across multiple projects offering SaaS solutions that supports the NHS with it comes to staff eLeave, Rostering, and Re-validation of staff licencing. Currently working as Project Lead for a new eRostering solution. Responsibilities are varied and flexible, from Frontend with React, Backbone, Stimulus, jQuery, Backend with Ruby/Rails (upto 7.x), upgrading, refactoring, new Features, Bug fixes and Enhancements.

Senior Developer (March 2009 - February 2019)

Working remotely in a small development / product team (based in Brighton, UK with my team in New York, USA) for a very high volume music site. Building and maintaining a Social / E-commerce / Music site requiring anything from payment processing, media (images, audio and video) conversion, scaling performance, providing an API for external developers, Android/iOS mobile applications and Third-Party fulfillers, integrating with Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, Zencoder, Zendesk and a number of other third party APIs.

Freelance Software Developer (September 2008 - current)

Senior Developer / Systems Architect (July 2006 - September 2008)

I worked in a small team of developers maintaining three of the company's core web sites and provisioning systems. Programming primarily in Ruby / Ruby On Rails and working in sprints using a combination of Scrum and XP methodologies to incrementally roll out new functionality and new products whilst maintaining the core code base. The role involves constant interaction with other team members to plan and deliver solutions, communications with all departments within the company and mentoring junior members of staff. The role requires me to use my systems admin skills, pick up new ideas and react quickly to resolve issues.

Hosting Engineer (November 2005 - July 2006)

I worked in a small Operations Team maintaining the network, domain registration, web hosting and mail platforms and acted as an escalation point for the Support Teams. The role required me to solve problems using a number of different skills and learning to prioritise tasks.

3rd Line Technical Support Engineer / ISP / Systems Engineer (July 2005 - November 2005)

I worked in a busy Support Department, managing internal and customer tickets on a variety of services including: managed servers, connectivity, firewalls, MySQL / MSSQL Databases, IIS / Apache Web Services. I acted as the escalation point for 1st and 2nd Line Support Teams. My duties varied on a daily basis because of the range of services that were offered and involved communication between multiple departments as well as direct contact with customers. Other duties include some coding projects and consolidating several different hosting platforms into one single new platform.

Network Operations Engineer (August 2002 - July 2005)

I worked in a small Network Operations team maintaining the core web, mail and data systems. The role involved sys-admin, configuring and installing Leased Lines at customer sites, network monitoring, DNS, MySQL. I used our internal ticketing systems to resolve internal and customer problems. Web development in PHP / MySQL for internal systems.

Hostmaster (November 2000 - August 2002)

I worked in a small team dealing with processing customers orders from initial set-up internet services. e.g. web hosting, mailboxes, dial-up, ADSL, etc. The role primarily involved domain maintenance and general office administration but also had scope to get involved in all technical aspects of the business, DNS management and programming in PHP / MySQL. It required interaction between sales, admin and Network Operations departments across two company sites and pre-sales enquiries from customers.