University of Northumbria at Newcastle

Full Stack Developer (Java/NodeJs/ReactJS)

Newcastle upon Tyne, England, United Kingdom

Lead Full Stack Developer at Fimatix for the UK Government Home Office working on the Alpha and Beta phases of a project for the Police.
Contracted initially to develop an audit aspect for the application then asked in Dec 21 to take over lead development role of the full project when the client issued a deadline of delivering a mvp product by end of March 22. This involved
-  Initiating a project ‘pivot’ and helping to drive and make the decisions (designs, solutions and approaches) necessary to deliver as requested.
-  Managing/assisting a small team of back end developers  in their work to ensure extremely tight deadlines were met.
-  Liasing with the BA’s and designers to prioritise work and work through the finer details, then translating them into development tasks.
-  Fleshing out their tasks to a high level of technical detail and assisting with development work where necessary.
-  Acting as solution architect (contributing to the design and development of the full solution including authentication and auditing).
-  Sole front end developer (React / Typescript).
The successful delivery of the MVP to the deadline meant that the contract with Fimatix was extended and we continue to deliver quality, well designed functionality at a high pace – often leading the way with respect to technologies and common solutions for other projects within the same program of work.
Technologies: ReactJS, Typescript, Java 11, Spring Boot, Microservice Architecture, Docker, OAuth2, Keycloak, AWS SQS/SNS/S3, JSON, REST, XML, JAXB, AOP, DynamoDB, MongoDB, DocumentDB, Elasticsearch, JEE, JPA, Spring Boot, SOA, Maven, JUnit, Design Patterns, CSS, Git, Log4J.

Fimatix

Lead Full Stack : Java / React JS @ Gov HO (Security Cleared)

IT Accomplice Ltd

Director

Senior Full Stack Developer at Scrumconnect for the UK Government DWP working on their ‘Get Your State Pension’ service. Working on the backend Spring Boot Java microservices/MongoDB and the front end using NodeJS and Nunjucks. This work included upgrading all their projects to use Java 11, Spring Boot 2.3.4 and MongoDB 4.2. I refactored some of their critical batch processes to use transactions, designed and developed some NodeJs middleware components to satisfy their audit requirements and worked on many other enhancements to live services. I also assisted in migrating their CI/CD processes from Jenkins to Gitlab.

Scrumconnect Consulting

Full Stack Developer (NodeJs/Java)

Senior Full Stack Developer at Difrent for the NHS BSA working on their NHS Jobs recruitment application. Working on the backend Spring Boot Java microservices and the front end using NodeJS and Nunjucks. This work included the design and implementation of an API to allow third party providers to publish job adverts, and also integrating with other third party supplier services. Another highlight included the development of the contract management system allowing clients to manage contract templates and generate contracts based on them.

Difrent

Full Stack Developer (NodeJS/Java)

Senior Full Stack Developer at Air Menzies International. Full-stack redesign and development of freight export application ‘Click2Ship’ in ReactJS. Updating of existing 3rd party API clients and integration of new ones (DHL, Fedex, UPS). Mentoring of Air Menzies staff in software development and consulting on best practises.
Technologies: JavaScript, React JS, Redux, Java 8, Spring Boot, JSON, REST, XML, JAXB, XSD, WSDL, SOAP, SOA, AOP, Hibernate, Oracle 11g, SQL, Liquibase, Bootstrap, Maven, JUnit, Design Patterns, Oracle, SQL, Liquibase, CSS, Git, Log4J, Team city.

Air Menzies International

Senior Full Stack Developer (ReactJs/Java)

Part of an agile scrum team in the public sector to deliver online services for the export, storage and processing of fish products. My contributions spanned the full stack and included
- the design and development of a PDF service for generating and parsing of official government export certificates. Also downloading and uploading them to Azure blob storage – making them accessible via shared access signatures (SAS) routed through a reverse proxy I created in HapiJs.
- securing the application using a supplied plugin for the Hapi framework
- communication with Dynamics for customer info
- ReactJS UI development with Redux and  NodeJS/Typescript RESTful API development
Technologies: React JS, Redux, Redis, Node JS, Typescript, Hapi, Azure, Dynamics, OAuth 2, MongoDB.

Transform

Full Stack Developer

Java JEE development for Mastek on the NHS Business Services Authority’s Transformation Loss Recovery Services team. Initially solely responsible for taking ownership of the Penalty Charge Notice application suite from Accenture on behalf of Mastek and then propagating that knowledge to the rest of the team as it expanded. During this period we were able to maintain the momentum and quality of work that Accenture had delivered providing a seamless transition on behalf of Mastek, and subsequently to deliver significant business requirements on the public facing application and usability improvements on the call centre application. Technologies: Java 8, JEE, JPA, Spring Boot, Spring MVC, Spring Security, Thymeleaf, REST, LDAP, MS Azure, SOA, Microservices, JSON, Maven, JUnit, Selenium, PostgreSQL, Design Patterns, SQL, Liquibase, CSS, Git, Agile Methodologies, TDD, Pair Programming.

Mastek Ltd

Lead Java Developer

Developing proof of concept applications for Nissan to explore the potential of Amazon AWS Serverless technologies including Cognito, Kinesis, API Gateway, IAM, DynamoDB, Lambda (NodeJS & Java 8) and S3.

Infotel

Senior Java EE Full Stack Developer

Part of an agile team working on the department of health’s overseas healthcare system. Skills and experience included Spring Boot, Microservice Architecture, Spring Data, REST, RxJava, PostgreSQL, TDD, BDD, Selenium, pair programming.

Agilesphere

Senior Java JEE Full Stack Developer

Full stack application design and development for Infotel’s clients. The project I delivered for one of Infotel’s clients was a real-time dashboard application, a launch pad into their diverse application suite integrated not only through links but also through configurable dashboard components calling RESTful services exposed by these other applications and secured through an access token based mechanism. I took control of this solution from the inception;
- Liaising directly with the client to gather requirements and present a solution.
- Proposing a project plan with aggressive timescales.
- Oversaw the conversion of the project plan into agile scrum based sprints and delegated the stories / tasks to the teams involved – including the teams responsible for exposing application functionality as RESTful services for the dashboard to consume.
- Development of the dashboard itself in Angular 4, Spring, RESTful web services.
- Overcame many technical hurdles along the way; security, internationalisation, UI/UX design, introducing SOA to the IS Dept.
Technologies: Java 8, JEE, JPA, Spring 4, Spring Security, Kerberos, WSDL, SOAP, REST, SOA, AOP, JavaScript, Angular 4, Angular Charts, Bootstrap 4, JQuery, JSON, OAuth 2.0, JBoss EAP 6.4, LDAP, Maven, JUnit, Design Patterns, Oracle, SQL, Liquibase, XML, JAXB, XSD, CSS, Subversion, Log4J, Sonar, Jenkins CI, Agile Methodologies.

Short term contract filling in for usual front end developer; Advising on UI/UX, upgrading Angular JS and associated libraries to 1.5.9, refactoring application to make best use of new version. Development of  bespoke Angular JS components and advising on Agile scrum and Jira best practises.
Technologies: JavaScript, AngularJS, Angular UI, Angular Charts, Bootstrap, JQuery, JSON, CSS, HTML

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Senior Frontend Developer

Worked with a small Agile team to develop a web application to front Nissan’s production control management mainframe systems. I drove the architectural and UI design on this agile project, rapidly developing a sophisticated tool that has impressed the client and won an award in the Alliance Supply Chain Management awards for Innovation. We also integrated Spain and Russia’s systems, allowing a more uniform production control user experience across the plants. Highlights of the application included;
- An impressive, mobile first, responsive user interface (AngularJS, Bootstrap, Angular UI,  Angular Charts) that allows the user to work efficiently on mobile devices as well as desktops (also in their own language).
- A simple, well designed Restful API to the backend services secured at each layer in this n-tiered application.
As part of this project I also reviewed the current Nissan security standard for securing business to employee applications. I identified areas for improvement and liaised with other departments across the globe to implement an effective Kerberos based security solution that adheres to best practice, securing the application at all layers. It facilitates single sign on with their windows identities and mapping of Active Directory roles to JEE authorities for authorisation. This solution was adopted as a standard going forward and is to be retrofitted to all existing B2E applications, a process which will be made a lot easier by the thorough documentation I made.
Technologies: Java 8 JPA, Spring 4, Spring Security, Kerberos, WSDL, SOAP, REST, SOA, AOP, JavaScript, AngularJS, Angular UI, Angular Charts, Bootstrap, JQuery, JSON, OAuth 2.0, JBoss EAP 6.4, LDAP, Maven, JUnit, Design Patterns, Oracle, SQL, Liquibase, XML, JAXB, XSD, CSS, Subversion, Log4J, Sonar, Jenkins CI, Agile Methodologies.

Nissan Motor Corporation

Underwent security clearance to become part of a small agile team developing a web front end to Northumbria Police’s emergency call handling system. My contributions included;
- Designing and implementing the Spring RESTful web services, advising on technique, security and quality where necessary. I specified an architectural approach and designed and implemented a bespoke OAuth 2.0 solution that allows the services to be securely accessed from multiple client applications.
- Leading the team in designing and implementing the UI (Angular JS, Bootstrap). Liaising closely with the customer to uncover and realise very specific UI requirements that may not have been identified without taking the time and effort to engage and build an effective working relationship with the users.
This project was at risk during its early stages when it was realised that an essential requirement of the application (to interface and coordinate between the multiple TN3270 terminals that made up the legacy call handling application) had been missed. By interviewing the existing application developers I was able to understand the problem, find a solution and quickly create a proof of concept. My solution was adopted and proved robust and extremely cost effective.
Technologies: Java 8, JPA, Spring 4, WSDL, SOAP, REST, SOA, AOP, JavaScript, AngularJS, Bootstrap, JQuery, JSON, OAuth 2.0, Tomcat 8, Maven, JUnit, Design Patterns, Oracle, SQL, Liquibase, XML, JAXB, XSD, CSS, Subversion, Log4J, Sonar, Hudson CI, Agile Methodologies.

Northumbria Police

Senior Java EE Consultant

Part of an agile team developing a web front end to Nissan's haulier / compound management and dealer order and supply management systems. Like most projects I have worked on, I had occasion to prove my ability to communicate well, lead, collaborate and mentor. Nissan also benefitted from my experience and skills in the following areas;
- UI design and implementation. I developed a number of improvements to the UI that provide a more responsive and interactive 'rich client' experience using HTML5 and JavaScript technologies such as Backbone, Marionette, RequireJS and JQuery.
- Business service development. Nissan made good use of my technical expertise (especially in Java, EJB, Spring MVC and web services), and also the years of experience I have in developing similar systems. This allowed me to develop business services that fulfilled the functional requirements and were implemented with consideration to essential non-functional requirements that weren't always explicitly defined.
- Architecture. I demonstrated to Nissan how they can start to move towards a more service oriented architecture using RESTful web services by implementing a message management system as a standalone service secured by a bespoke OAuth 2.0 solution implemented using JEE components and deployed on a clustered JBoss 7 application server.
- Database persistence. I advised on best practises for designing and developing Oracle database back ends to the JEE applications as well as the best technologies to access them and manage the schema / code relationship over time.
- Security. As well as reviewing and improving the security of the application, the documentation I created gave the team valuable confidence that security concerns were covered and an understanding that allowed them to check the quality of future development work going forward.

Nissan Motor Manufacturing Ltd.

Developing one of their concept projects integrating with cutting edge hardware and technologies to provide an innovative IP based communication solution to the transportation sector. I designed and implementing the data layer and an algorithm to efficiently select the most appropriate communication artefact from those available based upon a number of criteria. I used the template and decorator patterns to achieve this in a way that was self-documenting, easy to maintain, configure and adapt.
I was also asked to contribute to the development of the UI. My previous rich client development experience in GWT and Flex allowed me to quickly run with the chosen JavaScript framework (Ext-JS), and my Java EE skills allowed me to assist with the development of the restful web services that serve as an interface to the UI.
Other work during this period included the use of Apache Camel to integrate some of Nomads more isolated systems. Using this framework we made good use of EIP (Enterprise Integration Patterns) to manage the import and distribution of client data to the systems that required it in a timely and reliable manner.
Technologies: Java 6, Spring 3, Apache CXF Restful Web services, JAX-RS, JMS, Apache Camel, Hibernate, MySQL, Liquibase, Ext-Js, JavaScript, JSON, JBoss, JBoss Netty, Maven, JUnit, Design Patterns, SQL, XML, XSLT, JAXB, XSD, CSS, Subversion, Log4J, Sonar, Hudson CI, Agile Methodologies.

Nomad Digital

Tasked with designing and implementing a standalone server application that would act as a gateway for documents and data destined for third party despatch and printing service providers. The solution I delivered made use of Java 7’s new directory watcher api and other aspects of the java.nio and java.util.concurrent packages to provide a multi-threaded server which could be configured via xml to route documents and data files to various destinations via local file transfer and sftp.
Technologies: Java 7, Java EE 5 (EJB 3 - JPA Entity Beans, SSB, MDB, JMS, JNDI, JSF), Maven, Oracle 11g, Oracle Service Bus, WebLogic 11gR1(10.3.5), Spring, JUnit, Design Patterns, SQL, XML, XSLT, JAXB, XSD, CSS, VSS, Log4J.

Mark Ford

Mark Ford