SH ED PLANT

Senior Python Developer, Platform Engineer (DevOps)

Husband, Father, Gamer, Shooter

Career

Senior Software Architect

In the last 3 years I've improved Expend's developer experience, platform stability, deployment CICD pipeline, systems understanding, documentation, and test confidence.

With 12 factor app principles in mind, I transformed the monolith of closely coupled microservices to distinct projects with clear domain boundaries, Infrastructure as Code for both production and a new AWS staging environment, improved test coverage and confidence.

In our small and highly collaborative development team, I combine deep understanding of how things work now, with ideals of microservice event driven architecture, to help design appropriate architecture and solutions.

I am also a big contributor to new feature development, bug fixing and production support troubleshooting.

July 2024 - Present

Senior Software Developer

Expend

Python developer and DevOps specialist. See above.

July 2021 - July 2024

Platform Deployment, Development Team Lead

Fidessa -> ION

I led a development automation team with a mission to deliver change to SaaS customers more frequently and more automatically.

I first focussed on making CIB/QA more automatically configured, more 'cattle' than 'pets'.

I wanted development teams to take responsibility and pride in their applications’ health and stability in CIB and QA. We improved visualisation of system health:

new health webpages on office TVs
deployment status notifications by email and MS Teams

I streamlined the software delivery pipeline by back-porting legacy customisation layers that were historically added post-release by other siloed development teams. This shortened the release turnaround time by a few days per monthly release.

I led the development of a new automated configuration and deployment tool based on Rundeck , Ansible & Tcl . We accumulated a userbase community of development system owners. This reduced manual toil to deploy or upgrade the Fidessa trading stack compared to previous disparate manual practices.

My greatest achievement was a company-first of deploying a new green-field Internet-facing multi-tenanted trading platform:

Using consistent automated deployment technology in all environments (Continuous Integration, Quality Assurance, User Acceptance Testing, Production)
Straight from Development group, without hand-over to Delivery group
Monthly, automated upgrade cycle rather than yearly, semi-manual

This resulted in the application developers being able to deliver value to market more rapidly than before. Overheads of supporting old code lines are minimal. Being multi-tenanted, the marginal cost of on-boarding additional customers is much lower than normal practice of purchasing and deploying to new hardware.

January 2017 - May 2021

Consultant

FIS - Securities Finance

It was a hard decision to leave so soon but the role was not a good fit .

I mainly did client-facing 1st and 2nd line Production support but wanted more hands-on development and automation opportunities.

October 2016 - December 2016

Trading Platform Delivery Team Lead

Fidessa

The role was a generalist mix of Implementation Consultancy, Project Management, Development, Testing, Deployment and Application Support.

I led a team of 3, responsible for several customers’ trading platforms. I managed 6-week back-to-back sprints for a high-profile customer.

Liaised with customer-facing delivery managers and business analysts, to understand customer requirements
Analysed requirements to produce solution design
Software development / implementation
Writing and executing manual test plans in User Acceptance Testing (UAT) environment
Re-factoring or re-testing customisations following a major underlying software upgrade
Coordinating patches/upgrades e.g. reacting to mandatory 3rd party upgrades, or for regulatory compliance
Deployment to Production with mix of manual action and automation
issue triage and support, remaining calm in a high-pressure environment
Coached and managed junior team members including SMART objective setting and one-to-ones.
Gate-kept and code reviewed my team's work
Proactively drove change to improve the department's procedures, documentation and tools.

July 2014 - September 2016

Trading Platform Delivery Engineer

Fidessa

Configured, customised and upgraded trading platform applications.

September 2010 - July 2014

Education

University of Kent

Master of Science

IT Consultancy

Distinction

2009 - 2010

University of Exeter

Bachelor of Arts

Politics

2:1

2006 - 2009

Dry Fire

Using GameMaker , in mid-2016 I made a non-commercial computer game to simulate the Civilian Service Rifle shooting competitions carried out at Bisley by the National Rifle Association of the UK .

The player follows a real shooting competition format. Unlike most shooting games, the emphasis is on safety! The player is taught how to handle the rifle safely and follow the course of fire. Infractions will result in a warning and/or a game over.

"I had a go and it's impressive and fun - quite how you managed this is a mystery. I liked the prompt to take the next action and the urgency of the drills. I'm sure others would enjoy it too"

Peter Cottrell, Head of Shooting & Training at UK NRA

Screenshots

Windows Download

Baldur's Gate II Mods

Baldur's Gate II is a CRPG released in 2000.

Between May 2005 - February 2007, I was a 'modder' i.e. creating extra content for the game.

My mods have a combined download count of 200,000+ from Spellhold Studios, as of January 2022:

Yikari - an honourable, steadfast and loyal human monk NPC. ( Download )
The Jerry Zinger Show - a ribald theatrical show. ( Download )
Shed's Mods - a collection of mini-mods ( Download )
Lord of the Rings Item Pack ( Download )
Lord of the Rings - The One Ring ( Download )

Writing

Academic

Liberty Lost? (2009) - Download

To What Extent Have The United States Of America Become Collectivist To The Detriment Of Individualism?

This 13,200 word dissertation was the single largest work of my Politics BA.

Abstract:

This dissertation charts the changes throughout history in the balance between collectivism and individualism in United States federal government policy. It is argued that collectivism has become more prominent to the detriment of individual liberty, especially since the twentieth century. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between collectivist policies and an inflationary monetary system. The issue of military conscription is also examined. The dissertation concludes that the trend towards collectivism, though alarming and harmful, is neither sustainable nor inevitable.

It received an Upper Second. Praise from markers:

An interesting, thoroughly researched exploration of the question ... the writer manages well, in my view, to combine breadth of argument with depth. The assessment possesses other merits - it's well informed (there's excellent reference to an array of writers) fluent and very well argued

It's a vigorous polemic, well structured, clearly organised and well presented.

Travel

Ma-Gnarly, Dude! (2006) - Download

In my gap year between school and University, from March to August 2006, I travelled to India, Australia and the United States. Most of my time was spent in a village in the north of India, teaching English as a foreign language at a primary school.

This is an extract from my journal, published in the University of Exeter student magazine Exepose on 8th October 2007.

Africa Safari (2005) - Download

For three weeks over my gap year in Chistmas 2005, I went on safari in Namibia and Botswana. Here's the article I wrote about the trip. It was published in the University of Exeter student magazine Exepose in the 21 May 2007 edition.

Interests

I spend a lot of my free time looking after, and playing with, my two young boys.

In the evenings, I like to play solo or co-operative PC games: FPSs, RPGs, story-rich adventure games, open-world survival/craft.

When seeing friends IRL I love to play board or tabletop games like D&D, Mansions of Madness, Splendor, 7 Wonders, Codename.

My main hobby - which doesn't involve a screen - is clay pigeon and target shooting.