Actively looking for senior developer / technical lead roles · Remote or hybrid in the Midlands
Senior engineer,
built for
outcomes.
Project Lead on a core Sort Group revenue platform.
Fifteen years running my own software business shaped how I think
about delivery: quality and delivery aren't competing values, they're
the same engineering discipline. I build secure, maintainable
systems designed for real users, real deadlines and real business
constraints.
Twenty years of commercial software, written by someone who
understands business.
Project Lead on a core legacy PHP platform supporting key Sort Group revenue workflows. Promoted from senior developer into the lead
role on the system used by brokers, agents and law firms across
the UK to run conveyancing and mortgage work. Modernising it in
place: biometric ID for solicitors, client onboarding messaging,
multi-tenant data isolation, identity verification.
I have spent the last two years applying AI pragmatically inside
engineering workflows. Rather than chasing demos, I have focused
on areas where AI can reduce friction without replacing
engineering judgement: pull request review, dependency
maintenance, and document-heavy legal workflows.
That work has produced internal tooling around AI-assisted PR
review, dependency patch preparation and document analysis. The
common theme is human-in-the-loop automation tools that surface
issues earlier, reduce repetitive work and give engineers better
starting points:
AI-assisted PR review pipeline integrated into CI to surface potential issues before or during human review.
Dependency patching workflow investigates audit failures, tests upgrades where possible and prepares reviewable patch PRs.
Document analysis tooling being developed for legal, identity and conveyancing document workflows.
Outside the day job, I volunteer at a community steam museum which is one of the finest examples of a working victorian pumping station in the UK, which keeps me close to engineering history and the practical
consequences of technological change.
I started writing software professionally in 2004 building
enterprise applications in .NET and PHP for NHS Trusts and large
public sector organisations at Warwick International, the UK's market leader in occupational health software at the
time. The data modelling lessons from those Oracle and Sybase
backends still inform how I think today.
Fifteen years of independent practice followed bespoke web applications, consultancy, and technical
leadership for SMEs across credit, finance, events, e-commerce,
and hospitality. Built entirely on referrals; the work spoke for
itself.
Selected Work
Selected projects, chosen for commercial and technical relevance.
Project Lead on a core revenue-generating Sort Group platform, plus adjacent
work on identity verification, client onboarding and delivery
infrastructure.
Core platform · 2022 — present
Modernising a core legacy PHP platform supporting Sort Group revenue workflows
Project Lead on a core legacy PHP platform used daily by brokers, agents and law firms across the UK to run conveyancing and mortgage brokerage workflows — a platform central to day-to-day Sort Group revenue activity. Promoted from senior developer into the lead role. Modernisation is delivered incrementally because the platform must remain available throughout: identity verification task trees, tenant-aware data isolation, PDF generation services, developer-environment guard systems, containerisation of adjacent services.
Role
Project Lead
Stack
PHP · Vue 3 · NestJS
Scope
Core platform
Project Lead on a core revenue-generating platform
Incremental modernisation while the platform remains available throughout
Tenant-aware data isolation across key queries, APIs and generated documents
PHPVue 3NestJSTypeORMPostgreSQLDocker
Identity & compliance · 2023 — 2024
Biometric identity verification, integrated into the solicitor portal
Designed and integrated biometric and document-based identity verification into the conveyancing portal used by UK solicitors. Designed to let solicitors run KYC and identity checks inside the workflow rather than relying on separate tools — single audit trail, less context switching. Integrated mobile eMRTD passport scanning flows based on ICAO 9303 concepts, including BAC/PACE support, chip authentication and passive authentication. Verified results feed back to the portal where solicitors review and sign off.
Surface
Portal + mobile
Standard
ICAO 9303
Users
UK solicitors
Single workflow for KYC and document-based identity inside the portal
NFC passport chip reading support across iOS and Android
Workflow designed to support solicitor audit and compliance requirements
Vue 3NestJSFlutterICAO 9303BACPACE
Onboarding · 2023
Real-time messaging across the client onboarding lifecycle
Added in-platform messaging to the client onboarding system so solicitors and clients can communicate inside the workflow rather than across disconnected emails. Reduces reliance on disconnected email threads with a structured channel that leaves an audit trail, keeps context attached to the case, and removes the time tax of switching tools. The kind of feature that's invisible when it works and obvious when it doesn't.
Surface
Portal + client side
Pattern
In-context messaging
Audit
Case-attached
Reduces context-switching between portal and email
Audit trail attached to the case, not buried in inboxes
Supports faster client response loops and clearer case history
Vue 3TypeScriptNestJSWebSocketsPostgreSQL
DevOps · 2023 — present
Self-hosted CI/CD for mobile releases
Built and maintain self-hosted CI/CD workflows for mobile releases. Automated release workflows for iOS and Android builds — code-signing, provisioning profile management, export compliance and store submission, all automated through Fastlane on a self-hosted Mac runner. Resolved deep iOS code-signing and entitlement issues — NFC entitlements, push notifications, Apple Distribution certificate chains — that had previously blocked automated export.
Runner
Mac · self-hosted
Targets
App Store Connect · Google Play
Cadence
Frequent releases
Automated release workflows for iOS and Android builds
Automated entitlement, code-signing and export compliance handling
Reduced release blockers caused by local build and signing differences
Bitbucket PipelinesFastlanematchXcodeGradle
Practical AI tooling
AI tooling for real engineering workflows.
Two years building practical AI-assisted tools inside an 11-person
development environment, focused on review, dependency maintenance
and document-heavy workflows.
Each tool is designed around human review, clear auditability and
practical workflow value.
01
AI-assisted PR review pipeline
Integrated into CI to trigger automated review passes on pull requests. Surfaces potential logic issues, missed edge cases, security concerns and inconsistencies with the codebase's conventions, presented as inline review comments alongside human reviewers — helping reviewers focus more on architecture, intent and higher-risk changes.
Integrated into CI · supports PR review
Integrated with the team's PR review workflow
Helps reviewers focus more on architecture, intent and higher-risk changes
Potential issues surfaced earlier in the review process
LLM-driven review Bitbucket Pipelines Custom CI
02
Dependency patching workflow
When a dependency audit flags a vulnerability, the workflow investigates the proposed patch, tests the upgrade where possible and — where it looks safe — prepares a reviewable PR with a written rationale for the human reviewer. Designed to speed up the first response to dependency vulnerabilities and reduce repetitive dependency maintenance work.
Internal workflow · prepares reviewable PRs
Speeds up the first response to dependency vulnerabilities by preparing reviewable patch PRs
LLM analysis Custom CI Test-aware preparation Auto PR
03
Document analysis tooling
Sort Group works with high volumes of legal, identity and conveyancing documents — contracts, identity documents, statements, deeds. I'm building tooling to extract structured signals from those documents and support human review, exploring extraction, validation support and review assistance against the specifics of UK conveyancing and KYC workflows.
In development · focused on document-heavy workflows
Being developed specifically for legal, identity and conveyancing document workflows
Designed to extract structured signals and support human review
Exploring extraction, validation support and review assistance
LLM extraction Structured output PII handling
Stack
The toolkit, organised by where each tool earns its place.
Twenty years of working software is twenty years of accumulated tools.
These are the ones I reach for first.
AI & Automation
Recent applied work
OpenAI integration
ElevenLabs TTS
Agent orchestration
Human-in-the-loop
Research pipelines
Local automation
Mobile & Cross-Platform
Cross-platform mobile delivery
Flutter / Dart
iOS (Swift)
Android (Kotlin)
Match
Fastlane
NFC / eMRTD
Frontend
Vue-first, framework-fluent
Vue 3 / TypeScript
PrimeVue 4
Tailwind CSS
NextJS
REST APIs
Pinia
Backend & Data
From NestJS today back to Sybase yesterday
NestJS / TypeORM
Node.js / TypeScript
PostgreSQL
Redis
AWS S3
Swagger / Jest
DevOps & Infrastructure
Release automation and deployment support
Bitbucket Pipelines
Docker / Linux
AWS (EC2, S3, RDS, CloudFront)
Google Cloud
Self-hosted runners
Mac build host
Nginx
Build automation
Methodologies & Leadership
How a team gets faster, not just busier
Technical leadership
Architecture decisions
Sprint delivery
Code review discipline
Multi-tenant SaaS
Legacy modernisation
Experience
Three roles, two decades, one consistent story.
Less a career and more a continuous practice — each role widening the
surface area of what I can take responsibility for.
2022 — Present
Sort Group Limited
Derby
Senior Software Developer & Project Lead
Technology platform delivering mortgage brokerage and conveyancing services to brokers, agents, and law firms across the UK. Promoted to Project Lead within the 11-strong development team.
Led architecture and development of a white-label Flutter onboarding application — multi-tenant by design, with a single CI/CD pipeline.
Integrated ICAO 9303 eMRTD passport scanning flows, including BAC/PACE support and authentication workflows across iOS and Android.
Built and maintain self-hosted Bitbucket Pipelines workflows on a Mac runner — automated release flows for App Store Connect and Google Play.
Delivered Vue 3 / TypeScript portal features and NestJS / TypeORM backend services with tenant-aware data isolation across key paths.
Helped introduce stronger code review standards, sprint practices and technical documentation habits across the team.
Built a successful independent practice growing entirely by referral, delivering bespoke software across credit & finance, events management, e-commerce, and hospitality. Sole developer and client-facing technical lead on most engagements.
Designed and built full-stack web applications in PHP (Laravel, CakePHP), JavaScript, SQL, and REST.
Delivered consultancy engagements that streamlined and automated SME business processes.
Built booking platforms, e-commerce sites, CRM integrations, and reporting dashboards on AWS and Google Cloud.
Managed every phase end-to-end: requirements, architecture, build, test, deploy, support.
2004 — 2007
Warwick International Computer Systems
Derby
Software Developer
UK market leader in health & safety and occupational health software, with major clients including NHS Trusts and large public sector organisations.
Built data-driven enterprise applications in .NET, Visual Basic, JavaScript, and PHP against Oracle, Sybase, and MS SQL Server.
Gained foundational expertise in large-scale relational data modelling and regulated healthcare software environments.
Contributed across the full SDLC — requirements analysis through deployment and client support.
Beyond Code
The bits that aren't on a typical CV but probably should be.
Software is what I'm paid for. These are some of the things that make
me good at it.
Workshop
Robotics & process control
Personal projects in embedded systems and process automation — custom robot arm design and control, stepper motor systems, Raspberry Pi-based control rigs, and the integration of hardware and software into closed-loop systems. The same instincts that catch a race condition in a CI pipeline turn out to be useful when commissioning a sensor loop.
EmbeddedStepper controlRaspberry PiClosed-loop
Volunteer engineer
Claymills Victorian Pumping Station
Volunteer at Claymills, one of the UK's finest surviving examples of Victorian municipal engineering. Volunteer work around operational steam engines, Lancashire boilers and associated plant, supporting restoration, maintenance and interpretation alongside experienced volunteers.
Steam enginesLancashire boilersRestoration
Side practice
Property portfolio
Active landlord managing a mixed residential and commercial buy-to-let portfolio — Section 24 compliance, MTD tax reporting, tenant management. A useful counterweight to software work: physical assets, long time horizons, no rebase available.
Buy-to-letSection 24MTD
Contact
Let's talk about what you're building.
I'm actively looking for senior software developer, technical lead,
and platform engineering roles — particularly where AI tooling,
regulated systems, legacy modernisation, or CI/CD delivery are part
of the work.