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Profile
About

Hi. I'm Nick, a technologist inspired and driven by the simplicity that well written and clean code can bring to the world. I thrive from finding inspiration in technology, people, design, and music and sharing this with others.

  • Technology - this should go without saying!

  • Snowboarding and skate culture

  • Nintendo

  • Music and DJ'ing - I co-ran music events in Bristol for many years plus have dj'ed around the world

  • Pizza

  • Art and design

  • Football

Key interests
Key Skills
  • Web Technologies
  • ASP.Net--dotnetcore--C#--MVC--WebApi--Sitecore--JSS--Contentful--Javascript (Typescript)--Css (Scss)--Vue--Nuxt--React--Next
  • Cloud & Devops Technologies
  • AWS--EC2--Lambda--CloudFormation--VPC-- IAM--S3 and SSG-- Elastic Beanstalk--SNS--SQS
  • Azure--App Services--VMs--Azure Functions
  • Powershell--DataDog--Octopus--MSBuild--Teamcity--Akamai--Azure Devops--Kibana--New Relic--AppDynamics
  • Persistence Technologies
  • SQL Server--Mongo DB--Dynamo DB--Azure Storage
  • Other Technologies
  • NUnit (TDD)--Autofac--Photoshop--Illustrator--Serato
  • Soft Skills
  • Team leadership--Mentoring--Training--Recruitment and interviewing--Line management--Agile--Kanban--DevOps
Work
  • Principal architect, team lead and development manager - Valtech
    • Senior technologist for Valtech, a digital agency with a global reach that provides digital transformation for household name brands

    • I have a diverse role encompassing Technical and Solution Architecture, Development team management, client interfacing throughout the life cycle from pre-sales to post go live

    • Lead and architected key projects such as JustEat global homepage rollout. Both a hands on and strategic role that included advising JustEat CTO on the best technical direction for the new platform

    • Performed line management across multiple development teams

    • Co-run the global Sitecore Craft Circle and UK Development Craft Circle

    • Recognized as key contributor to Sitecore JSS

    • Sitecore MVP with extensive experience, including presenting regularly at the global Sitecore symposium and Sugcon events

2018 - present
  • Principal developer, team lead and solution architect - True Clarity
    • Team lead and solution architect on projects for some of the UK’s biggest online companies for example Asos and easyJet 

    • Re-imagined and implemented scalable personalization for easyJet – this exponentially reduced hosting costs

    • Integral member of the company during the acquisition by global company: Valtech

    • Ran multiple external audits of development team practices and technical implementations

2013 - 2018
  • Graduate, developer, and senior developer - True Clarity
    • Played key role in growing True Clarity from 6 people to 50+ 

    • Technical team lead and mentor on high profile projects for example: The Conservative Party, Sophos, Furniture Village, Taylor & Francis and Saga Travel 

    • Awarded Sitecore MVP status

2005 - 2013
Outside of work
  • Talks and presentations
  • Sitecore Symposium--Sitecore UK Usergroups--Sugcon EU (and US)--Sitecore Symposium taster sessions (US)--Sitecore Virtual User Summit--.net South West user group--Bristech
  • Sharing is caring right? One thing I really enjoy is to share knowledge with people via user group talks and presentations. I've done these throughout the UK, Europe and America. A few sample talks:

  • Blogging and community interaction
  • blog.boro2g.co.uk--Sitecore Community Slack
  • I find blogs and community information a key source for finding out ideas and solutions to the challenges you hit every day as a developer. By writing blog posts I hope to aid this ecosystem.

  • Summits and community events
  • Sitecore Symposium--Sitecore UK Usergroups--Sugcon Usergroup Conference--AWS Summit
  • Conferences and summits are a great way to find new ideas and inspiration. I really value the learning and relationships you can build at these events.

  • Training and mentoring
  • Scratch--Sitecore training--Gilded Rose kata
  • I've run several internal training courses, offered free website lessons and hosted work experience for 14-15 year olds. I've also participated in Code Club, teaching Scratch to 7 and 8 year old children.

Achievements and Education
  • Sitecore Technology MVP
  • Each year Sitecore award the MVP status to a select group of technology enthusiasts around the world. I've been lucky enough to be selected for each year since 2012.

2012 - present
  • Technical Certifications
  • Sitecore Certified Developer 9.1, AWS Cloud Practitioner, Microsoft dotnet and sql

2004 - Present
  • University
  • MEng in Computer Systems Engineering from Bristol University.

2000 - 2004
  • School
  • 3 A's A-Level and 9 A/B GCSE.

1992 - 1999
Online experiments
  • https://cv.boro2g.co.uk/
  • React--NextJS--Bootstrap--SSG--AWS--Contentful
  • The very site you are currently looking at, rewritten in Contentful and NextJS.

  • https://gallery.boro2g.co.uk/
  • Lambda--Razor pages--SNS--API Gateway--Xamarin
  • A serverless photo gallery. When a user uploads an image from a custom Xamarin android app into an S3 bucket, async lambda functions scale the image for web and download.

  • Online news aggregator
  • Nuxt--Vue(x)--Contentful--Azure functions--Azure event grid
  • A JAM inspired, serverless replacement of an RSS feed and twitter aggregator.

  • Sugcon alexa
  • C#--dotnetcore--Alexa--Sitecore--Headless
  • An Alexa skill built to complement a talk at Sugcon Europe in 2018. The skill demo'd how Sitecore personalization can be used multi-channel.

  • AlexaCore
  • C#--dotnetcore--Alexa--NUnit
  • A helper framework for building Alexa Skills. In particular it helps streamline accessing personalized content from Sitecore.

  • http://idea8ball.boro2g.co.uk/
  • Angular--Mongo--Markdown--Bootstrap--Chrome extensions
  • Users can log code snippets and bookmarks which can then be tagged to make sharing ideas simple.

  • easyBot
  • Microsoft Bot Framework--Luis--Slack integration
  • A chat bot built using a combination of Microsoft LUIS and the Microsoft Bot Framework. Natural language was parsed before making web-requests to gather feedback for the user.

  • Artwork
  • Photoshop--Illustrator
  • Various artwork and photography compositions created in Photoshop and Illustrator.

  • Audio mixes
  • Serato--Cubase--Ableton
  • Mixes and tracks recorded from Serato into either Cubase or Ableton for sequencing.

References

Available on request