chrisjcollins.com

Curriculum Vitae

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Personal Details

Name:
Chris Collins
Location:
South Wales, UK
Nationality:
Welsh
Email:
chris@chrisjcollins.com
Website:
https://chrisjcollins.com
GitHub:
https://github.com/chriscollins

Profile

An intelligent and hard-working software professional with over eighteen years commercial experience in web development and leadership. Empathetic and adaptable, with an eye for detail and a broad range of skills.

Core Skills

  • Object Orientation
  • Design Patterns
  • Domain Driven Design
  • Hexagonal Architecture
  • Test-Driven Development
  • REST
  • Continuous Integration
  • Agile
  • Mentorship
  • PHP
  • JavaScript
  • C#
  • Ruby
  • Symfony
  • Laravel
  • Doctrine
  • Ruby On Rails
  • BEM CSS
  • Vue.js
  • MySQL
  • PostgreSQL
  • Microsoft SQL Server
  • Git
  • Docker
  • JIRA

Experience

  • Responsible for the planning and implementation of processes to improve the competency and efficiency of developers.
  • Introduced static analysis to the business and facilitated its roll out across all projects.
  • Coordinated the successful migration of Continuous Integration from Travis CI to GitHub Actions.
  • Founded a working group to discuss and implement improvements around testing and code quality.
  • Improved the approach to onboarding new developers in order to increase productivity.
  • Provided highly regarded training to all staff on the concept of delivering value.
  • Tracked developer skills to provide valuable input to company decisions on recruitment, training and team composition.
  • Involved in producing a Career Development Framework to clearly define expectations and progression pathways for developers.
  • Helped refine the company's approach to estimation on Agile projects, resulting in improved predictability and better meeting of deadlines.
  • Led the development team for the company's largest client.
  • Acted as Lead Developer on multiple prestigious projects for large multinational organisations such as RS Components and Sodexo.
  • Line managed and mentored less experienced developers.
  • Conducted interviews and technical tests for prospective new hires.
  • Presented to clients at sales pitches for new work.
  • Delivered well-received training courses to clients.
  • Managed the company's GitHub account, including seat allocation and permissions.
  • Delivered full-stack projects for clients including The BBC and UNISON.
  • Gave presentations on multiple technical topics to share knowledge across the company.
  • Presented during client-facing sprint demonstrations, showcasing the value delivered.
  • Contributed front-end and back-end changes to projects for clients including The National Gallery and Investec Asset Management.
  • Received recognition for stepping up to perform project management duties alongside my development role.
  • Part-time position as a porter at a five-star hotel in Swansea.
  • Part-time position at the Culverhouse Cross branch of Comet, in an administrative/sales and customer service capacity.

Education And Qualifications

July 2013:
Certified Scrum Master
June 2006:
BSc (Hons) Computer Science (2:1)
July 2002:
3 'A' Levels (Computing (A), Biology (A), Business Studies (B))
July 2001:
1 'AS' Level (Chemistry (B))
July 2000:
10 GCSEs (5 A*s, 3 As and 2 Bs)

Outside Interests

Outside of software I enjoy spending time with my wife and son, as well as pursuing my interests in football, chess, playing the piano and guitar. I also enjoy photography and film. I keep fit by playing badminton and going to the gym.

References

References are available on request.