CV - Richard Bell

Software Engineering Consultant - Contract (March 2024 - current)

YLD - Consultancy agency providing software engineering, product design and data science services.

• Created framework agnostic component library for new design system. Library was built using StencilJS, with the documentation presented through Storybook.
• Performed in depth analysis of existing component library solutions to provide guidance on the technical approach for the new library. Guidance was to use web components as the company used Angular and React.
• Ensured consistency and quality within the library by creating quality gates in CI and pre-commit/pre-push hooks, as well as code boilerplate generators for creating a new component or icon.
• Guided the implementation of the component library in a React and an Angular project for different teams within the client.
• Onboarded and upskilled four engineers who would own the code at the end of the contract.
• Created video and written how-to guides for contributing to the library.

Developer - Contract (July 2023 - March 2024)

Registers of Scotland - Government department responsible for keeping public registers of land, property, and other legal documents in Scotland

• Upgraded monorepo to Node 18 and AWS CDK v3.
• Saved developer time and reduced pipeline costs by introducing pre-commit hooks which would run linting and unit tests before pushing.
• Improved structure and layout of Cypress end to end tests by introducing page models.
• Test driven development using Typescript, React, AWS Lambdas with API Gateway, tests written in Jest and Cypress
• Front end (React) development within GDS standards

Front End Engineer - Contract (Feb 2023 - July 2023)

MRM Global - A marketing technology company providing industry-leading software that helps global brands drive visibility at the point of purchase

• Improved quality by introducing a new pattern for testing and breaking down components, and modifying the commit hook to gradually work through some tech debt.
• Saved developer time and reduced pipeline costs by increasing the stability and reliability of unit tests.
• Increased team productivity and focus by introducing a new stand up format where the focus is on getting work to “done”.
• Saved time and money associated with processing orders by creating some internal applications which streamline processes.
• Test driven development in Typescript (React)

Paternity Leave - (Oct 2022 - Feb 2023)

Software Engineering Consultant - Contract (Aug 2022 - Sep 2022)

Safeguard Global - A company providing global employment outsourcing

• Independently built a bespoke API integration with a third party SAAS in order to streamline contract generation.
• Test driven development in Typescript, with automated CD pipeline to AWS using CircleCI and CDK.
• Provided detailed handover documents and videos for developers with code and infrastructure walkthroughs.
• Produced a report with pros and cons of approach, with advice for next steps.

Senior Software Engineer - Contract (Apr 2022 - Jul 2022)

Emrit - A company driving for the adoption of web3 applications that benefit our communities

• Test driven development in Typescript (node and React)
• Utilising AWS and Terraform for deploying microservices
• Implemented a reusable CI pipeline using Github actions
• Introduced and led Retro to the team as well as improving the stand up structure to make it more efficient and task orientated

Senior Software Engineer - Permanent (Oct 2021 - Apr 2022)

Safeguard Global - A company providing global employment outsourcing

• Test driven development in Node and Golang
• Utilising AWS Eventbridge architecture, Lambdas, Cloudformation, ECS
• Implemented CI pipeline using CircleCi
• Came first in a company hackathon contest (React application to simplify some internal business processes)

Lead Engineer - Permanent (Mar 2020 - Oct 2021)

Buildit (Wipro) - A digital agency, working in house with Lloyds Banking Group (LBG).

• Test driven development in ES6 with React, Node and some TypeScript
• Provided technical direction and leadership for 3 new teams to ensure consistency within the code and avoid duplication of effort or any deviation from the wider architecture.
• Tech lead for a feature team
• Gave tech talks to 60+ members of the lab on the subjects of TDD, refactoring and mentoring
• Provided guidance on communication while working from home (meeting guidelines, asynchronous communication, focus time).
• Utilised Docker to shape a large portion of the CI pipeline in Jenkins
• Heavily involved in the wider testing strategy within the lab
• Involved in multiple initiatives to drive change to process and technology with the main focus of making releases easier, safer and more reliable.
• Mentoring engineers in the feature team
• Driving processes around documentation, running meetings efficiently, branching strategy, release strategy, optimising governance and signoff for tickets.

Front End Engineer - Contract (Dec 2017 - Mar 2020)

Buildit (Wipro) - A digital agency, working in house with Lloyds Banking Group (LBG).

• Same as above

Software Engineer and Scrum Master - Permanent (Aug 2016 - Dec 2017)

Administrate - A company providing training management software with a strong set of values.

• Full stack, test driven development in Python, Angular and React. Worked a little with GraphQL
• Responsible for releasing the product.
• On call for disaster recovery.
• Championed learning within the department.
• As a scrum master, responsible for many process improvements and contributed to the on time delivery of projects by working with the product team to find the most cost effective solution to each problem.
• Mentored a new team of inexperienced developers, teaching them programming, our agile process and how to be an effective scrum master.

Front End Web Developer - Permanent (Aug 2015 - Aug 2016)

Blonde Digital Ltd - A digital agency

• Working closely with designers, client services, UX and back-end developers to ensure a high quality end product for clients such as Nando's, Renaissance Hotels and National Schools Partnership.

Director and Software Developer - Permanent (Sep 2014 - Aug 2015)

Kenspeckled Ltd - A web development agency focused on two main projects; an in-house tourism website and community and a delicatessen online marketplace.

• Joined the company before it was profitable. Required high levels of independence, motivation and an entrepreneurial mind set. Brought the company into a profitable position.
• Assisted in the design and implementation of a bespoke JavaScript based web framework.

Software Developer and QA Software Engineer - Permanent (May 2013 - Sep 2014)

Sumdog Ltd - A company that develops global educational software. The primary focus is www.sumdog.com.

• Authored SQL queries to give insight to website use. This required an analytical and creative mindset.
• Assisted the QA Manager in the oversight and organisation of test engineers.