Curriculum Vitæ for Nicholas Avenell

(2010-05-14 - Web Dev)

E-Mail: Nicholas.Avenell@Aquarionics.com

Telephone: +44 3300 612 163

Location: London E5 (Would prefer not to relocate)

Key Skills

Linux/Unix: Debian, Ubuntu, Red hat, Centos, Apache, MySQL, Bind, Nagios, Postfix, Exim, Sendmail, Leafnode, Pound and RH based distributions, Building and maintaining server systems, Fault-finding, deep analysis and problem solving across familiar, unfamiliar and erisian systems. Solr, Lucene, Amazon EC2 & ELB, Amazon S3, AMI images, Practical application of cloud computing systems, SVN, Trac, SNMP, Git, Github

Coding Languages: OO-PHP (5 especially), Python

Web: HTML, XML, XHTML, CSS, Mobile Web, Zend Framework, JavaScript, DOM Scripting, JSON, AJAX, WAP, YUI, XML-RPC, RSS, Atom, SAX, WAI, Django, Smarty, Python CGI, Mod_Python

Web Apps: PHPbb, Wordpress, BBPress PHPMyAdmin

Apple: OS X, Fink, Photoshop, Textmate

Microsoft: All versions of Windows from 2.0 though Vista to Windows 7

Other Things: SMS Interfaces (Both sending and receiving), API development, API clients, Clients, Customers, , Bug tracking systems, Unit Testing, Code Procedures, Provision of cookies and cakes.

(Not an entirely comprehensive list)

Personal Statement

I am Nicholas Avenell, I'm a System Administrator and Developer. As a Sysadmin I've worked to spec, deploy, maintain and support multiserver environments with minimal downtime for external customers such as banks, mission critical applications for both them and my own employers. As a developer I am proficient in both front- and back-end design, specialising in the latter. Recently I have been developing a product-search solution for Skimlinks, prior to that I was involved in site architecture and provisioning systems for trutap, and for my previous company developing their Mortgage Application Tracking System for Abbey, Nationwide, Standard Life, Yorkshire Bank and a series of other companies. I have a solid understanding of CSS, X/HTML & DOM Scripting, and try to encourage clean, accessible use of this new and tempting technology. I believe strongly in easy to use, accessible, content focused web development. I am a strong supporter of process in code design, full source control and change management. Outside development, I manage online communities devoted to my hobbies as well as advancing my own projects.

Experience

Gyron Internet - Systems Developer

March 2010 - Present

Gyron Internet are a server hosting provider company who needed a new developer for their customer facing support portal, as well as their internal monitoring and business management portal.

Skimlinks - Senior Developer

March 2009 - February 2010

http://www.skimlinks.com

For the multiple award winning affiliate marketing company Skimlinks I was brought on as the company's third full-time developer and second sysadmin.

Systems administration - including on call - for full server suite, based on Centos, spread over four data centres on two continents
Development and depoloyment of Amazon EC2 images and instances, including load balancing
Fullfillment of business-related new services, such as client data upload over FTP without compromising our security.
Setup and configuration of Apache/mysql/PHP Lamp stack, also isolated Java webapp instances
Introduction and configuration of Nagios-based system monitoring
Lead responsibility for a complete product API system, taking the product databases from hundreds of ecommerce sites and normalising them into a single system encompasing five million products, updated daily (Everyfeed).
Designed and developed a public API for the above.
Developed a socially responsible shorturl service (good.ly)

Introduction and maintainece of milestone/ticket-based development lifecycle
Desktop support for the company.
Reviewing, interviewing and hiring further developers
Being a point of contact for third party technical departments.

Developer for an online games portal

January 2009 - March 2009

For a social gaming company I was plunged into a preexisting unfinished codebase with the absolute minimum of handover, and developed it to the point of launch. I was also responsible for setup and maintainance of dev and live server environments based on Amazon's S3 and EC2 cloud computing systems and implementing a better process for development.
I left as my probation period expired.

Trutap - Web Developer

January 2007 - December 2009

http://www.trutap.com

For mobile web startup Trutap (though I original joined before the rename from 'hotxt') I was hired as a backend developer for the new generation of their product, released to some fanfare at the TechCruch 40 event in 2007.

Working with Product management on vision implementation
Full user registrant and provisioning process (made more complicated than such a system would normally be by needing to guide users though configuring mobile phones for internet access, working out which phone they were using and how best to send them though the process).
Full ajax-based messaging interface, designed to scale down to mobile-level browsers
maintained customised Wordpress and BBPress installs for the company community management
Integrating our own autherisation system with that of BBPress.
Working against a detailed XMLRPC Based API
Facebook Application development
Occasional customer support
OpenID integration

Evolving Media - Technical Developer (Special Projects)

October 2004 - January 2007

http://www.evolvingmedia.co.uk

Evolving Media is a web systems and marketing company based in Bedford.

Sourcing and researching server solutions for multi-server applications including future growth allowances and security concerns.
Monitoring and maintenance (using variations of Whistleblower, Nagios and scripting) of EM's 30+ server network across three separate locations and operating platforms (OS X, OS 9 and Linux)
Desktop Support for all employees (OS X, Linux and Windows XP)
Maintenance and eventual deprecation of legacy email systems (EIMS on Mac OS 9) to a modern and open source solution based upon Debian Linux
Introduction of source control (CVS) to development process.
Support (including Out of hours support) for EM's diverse web systems for clients including Intent Media, Charles Wells, Barclays, Tesco.
Hosting Training courses on Systems Administration (In general and on my systems in particular)

Redevelop and maintain EM's "MATS", now used by 4 of the top ten mortgage lenders in the country, including Nationwide, Yorkshire Bank, Standard Life and three separate subsections of Abbey. MATS is a web-based Mortgage Application Management System. (MATS has since been spun off into a new company http://www.matssoft.co.uk/)
Project-based development of web sites & applications for many clients, including web sites for Tescos, Barclays, Greene & Co, Charles Wells, T-Mobile, Samsung and many others.
Development and deployment of a business-critical, secure SMS gateway system for the sending of account balances over SMS as well as notifications for MATS, using a combination of Python, Python over CGI and PHP.
Employee of the year, Managing Directors Special Award, Dec 2006.

BrowserAngel - System Developer

July 2003 - October 2004

BrowserAngel was a classic DotCom company, devoted to the creation of a social bookmarking/content recommendation engine.

Developer for BrowserAngel's eponymous social content relation system
Maintaining relationships with externally based contractors
XML based IE toolbar update system
AJAX-based user interface development to PHP/MySQL backend
Construction and maintenance of development servers
CVS repository management
Installation and maintenance of customised Bugzilla-based bug management system
Consulting with the design department on graphical, accessibility and usability issues
Desktop support for network of Windows XP based machines, including SMB based document shares.

Freelance Web designer/coder

Jan 2003 - July 2003

Designing websites for clients, including an online collaborative role-playing system (PFD4) in four days flat, a Event/Performance Management system for a band, as well as developing my own Content Management System, Epistula.

Internet Designers Limited - Graphics Developer

Sept 2002-Dec 2002

Contracted to IDL as a graphic designer for a series of PDA and Mobile Phone based Java games.

Animation and optimisation of all graphical resources for multiple target platforms
Development of graphical assets
Testing and QA of final builds
Maintenance of departmental network file systems to ensure no loss of assets.
Consulting on accessibility issues for website
Development of palm-top version of website
Working within a large (20 person) team to co-ordinate goals and achieve deadlines

Education

University of Sunderland 09/1999 - 07/2001 - HND Computing

This was a general computing course, modules included C++ and Java Development, Software Engineering, IT Environments (Unix, Networking), and project division and management.

Web: http://www.sunderland.ac.uk

Address: Langham Tower, Ryhope Road, Sunderland SR2 7EE

Telephone: (0191) 515 2000

Interests

I have a curse of being interested in almost everything, and so I do many things in my spare time, many of them involve cooking; writing; many, many computer games (Particularly first person online shooters, Action and RPG games); more traditional role-playing (including Live Action Role-Playing, for which I manage a community for a popular game); out of the ordinary board games; and coordinating & facilitating improv storytelling groups in a leadership role.

I also enjoy long walks on the beach, should I find any.

References

Available upon request.