Ben Gibbs

Senior Software Developer at CHIMP
December 2016 - May 2018

Contributed my skills and experience to the improvement, maintenance and scalability of the CHIMP Platform. I led the design of a number of refactors to stabilise and improve the performance of core functionality within the CHIMP application, and helped finalise the plans and finish the work to modernise the application for its successful move to Heroku.
As an active member of the Back-End Chapter, I introduced the Request for Comment (RFC) and Request for Discussion (RFD) processes to improve communication and speed of decision making, and was involved in the hiring process of other developers.

• Coached and mentored junior and intermediate developers in the Vancouver team focussing on improving technical and communication skills
• On-boarded new Bangalore based developers and supported their learning of Ruby on Rails
• Performed regular code reviews to ensure quality production releases
• Designed a more stable money transaction system to increase clarity for Users and reduce the number of refunds
• Highlighted the priority of, and implemented, application performance and security improvements
• Prototyped and designed the integration of a new 3rd party Authentication system
• Prototyped, designed and built the foundation of a new, secure API layer
• Liased between the Back-End Chapter and the Infrastructure Squad on performance, security and scalability needs
• Provided support and product integrations for the Data team

Chief Technology Officer at Volcanic (UK) Ltd
December 2013 - November 2016

Responsible for development and scaling of market disrupting online platform for recruitment industry websites and Job boards. As the primary developer for the first 18 months I architected many of the core technologies, infrastructure and features for the multi-tenancy, multi-lingual platform based on business requirements agreed with the executive team.
As the development team grew, I mentored and trained the developers in best-practice, managed the delivery process and introduced agile methodologies to ensure high quality feature deliveries.
I also led a team of colleagues to win the 24-hour coding competition HackManchester.

• Increased from zero annual recurring revenue to over £1.65m increasing by over £10,000 per month
• Successfully moved platform infrastructure to Amazon Web Services and increased stability and security by using AWS strategically
• Designed and implemented global infrastructure for expansion into APAC, Europe and North America
• Established Security and Disaster Recovery business processes and plans
• Introduced Agile methodologies, daily team Standups, product testing strategies and other business processes with Leadership and Development Teams
• Developing and interpreting Business Requirements with the Leadership team
• Disrupted recruitment web technology market through multi-tenancy platform with monthly fee rather than up-front cost

Freelance Ruby Developer as Bobop
December 2010 – December 2013

Specialised as a Ruby on Rails developer dealing with the full stack from front-end Javascript to back-end development and infrastructure planning and implementation on various projects.
Client projects included:

• Reverse auction site for courier bids on consumer and commercial deliveries,
• Accommodation booking site for theatre professionals, both with payment gateways.

Original projects include:

• OpenData visualisation sites,
• BorrowNote - a sharing economy based service reminding users what they have lent,
• GiftAidr - a mobile optimised site to collect UK GiftAid charitable donations for easier accounting,
• Glidely - a dynamic timeline of social media activity.

Freelance Web Developer as Bobop
November 2006 – December 2010

Specialised as a Ruby and WordPress developer. As a freelancer I learned business, sales, communication and time management skills.

IT Manager at Freedom Properties
July 2006 – November 2006

I developed the existing website into a multi-lingual Ruby on Rails site.

Lead Developer at Liquid Bronze
2003 – 2006

I developed numerous PHP based websites and began using Ruby on Rails on projects.