> A Backend Developer Creating Solutions in php, Go, NextJS|
Who I am.
My name is James and I'm a backend developer, it has been 15 years since I last touched grass. Seriously though I love coding, baking, pun making, listening to music while I problem solve and learning new languages at every opportunity (some would argue to get away from php, but some people are @simonharrisco).
From an early age I've been surrounded by computers. My dad bought our first computer in 1995 knowing they'd be a big part of the future. Tiny ol' 5 year old James then spent years tinkering, making animated stories in PowerPoint.
I'd like to hope I've come a long way since then but kept the wimsy!
Although I'm primarily a php developer I tend to pick up new technologies quickly. Much like cake I consume knowledge at a concerning speed and adapt to whatever role I'm placed in quickly. I try to incorporate languages I've never used before into new projects, such as building this site in NextJS and new microservices in Go.
All in all I'm a nerdy guy through and through, and am constantly itching to solve the next new puzzle (though that could just be my fabric softener, I'll get back to you on that).
If you'd like to get in touch, I'm on X @jamesadamhunt or email me at james+enquiries@imaginedby.me.
What I do.
Servers
Websites have to be hosted somewhere, so naturally our cake stand represents servers.
Between maintaining and upgrading bare metal servers in a data center to support the email accounts and websites of hundreds of customers to creating and maintaining the cloud infrastructure of a multi-million pound company, I have experience in both servers and serverless, hardware and cloud.
Professional Experience:
- - Ubuntu
- - Windows Server/IIS
- - Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
- - AWS
- - Docker
- - MySQL Databases (both self-hosted and Cloud-based)
- - Microservices
Back-End
Even the prettiest cake needs a base and in comes our back-end, the cake plate of this delicious analogy. I've been developing websites professionally for over 10 years focusing most of my knowledge on php but I try to embrace other languages where I can, having coded solutions for companies in C#, Java, Python, Go and Node.js in the past.
Professional Experience:
- - php (Vanilla as well as frameworks such as Laravel, ZendFramework etc)
- - MySQL
- - Go
- - Node.js
- - Python
- - Java
- - C#
- - .NET
- - ASP Classic
Front-End
And now we get to the cake, front-end! Although not my forte (much unlike baking and eating cakes) I have made front-ends in HTML/CSS/JS professionally both for standalone and e-commerce websites. Outside of work I've dabbled in React and Vue, even using NextJS for this site!
Professional Experience:
- - HTML 5
- - CSS 3
- - JavaScript
Where I've been.
Senior Back-End Developer
dev³
2022 - Present
In my current role at dev³ I am one part Back-End, one part Cloud Engineer. I am responsible for their school meal ordering API which powers one half of their ordering solution "SwiftKitchen", as well as the GCP setup of the site, database, VMs, functions and storage. Technologies used include containerisation through Cloud Build and Cloud Run that power the Laravel-based API.
Senior Full Stack Developer
Aspens Services Ltd
2018 - 2022
This role started off as a simple php development job using Zend Framework, but eventually evolved into helping them migrate their highly available staff portal to Google Cloud.
I was in charge of upgrading and maintaining their ordering and admin systems including adding and integrating new financial APIs and reports as well as liasing with multiple departments for support purposes.
Senior Full Stack Developer
ph9 Ltd
2015 - 2018
At ph9 I maintained and upgraded a php-based eCommerce platform with hundreds of customers. As well as refactoring almost the entire codebase into a more structured OOP format, I added new modules, supported existing features and maintained the bare-metal servers it all ran through.
Java Developer
Bosch Thermotechnology
2014 - 2015
I was hired by Bosch to develop a simulator program for one of their factories using Java to allow the Logistics department to visualise the flow of the factory.
It used time estimates and detailed part lists to show each station creating the web of parts needed for the final product to allow them to predict bottlenecks.