The Times

Reporting to: Head of Engineering.

I oversee and manage all the UK perm product engineers in Times Media, across 3 different domains: web, mobile and platform (40+ people, 14 direct reports).

Main responsibilities:

- Providing regular feedback and coaching to engineers, helping them develop their skills and grow their careers.
- Revamped the interview process for web engineers, resulting in a more efficient and effective process that has helped the team hire top talent.
- Developing and implementing career development plans for engineers, helping them set and achieve their professional goals.
- Hiring and onboarding new engineers, ensuring they had a smooth and productive start to their time at the company.
- Working with the Head of Engineering and the Head of Architecture on a company-wide competency framework for all the engineers, ensuring that everyone was aligned on the skills and knowledge required for success.
- Managing relationships with Director-level and above stakeholders, keeping them informed of the team's progress and ensuring that their needs were met.
- Providing training and development opportunities for engineers, helping them stay up-to-date on the latest technologies and trends.
- Fostering and maintaining a positive and productive engineering culture, based on trust, communication, and respect.
- Leading the education stream of a company-wide charity project, which raised awareness about STEM subjects to young people from minority backgrounds.
- Created a self sufficient pipeline for getting interns from top universities (Imperial College, King's College, LSE), helping to attract and hire the best talent.
- Organising company-wise meet-ups, events, workshops and hackathons, providing opportunities for engineers to learn and collaborate.

Engineering Manager

Women Techmakers

Women Techmakers Ambassadors are leaders around the world who are passionate about empowering their communities through organizing events, public speaking, creating content, and mentoring. With access to a global community and exclusive resources, Ambassadors are helping build a world where all women can thrive in tech.

WTM Ambassador

ChatGDG

Weekly live show where we talk about tech and community as well as doing some video coverage of some Google community events all around the globe.

Founder

GDG Academy

GDG Academy is a mentorship program for university students, which eventually offers internship opportunities.
We currently work with Imperial College, King's College and London School of Economics, University of Manchester, University of Leeds, University of Bristol, University of Glasgow, University of Strathclyde, Anglia Ruskin Cambridge, London Metropolitan University, University of Westminster, Northampton University.

Founder & Mentor

GDG Cloud London

One of the most active Google Developer Groups in Europe.

Lead Organizer

Virgin Red

Reporting to: Head of Engineering

Joined the Red App team, in charge of building new features for the Virgin Red Loyalty Programme for both web (https://www.virgin.com/virgin-red) and mobile app (Android and IOS).
Worked on and delivered the front end required for the US version of the Virgin Red Website & App, the largest piece of work that sat with a single team within the company.
Tech stack used: React, React Native, Typescript, Styled Components, Jest, Cypress, AWS, Terraform, Drone, Bitrise.

Working alongside the Head of Engineering and key Product and Delivery managers to always improve the Ways of Working and the Engineering Culture in the company, helping and facilitating the transition from horizontal to vertical (cross functional) squads.

Senior Front End Engineer

Gamesys

Joined the Marking Front End team. The main task of the team is to deliver every promotion and offer (welcome journey, GDPR reconsent, etc) for all the Gamesys ventures (Jackpotjoy, Virgin Casino, etc). 

Led a greenfield project (Vip Lounge), choosing the tech stack and implemented the architecture. For this project we used the latest version of React and Redux with Hooks in a pure functional way, RxJS in the form of Redux-Observable as a middleware for Redux, Styled Components and Jest and Enzyme for testing.

Successfully automated the promotions build process creating an internal tool built in Electron which hooks up to the Jira API and autodownload the proper assets. The tool also automatically deploy the promotion to the relevant repo and create a Pull Request.

Developing some bespoke promotion like an hi-lo game and helped to build a 3D dice with webGL.
The tech stack includes React / Preact / SASS / Javascript / Redux / Unit testing with Jest and some automation with Selenium and WebDriver IO.

Front End Engineer (React / Redux) at Gamesys

Worked on the complete re-write of the legacy Flash based facebook web games lobby for the Social Departement using Javascript, Reactjs, Redux, RxJS, Webpack, Typescript, Jest, Enzyme, CircleCI.

Used Storybook and Webpack to delivery the same code base for the 3 major ventures (Jackpotjoy, Starspins, VirginCasino) with minimal effort.

Maintaining and adding new features on the Game Lobby App on both Web Facebook and Android Mobile.
He has developed some Bingo Rooms for the Bingolane App on Facebook.
He has developed a Blackjack game for Virgin Casino using Actionscript 3 and Starling.
He has worked on the development of several slot games for the Jackpotjoy APP on Facebook and Android devices and LuckyGem Casino APP (Facebook, Android and IOS).
He has developed some core functionality and components for the company internal framework using Starling Framework, PureMVC and GitHub.
Some of the core functionality (like a server side interpreter) are tested with Flex Unit Test.

Front End Engineer (Flash / Actionscript) at Gamesys

GameDuell

Joined this company in Berlin mainly working on a Facebook game (Match 3 Game, Candy Crush style), using Starling Framework, Feathersui, Robotlegs 2.0 and SVN.
The work environment was Agile / Scrum.

Flash Developer

Eurobet Italia srl

Worked on online casino games with the role of Flash Developer.
The main tasks are to develop usable and innovative game client, communicating with the server (C based) via XML and deal with various Actionscript animation (cards animation, winning animation, chips animation, bonus animation, reels animation and particle effects with Starling) and the game business logic.
Worked on the following games: Classic Roulette, European Roulette, Global Roulette, Sixty Seconds, Blackjack, Casino Hold’em, Scratch cards, All American, Hi-Lo, Slot.

Marconi University (Università degli Studi Guglielmo Marconi)

Flash, Actionscript 3.0, AIR specialist.
Worked on a AIR application for synchronize e-book readers for students. The application recognize the e-book attached to the computer and perform a file synchronization with the server, downloading and copying the new files (doc, pdf, mp3) inside the device.

As an Engineering Manager at The Times, I oversee and manage all the UK perms product engineers in Times Media, across three different domains: web, mobile, and platform. With over 18 years of experience in the tech industry, I have developed and implemented career development plans, revamped the interview process, and provided regular feedback and coaching to engineers, helping them grow their skills and careers.

I am also passionate about the community aspect in tech and actively involved in several initiatives that aim to empower and inspire diverse and inclusive audiences. I am the Lead Organizer of GDG Cloud London, one of the most active Google Developer Groups in Europe, where I host events, workshops, and talks on cloud technologies and best practices. I am also the Founder and Mentor of GDG Academy, a mentorship program that pairs university students from prestigious institutions with experienced mentors in the tech industry, and offers them internship opportunities. Additionally, I am a Google Women TechMakers Ambassador, promoting women's representation and participation in tech.

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