Major Achievements

• Successfully delivered two 'difficult' projects as Project Manager: an underbid Alarm Facility in C++ for Satellite Control Ground Stations, and a prototyping port of Satellite Control Software from VMS to Unix
• Design Authority for JUICE - an innovative Java user interface for satellite telemetry displays
• Single handedly designed and developed an office-automation framework (Kameleon); object oriented design with a true OO database, variety of data structures, 500k lines. Installed in a variety of small businesses, including a camel ranch in North Kenya

Career Summary

(Aug 02 - Now) Senior Analyst/Developer for AstroGrid and VOTech at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh: developing software and standards to combine astronomical data and applications across the world. Many unusual and interesting problems in both cutting-edge grid technology and the associated astrophysical data. Distributed teams. Using Java, Web services (incl SOAP), XML, Grid concepts, collaborative tools (wikkis, forums), version control (CVS), change tracking (BugZilla), the Eclipse IDE and recently multi-threaded user interface applications using Java/Swing.

(early 2003) Served with the Joint Nuclear Biological Chemical Regiment attached to 16 Air Assault in Iraq on Op Telic.

('97-2002) Senior Consultant, Project Manager (£500k project) and Design Authority (Java/Swing telemetry displays) with Logica's Space Division, including senior roles in supporting and developing the mission critical control software of one of Europe's largest satellite operators (EUTELSAT). Using Java, UML, C++, C/FORTRAN, VMS, NT, Motif. Involved in all aspects of the development process, including plenty of valued client contact.

('95-97) Freelance consultant/developer in Kenya for a variety of PC-based, bespoke Object Oriented projects using Borland Pascal, including camel breeding records, tea transport and the East Africa Safari Rally. All full project lifecycles.

('91-94) Consultant/Developer for Small Business Solutions; providing custom PC solutions for small businesses (most full project lifecycles). Developed Kameleon, an object-oriented information management framework

Skills Summary

Both formal Project Management and independent Team Leader, able to run teams as you would a project, tracking effort, ensuring quality control, testing, monitoring risks, etc.

Full lifecycle development; from formal requirements gathering through design, development & formal testing to support and formal change tracking. Both iterative and waterfall approaches.

Wide variety of programming techniques, languages, algorithms, networks, operating systems, dynamic data structures and applications, applied to a number of business and technical solutions.

Languages: Java JDK 1.4 & Swing (5+ yrs), XML/BML [SAX] (4 yrs) C++ (18 mnths), C/FORTRAN 77 (3 yrs), Borland Pascal (6+ yrs), Basic (4+ yrs), HTML (6 yrs). Some MS-Access, SQL-Server, COBOL, 16/32 bit assembler, 8-bit m/code.

Techniques: Object Oriented Design & Implementation (11+ yrs) inc. using various Design Patterns (4+ yrs) and UML. Event-driven architectures including multithreaded Swing displays. Jackson's Structured Programming. Multithreaded, mission critical applications, and multi-user databases.

Platforms Developed for: PC (DOS, Windows 3.1-NT, OS/2), VAX/Alpha (Open VMS v7, Motif/X-Windows), Unix (Suse/Mandrake Linux), Java.

Networks: TCP/IP, 'Web Services', RS-232/X-25, Ethernet

Education, Certificates, Courses and Posts

• B.Sc. Astrophysics - 1991, University of Edinburgh
• A Levels - Physics, Maths, Computer Science, Further Maths, Technology, GS.
• UK Driving Licence
• Civilian Security Cleared (SC) until 2003; TA Security Clearance current.
• Member British Computer Society
• TA Soldier Class 3 - Signaller at Royal Scots, an infantry unit
• Logica's 'Leadership' parts 1 & 2 (1999, 2000), 'System Analysis & Design' (2000)
• Languages - German (Conversational), Kiswahili (Simple), French (Simple).
• Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society ('92-). Various RGS Expedition leadership courses.
• Advanced Medicine for Remote Travel ('94)