Gareth Tomlinson
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Developer
London, United Kingdom
Toptal member since June 29, 2022
Gareth has been coding since he got a ZX81 when he was eight. Back then, you typed in the games you wanted to play, so you really needed to earn your Moon Lander game. But gaming didn't stick, and instead, Gareth created systems, which he has continued to develop to this day. With a passion for making things, he loves to take each file he touches to the next level. An energetic self-starter, Gareth is an inventor who is always brimming with ideas to deliver quality solutions.
Portfolio
Experience
- JavaScript - 15 years
- Node.js - 10 years
- Express.js - 8 years
- Socket.IO - 5 years
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) - 5 years
- TypeScript - 5 years
- React - 5 years
- Jest - 5 years
Preferred Environment
Windows, MacOS, Linux, JetBrains IDE, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Git, Slack, Email, Node.js, Yarn, React, Clean Architecture
The most amazing...
...thing I've made in only four weeks was a media handling system that enabled 800 people to submit over 7,000 videos to our scalable clip handling platform.
Work Experience
Contract JavaScript Test Automation Developer
Sky UK
- Supported and enhanced a custom test toolkit for smart device testing of the major public-facing streaming platforms.
- Drove a tactical and strategic technical decision-making process.
- Played an active role in improving test coverage and driving a culture of high code quality.
- Reduced incidents of bugs significantly and improved reliability of test runs.
- Architected proprietary visual regression tooling for smart devices.
Founder and CEO
Hive Tools
- Acted as a total product owner, from ideation, specification, development, and deployment of a suite of public-facing event management productivity tools. Developed rapid and agile processes using microservices and a MEAN stack.
- Applied the rapid application development model to build an app for ipCue, a professional-grade remote slide clicker, in three weeks in response to COVID-19. Used React, Redux, Socket.IO, Node.js, Redis, and an Electron desktop app.
- Acted as a product owner for an engagement monitoring tool like an MVP. Used React, TypeScript, Socket.IO, Node.js, Sequelize, PostgreSQL, Java, AWS Lambda, Amazon Transcribe, AWS Elemental MediaConvert, AWS KVS, Streamlink, GStreamer, and Pulumi.
Founder and CEO
Flixie Limited
- Served as a total product owner of a full-stack MEAN and React Native user-generated video sharing platform. Worked on everything from ideation, product development, and development to deployment.
- Created a fully user-configurable platform capable of delivering in any number of languages.
- Provided video editing, clip transcription, and data analysis using D3.js visualizations of the AWS data analysis.
- Leveraged auto-scaling cloud infrastructure orchestrated using Terraform, AWS Lambda, Amazon Transcribe, Amazon Translate, and Amazon Comprehend.
- Enabled easy user access using a reactive web app, React Native iOS, and Android applications, all delivered to the stores using fastlane.
Co-founder and Head of Technology
FourImpact
- Founded and drove a successful small events agency for major multinational clients, such as McDonald's, Workday, AkzoNobel, Orange, and Colliers International. Ran client accounts and fulfillment teams for events from five to 2,500 people.
- Authored, maintained, and developed most of the internal tooling for the business as the head of technology. Wrote and maintained a variety of languages, including Java, TypeScript, JavaScript, Perl, and Python.
- Acted as a total product owner for the fourmotion event registration system, including ideation, client liaison, product management, development, and deployment. It was sold for 15 years and handled tens of thousands of secure event registrations.
- Analyzed requirements and sourced and implemented IT tools for countless specific projects, often with tight turnarounds and low build resources.
- Built a product in one month for a fundraising application used by Ronald McDonald House Charities, helping raise over £350,000 at a charity gala.
Experience
ipCue | Internet Slide Changer
Education
Master of Science Degree in Theoretical Physics
Durham University - Durham, United Kingdom
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Selenium WebDriver, Node.js, React, Socket.IO, Puppeteer, FFmpeg, Stripe, D3.js, OpenCV
Tools
InDesign CC, Premiere Pro CC, Adobe Media Encoder, Git, NPM, Sequelize, Artillery, Mongoose, Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, Audition CC, Open Broadcaster Studio (OBS), Cucumber, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR), Slack, Jenkins, Concourse CI, CircleCI, Jira, GitHub, Fastlane, Terraform, After Effects CC
Languages
JavaScript, TypeScript, Java, Ruby, GraphQL, HTML, CSS, Java 6, SQL, Fortran, C
Frameworks
Jest, Selenium, Angular, Express.js, Yarn, AngularJS, Bootstrap, Material UI, GStreamer, GWT, Jakarta Server Pages (JSP), React Native, Electron, Capybara
Paradigms
Test-driven Development (TDD), Unit Testing, Testing, Clean Code, Clean Architecture, Agile Workflow, Agile, MEAN Stack
Storage
Amazon S3 (AWS S3), MongoDB, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MySQLdb, Redis, Amazon DynamoDB
Platforms
Windows, Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS Lambda, Docker, Linux, MacOS, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)
Other
Email, Presentations, Presentation Design, Client Presentations, Client Management, Microsoft Office, Integration Testing, APIs, JetBrains IDE, Modeling, Simulations, Enzyme, ParcelJS, Leadership, Team Leadership, Visual Regression Testing, DNS, Amazon Route 53, WebSockets, Pulumi, RTL, PostgreSQL 9, vMix, Amazon Translate
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