Andy Pugh, Developer in Belfast, United Kingdom
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Andy Pugh

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Software Developer

Belfast, United Kingdom

Toptal member since June 6, 2018

Bio

Andy has been a software developer for close to 15 years now, primarily coding in PHP and building WordPress sites of all sizes, from digital brochures to full eCommerce locations. He is a full-time freelance contractor and is well acquainted with the rhythm of remote work.

Portfolio

Marketing Website (Via Toptal)
WordPress, WordPress Themes, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Figma, Sketch
Airota
APIs, Android, iOS, WordPress, CodeIgniter, PHP
E-Commerce website (Via Toptal)
PHP 7, Amazon Web Services (AWS), WordPress, WooCommerce, REST

Experience

  • MySQL - 15 years
  • JavaScript - 15 years
  • PHP 7 - 15 years
  • CSS - 10 years
  • WordPress - 10 years
  • jQuery - 8 years
  • Git - 8 years
  • CodeIgniter 3 - 5 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Windows, PhpStorm

The most amazing...

...thing I've worked on is an extensive workforce management tool which has gone to the global market.

Work Experience

WordPress Developer

2020 - PRESENT
Marketing Website (Via Toptal)
  • Took responsibility for redeveloping the front and back end of the company's core marketing website. I put particular emphasis on the speed and performance of this site, building it from scratch using Tailwind and Twig.
  • Tracked and fixed bugs and feature requests using GitHub and Slack.
  • Oversaw the core redevelopment of the site, taking it to a 100/100 page ranking on Google PageSpeed Insights.
Technologies: WordPress, WordPress Themes, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Figma, Sketch

Software Development Director

2015 - PRESENT
Airota
  • Built a Workforce management tool for the travel retail industry in CodeIgniter and an extensive suite of schedule management tools and reporting.
  • Built an iOS and Android application in PhoneGap, enabling staff members to check in and out of their shifts, view their schedule, manage their availability, and view their current earnings.
  • Created an extensive front-end UI experience with drag-n-drop scheduling tools, intuitive filtering, and user-friendly reporting tools.
Technologies: APIs, Android, iOS, WordPress, CodeIgniter, PHP

Lead WordPress Developer

2019 - 2020
E-Commerce website (Via Toptal)
  • Built an extensive eCommerce website that directly integrated with the customer's point of sale system: the resulting website was a best-in-class recreational marijuana delivery service in San Francisco.
  • Built this project as a solo developer using Favro to track client requests.
  • Fast-tracked the redevelopment of their eCommerce platform in early 2020 to handle extensive demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. This included having to handle extensive server upgrades on AWS to handle a huge influx of traffic.
Technologies: PHP 7, Amazon Web Services (AWS), WordPress, WooCommerce, REST

Lead WordPress Developer

2012 - 2015
Simply Zesty
  • Led the WordPress development team, ensuring that projects were delivered to exacting client specifications and to a high level.
  • Led an internal team to ensure we had a robust project plan for each site build, ensuring exceptional code, a high level of security, and a solid user experience on the final project.
  • Worked on high-profile projects for a number of large UK- and Ireland-based companies, including the Bank of Ireland, Tourism Ireland, and Silicon Republic.
Technologies: ZURB Foundation, Bootstrap, WordPress, PHP

Project Director

2010 - 2012
Cloud Nine Creative
  • Founded Cloud Nine Creative with two colleagues in early 2010, a company born out of our collective freelance skills in design and development.
  • Worked on major projects for brands including AutoGlass, 118.com, The Happy Egg Co., FIAT, and HSBC.
Technologies: Facebook API, Bootstrap, ZURB Foundation, PHP, WordPress

Experience

Silicon Republic

http://www.siliconrepublic.com
Led the development on the website for Siliconrepublic.com during my time with Simply Zesty. Built on WordPress, the website was incredibly fast with a high level of user experience. Silicon Republic is currently Ireland's largest tech blog, with visitors in the hundreds of thousands monthly.

Airota

Built a high-end workforce management platform for the travel retail industry, this has grown into a multi-use software as a service platform with users in the cleaning, engineering, and security fields. The system has a staff management tool to easily schedule, manage, and monitor remote workforces.

It has a built-in communication tool, allowing instant communication with staff members via our mobile apps based on the Android and iOS platforms.

I have also built a suite of reporting and analytics, allowing companies to instantly see their incomings, outgoings, and staff attendance all in real time.

Bebo to Facebook Photo Copier

I created a tool in 2012, mainly out of my own requirement to copy the thousands of images I'd uploaded to my previous social network account on Bebo.com (now closed) which was the largest social network in the UK and Ireland between 2008-2011.

The tool, to my surprise, very quickly went viral with users in the millions utilizing it as a way to instantly copy their entire photo albums from one platform to another.

The tool was built entirely in JavaScript, interfacing with the Facebook API—an import took roughly four minutes for thousands of photographs to transfer.

Skills

Libraries/APIs

jQuery, Facebook API, Google APIs

Tools

PhpStorm, Git, Figma, Sketch

Languages

CSS, JavaScript, PHP 7, PHP, HTML

Frameworks

Ionic, CodeIgniter, CodeIgniter 3, Symfony, Laravel, Bootstrap, ZURB Foundation

Paradigms

Agile, REST

Platforms

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux, WordPress, Windows, iOS, Android, WooCommerce

Storage

MariaDB, MySQL

Other

Mobile Apps, APIs, WordPress Themes

Collaboration That Works

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