Chris Cheshire
Full-stack Developer
Location
Poole, United Kingdom
Toptal Member Since
August 13, 2021
Chris is a talented full-stack developer with 10+ years of experience and a passion for finding simple solutions to business-critical challenges. He has developed groundbreaking applications for the UK government and finance domains, including real estate, loans, and credit. He consistently delivers extensible applications of the highest quality that stand the test of time. Chris's strengths include outstanding problem solving, communication skills, and attention to detail.
Chris is available for hire
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Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra)
Node.js, JavaScript, HTML, Azure, MongoDB, CSS, Sass, SCSS, REST...
Ratio
Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, MongoDB, JavaScript, Node.js, PHP, HTML...
Remora
JavaScript, Node.js, SQL, T-SQL (Transact-SQL), CSS, HTML
Experience
Software Development - 11 yearsJavaScript - 11 yearsWeb Crawlers - 8 yearsNode.js - 6 yearsMongoDB - 6 yearsReact - 4 yearsOpenID Connect (OIDC) - 3 yearsTypeScript - 2 yearsLocation
Availability
Part-time
Preferred Environment
Linux, WebStorm, Node.js, MacOS
The most amazing...
...thing I've developed is BrickPal, a SaaS product and associated Google Chrome extension that streamlines investors' searches for investment properties.
Work Experience
2018 - 2021
Technical Lead
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra)
- Joined Defra as the first developer on a greenfield project that required developmental direction. I was hired to build a scalable, extensible authentication and user management tool to be consumed by all of Defra's public-facing services.
- Developed an effective development team of five that would produce the deliverables defined in the project specification.
- Led teams in Defra identity-consuming services to integrate with the new identity application, including onboarding sessions, documentation, and continued support during the integration process.
- Utilized OpenID Connect via Microsoft B2C and the HMRC Government Gateway authentication service.
- Developed and released the software under the pressure of the looming Brexit deadline and scrutiny of dependant Defra services.
- Delivered the project, which was driven primarily by the new services required in time for Brexit, such as services to facilitate the import and export of goods, and later made available to all Defra services.
Technologies: Node.js, JavaScript, HTML, Azure, MongoDB, CSS, Sass, SCSS, REST, Azure Active Directory B2C (ADB2C), OpenID Connect (OIDC), Confluence, GitHub, Jira, Team Management, People Management, Software Development, Technical Leadership, Architecture, HTML5, Front-end, Agile, Back-end, Software Architecture, Full-stack, Leadership, CSS3
2013 - 2018
CTO
Ratio
- Recruited by the CEO as a senior developer to spearhead Ratio’s development projects and progressed to become the CTO and mentor to a team of six developers.
- Developed Carter, a schemaless CMS, using Node.js, Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB, and Elasticsearch. Pivoted after inception to incorporate functionality to recommend financial products to consumers for choosewisely.co.uk.
- Built ClearChoice, a Node.js and MySQL application, to revolutionize the process of recommending financial products to consumers. The application makes requests via loan providers’ APIs to acquire a response for customers.
- Developed choosewisely.co.uk, a PHP site backed by a Microsft SQL Server. It finds and compares financial products mainly for subprime customers. It also acts as a layer on top of Carter, allowing affiliates to display products on their sites.
- Created a front-end application that achieved its end goal of being the quickest loan search that Ratio had ever produced with the smallest client-side footprint. I developed this using JavaScript, Sass, and Handlebars.
Technologies: Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, MongoDB, JavaScript, Node.js, PHP, HTML, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), AWS Lambda, People Management, Elasticsearch, Handlebars, Team Management, Software Development, APIs, Technical Leadership, Amazon Web Services (AWS), PostgreSQL, SQL, Architecture, HTML5, Mongoose, Front-end, REST APIs, Back-end, Software Architecture, Laravel, Leadership, Full-stack, CSS3, Bootstrap, Fintech, Microservices, Express.js
2015 - 2017
Senior Full-stack Developer
Remora
- Developed a JavaScript library that helps websites turn more visitors into customers using pattern matching and machine learning techniques.
- Analyzed user gestures to determine whether the user was about to leave the site to take appropriate action.
- Developed an accompanying microservice-based API for logging user behavior once it had been identified that the user was about to leave.
Technologies: JavaScript, Node.js, SQL, T-SQL (Transact-SQL), CSS, HTML
2014 - 2016
Senior Full-stack Developer
Briefd
- Built a web app that lets users choose which combination of underwear style they would like delivered every month.
- Developed an algorithm that makes sure the user gets a variation of their chosen options every month.
- Integrated with a recurring payment system to take users' monthly subscription payments.
Technologies: Node.js, SQL, T-SQL (Transact-SQL), JavaScript, HTML, CSS
2010 - 2013
Web Developer
The Richmond Group
- Developed a service called CreditXtra, which offered users quick and easy access to their credit files.
- Created and optimized Microsoft SQL Server stored procedures to improve database performance.
- Developed Loanfinder, a site that interacted with affiliate services to find suitable loans for sub-prime customers.
- Received the company's developer of the year award in 2012 after showing considerable skill and adeptness in the projects I worked on.
Technologies: PHP, HTML, CSS, Microsoft SQL Server, Software Development, SQL, HTML5, Front-end, REST APIs, Back-end, CSS3, Fintech, Express.js
Experience
BrickPal
https://brickpal.co.ukA SaaS and associated chrome extension that leverages React, TypeScript, and Node.js. BrickPal streamlines property investors' searches for investment properties by indicating the potential ROIs on Rightmove's sale listings. BrickPal analyzes each listing and offers comparables, possible rental rates, and the costs involved in purchasing, refurbing, and reconfiguring the property.
Your Defra Account
A Node.js application that leverages OpenID Connect to provide a unified authentication platform for all Defra services. The application comprises a Node.js codebase and utilizes the Hapi framework and associated ecosystem tools. Microsoft Dynamics, MongoDB, Azure Cosmos DB, and MongoDB are used for data storage. Microsoft B2C custom policies are used for authentication. The app itself also offers a subset of OpenID Connect functionalities.
Choose Wisely
https://choosewisely.co.ukA PHP Laravel website backed by an MSSQL database specializing in finding and comparing financial products primarily for sub-prime customers. Alongside providing recommendations directly to the public, the site acts as a layer on top of Carter to provide an API to affiliates wishing to display recommendations on their sites.
Beetle
A web application built with Node.js, PHP, AWS S3, MySQL, Elasticsearch, and MongoDB. Beetle exposed millions of B2B and B2C emails to copywriters, designers, and analysts so they could draw inspiration from the words, images, layouts, and campaign behavior.
Frekl
A screenshot service that was originally built for Beetle to capture images of received emails, resize them, and crop them for use. It was adopted later by Ratio's Choose Wisely product. I used Node.js running on AWS Lambda's functionality to retain scalability when processing thousands of images at a time. Images were stored and served by Amazon S3 and cached by Cloudflare.
Enormous
A Node.js and MongoDB SaaS that was built to solve the issue of retrieving near real-time data from databases and web services without impacting the performance of those databases and web services. I created Enormous to make it easy to expose and emit up-to-date data from a MySQL or Microsoft SQL Server database or a web API without impacting the performance of the data layer.
Carter
A schemaless CMS built using Node.js, MSSQL, MongoDB, and Elasticsearch. Pivoted after inception to incorporate functionality to provide recommendations of financial products to consumers for Choose Wisely. All data is exposed via an HTTP API to Choose Wisely and Carter Admin, a separate Node.js application built specifically to interact with and manage the data within Carter. Regularly performed around 10,000 searches a day.
Clearchoice
A Node.js and MySQL application built with the primary purpose of revolutionizing the process of recommending financial products to consumers. Functionality includes synchronous HTTP requests to loan providers’ APIs in order to acquire an accept or reject response for customers. This process was so far unheard of in the finance industry. The client-side consists of a React-driven form and comparison table, compiled using Babel and Webpack.
Simple Loan Search
A front-end application built using JavaScript, SASS, and Handlebars that achieved its end goal of being the quickest loan search Ratio had ever produced, with the smallest client-side footprint, while still offering as full as possible search experience.
Skills
Languages
JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Sass, SCSS, TypeScript, PHP, HTML5, SQL, CSS3, T-SQL (Transact-SQL)
Libraries/APIs
Node.js, React, Handlebars, REST APIs, Socket.IO
Tools
WebStorm, Azure Active Directory B2C (ADB2C), Confluence, GitHub, Mongoose, Jira, Microsoft Dynamics
Other
Back-end, Full-stack, OpenID Connect (OIDC), Software Development, Chrome Extensions, APIs, Web Crawlers, Web Scraping, Scraping, Cloudflare, Software as a Service (SaaS), Technical Leadership, Architecture, Vercel, Front-end, Leadership, Fintech, Web Project Management, IT Networking, Software Architecture, People Management, Analytics, Team Management, Image Processing
Frameworks
Next.js, Bootstrap, Express.js, Laravel
Paradigms
REST, Agile, Microservices
Platforms
Linux, MacOS, Azure, AWS Lambda, Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Storage
MongoDB, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Elasticsearch, Azure Cosmos DB, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), PostgreSQL
Education
2007 - 2010
Bachelor's Degree in Business IT
Bournemouth University - Bournemouth, United Kingdom