John Puddifoot
Verified Expert in Engineering
Full-stack Developer
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Toptal member since October 13, 2022
John is an engineering leader with 20+ years of experience across hands-on development, technical leadership, and business leadership. He has operated at the principal engineer and director level, helping established organizations modernize how software is built, governed, and delivered. He's seeking roles in engineering leadership and transformation, where he can combine a track record of modernizing delivery and raising standards with growing hands-on experience of AI-assisted development.
Portfolio
Experience
- JavaScript - 20 years
- HTML - 20 years
- .NET - 15 years
- Web Accessibility - 10 years
- TypeScript - 8 years
- Sass - 8 years
- Azure - 8 years
- React - 6 years
Preferred Environment
React, TypeScript, JavaScript, .NET Core, Microsoft Azure, Relational Databases, REST APIs, Databricks, Spark, GitHub Copilot
The most amazing...
...project I've led for a data company resulted in the creation of AI-driven eCommerce, cross-platform mobile, offline data, and App Store subscription sync.
Work Experience
Microsoft Cloud Engineer
Wegmans
- Led the development of an Azure Databricks solution to replace a long-standing mainframe product, capable of processing millions of files daily.
- Collaborated closely with business users to understand, capture, and implement complex business requirements.
- Guided the team's adoption of GitHub Copilot, developing custom prompts, skills, and agents, and establishing team workflows.
Tech Lead
Eastpoint Software
- Created a website builder to deliver SEO-optimized single-page apps using React with server-side rendering and content distribution network (CDN), improving the performance and lowering the costs of high-availability CMS-driven web apps by 75%.
- Developed a web application using React and .NET to handle post-Brexit food import and export. Worked as the lead developer in a team of two people and delivered a working app in just four weeks.
- Devised and implemented the development strategy for a suite of technology products for the company's longest-running customer, utilizing React, .NET, Xamarin, and many Microsoft Azure services.
- Designed and developed a prototyping application tool, reducing the cost of relevant projects by up to 40%.
Director | Project Manager
Blue Hat Technologies
- Led the development of a complex event ticketing system for a large regional venue. The application handled large traffic volumes for high-demand, low-availability events.
- Developed a custom eCommerce application for a regional shoe retailer, processing online sales of over £1 million per year and including product recommendation and order fulfillment management features.
- Built a waste and recycling management productivity application, including integrations with government systems for environmental impact reporting. The tool enabled an increase in revenue by three times, with no additional admin staff.
- Created a website builder to produce accessibility-compliant websites for the public sector.
- Directed adoption of a responsive and accessible web design and development within the organization.
Experience
Imray eCommerce
Project features included:
• Micro front-end architecture
• Integration of Microsoft Azure Cognitive Search for improved product searching and future machine learning enhancement
• UX-optimized checkout flow to maximize customer conversion rates
• Single sign-on (SSO) using OAuth and OpenID Connect (OIDC) integration with the existing IdentityServer implementation
• SEO optimization through server-side rendering
• Static site delivery through Azure CDN
• .NET web API catalog, checkout, and product microservices
I worked closely with the project manager, the designer, and the team of two other developers on this project.
Vetted Platform for Post-Brexit Food Export
The secure React and .NET application, used by two major retailers for food export, was designed as a multi-tenant application using Microsoft Azure cloud services, including Azure App Service, Azure Functions, Azure SQL, Azure Blob Storage, and Azure Active Directory B2C for authentication, among other features.
The application reduced the administration time necessary during the export of food products by up to 70% by streamlining data entry and automatically producing border-point documentation with UK government-issued forms.
Education
Master's Degree in Systems Engineering
Loughborough University - Loughborough, UK
Certifications
MCSA: Web Applications
Microsoft
Xamarin Certified Mobile Professional
Microsoft
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft
Skills
Libraries/APIs
React, API Development, Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.Android, Azure Blob Storage API, jQuery, jQuery UI, REST APIs, Stripe, Stripe API, Node.js, React Redux
Tools
Git, Stripe Checkout, GitHub, Azure Active Directory B2C (ADB2C), Visual Studio, MQTT, Figma, IBM Content Manager, GitHub Copilot, GitHub CLI
Languages
HTML, JavaScript, TypeScript, C#, CSS, SQL, HTML5, C#.NET, Sass, Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), CSS3
Frameworks
.NET, .NET Core, .NET 6, Entity Framework Core, ASP.NET, Redux, ASP.NET Web Forms, React Native, NUnit, Cypress, Jest, Electron, Tailwind CSS, Spark, Blazor
Paradigms
REST, Microservices, Agile, Web Architecture, RESTful Development, Azure DevOps, DevOps, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Mobile Development, Requirements Analysis, UX Design, Cross-platform
Platforms
Azure, Xamarin, Windows Server 2016, Mobile, Mapbox, iOS, Android, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Heroku, Docker, Databricks
Storage
Azure SQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Relational Databases, Azure Cosmos DB, MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
Other
Microsoft Azure, CTO, Software Architecture, Full-stack, Full-stack Development, Web Applications, Front-end, Front-end Development, Architecture, Technical Leadership, Responsive UI, API Management, Documentation, Technical Documentation, eCommerce, Startups, Scalability, Project Consultancy, API Integration, Stripe Payments, Software Development Management, Team Management, Cloud Architecture, API Design, APIs, Web Accessibility, Progressive Web Applications (PWAs), Automated UI Testing, Server-side Rendering (SSR), Content Management Systems (CMS), User Interface (UI), Cross-platform App Development, Google Search Console, Planning, User Experience (UX), Leadership, Platforms, Performance, Engineering Management, Delivery Management, Bluetooth, Xamarin.Forms, Systems Thinking, Computer Graphics, Human-machine Interface (HMI), T4 Templates, QA Automation, Design Tools, Finance, Azure Service Bus, Mobile Content Management (MCM), Microsoft Data Transformation Services (now SSIS), Azure Databricks, OpenAI, Azure CLI
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