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Mark Evans

Mark Evans

London, United Kingdom
Member since July 20, 2017
Mark has over ten years of experience in the tech industry, particularly in full-stack web development. He enjoys bringing together his technical, personal, and problem-solving skills to provide the best solution for each client. Mark’s background in Theoretical Physics helps him think laterally about problems, contributing to his ability to resolve issues quickly and efficiently.
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Portfolio
Experience
  • Physics, 20 years
  • JavaScript, 10 years
  • Ruby on Rails (RoR), 9 years
  • APIs, 9 years
  • React.js, 2 years
  • Elm, 1 year
  • Elixir, 1 year
London, United Kingdom
Availability
Full-time
Preferred Environment
Mac OSX, Vim, Git + Github
The most amazing...
...open source library I've written is the popular Ruby gem Dragonfly (1.5 million downloads), which provides a novel way to handle website images and other assets
Employment
  • Full-stack Web Developer
    pPresence (Contract)
    2017 - 2017
    • Developed numerous prototypes in Node.js and Rails for testing/proving a personal data container concept.
    • Built JSON APIs in Node.js for consumption by 3rd party platforms.
    • Used OAuth 2.0 to authenticate across multiple services.
    • Created a backlog of user stories and provided estimates for development work.
    • Designed regression/integration tests for important parts of codebase that had already been written.
    Technologies: Ruby on Rails, Node.js, OAuth2, PostgreSQL
  • Full-stack Developer
    Barclays (Contract)
    2017 - 2017
    • Created a prototype in Node.js/Angular for a new internal HR management tool.
    • Guided remote developers in India on how to provide integration tests.
    • Scoped user stories and provided remote developers with test requirements.
    • Provided demonstrations of prototype to internal stakeholders.
    • Created documentation for other members of the team so that they could easily integrate with and work on the project.
    Technologies: Node.js, Angular, Mongo, Cucumber
  • Lead Back-end Developer
    News UK (Contract)
    2016 - 2017
    • Led back-end development for Sun Goals football app as part of migration to an HTTPS JSON API backend.
    • Provided mentoring and pairing for junior Rails developer, using remote screen sharing.
    • Contributed to creation and grooming of user stories for sprint backlogs.
    • Documented back-end endpoints, usage, and permissions details for app developers.
    • Oversaw deployment to production of back-end using News UK's internal system.
    Technologies: Ruby on Rails, Amazon AWS, Urban Airship
  • Full-stack Web Developer
    EastMeetEast (Contract)
    2016 - 2016
    • Created a novel "scam detector" service using Machine Learning (Neural Network) that learned as more data was collected.
    • Added valuable new features for increasing uptake/conversions.
    • Successfully communicated and discussed ideas remotely across multiple timezones.
    Technologies: Ruby on Rails, CoffeeScript, Sinatra, Fast Artificial Neural Network
  • Senior Full-stack Web Developer
    New Bamboo (now Thoughtbot London)
    2008 - 2015
    • Created popular open source Ruby library Dragonfly, for on-demand image resizing, 1.5 million downloads, http://markevans.github.io/dragonfly.
    • Developed projects for many clients including Vodafone, Intel, Disney, Channel 5, News UK, Amnesty, Which?, Spabreaks, Hounslow council, Brojure, JobsGoPublic, many more.
    • Provided evaluations and estimates of work for potential new clients.
    • Facilitated and contributed to user story workshops to scope out project requirements from the beginning, and in retrospective meetings to constantly improve the development process.
    • Met with clients weekly to demo work done, groom the project backlog and plan subsequent work.
    • Mentored and guided junior developers to ease them into projects.
    • Used test-driven development to implement projects using Ruby, Javascript, and other languages including Python.
    • Organized Javascript workshop, gave a number of talks internally and at London Ruby users group.
    Technologies: Ruby, Rails, NodeJS, Angular, Javascript
  • Full-stack Web Developer
    Wide Area Communications
    2007 - 2008
    • Designed and developed Indesign importer tool, saving Spectator Magazine many hours of work weekly.
    • Developed Apollo Magazine website.
    • Ran weekly reports for Dennis Publishing using SQL.
    Technologies: PHP, Javascript, SQL
  • Research Scientist
    BAE Systems
    2003 - 2006
    • Developed blob tracking software using C++.
    • Built C++ utility libraries used by other researchers in the department (of 45).
    • Led research project investigating Simultaneous Localization and Mapping technology for robotic systems, using Bayesian methods.
    • Saved Airbus many thousands of pounds yearly developing a magnetic aircraft wing screw system.
    • Gained an advanced C++ qualification.
    Technologies: C++, Matlab, Latex2e
Experience
  • Dragonfly Open-source Ruby Gem (Development)
    http://markevans.github.io/dragonfly

    A highly customizable Ruby library for managing assets and processing them on-demand. It is used on thousands of sites and has been downloaded 1.5 million times.

    Many others have provided third-party plugins (e.g. https://github.com/markevans/dragonfly/wiki/Dragonfly-add-ons), and I've provded some official ones:

    - https://github.com/markevans/dragonfly-s3_data_store
    - https://github.com/markevans/dragonfly-couch_data_store
    - https://github.com/markevans/dragonfly-mongo_data_store

  • "Fake Server" Command Line Tool for Testing (Development)
    https://github.com/markevans/fake_server

    Command line http server for proxying HTTP requests and caching GETs, using the excellent VCR ruby gem.

  • Router library for Treehouse JS (Development)
    https://github.com/markevans/treehouse-router

    A very simple but elegant way of providing URL routing (a different and superior approach to most routing libraries).

  • Tax Calculator for Which? Money (Development)
    http://www.which.co.uk/money/tax-calculator

    Which? is a large UK organization that provides information and advice to consumers.

    I helped develop the tax calculator, including complex tax logic that had to be thoroughly tested according to the correct tax rules.

  • Spabreaks Website (Development)
    https://www.spabreaks.com

    I developed, with a colleague, the Spabreaks.com website (front-end and back-end), making use of PostgreSQL's geolocation extensions.

Skills
  • Languages
    Ruby, JavaScript, ECMAScript (ES6), SCSS, HTML5, Sass, HTML, CSS, CoffeeScript, Elm, Elixir, SQL, GraphQL, Go, C++, Python, PHP
  • Frameworks
    Ruby on Rails (RoR), Angular, Phoenix, Capybara, Redux, Sinatra, Selenium, OAuth2
  • Libraries/APIs
    jQuery, React.js, Node.js, Ruby on Rails API, WebSockets, Rack, Pusher
  • Other
    Physics, Mathematics, APIs, Teaching, Machine Learning (ML), Spanish-English Translation, Neural Networks, Unix Shell Scripting
  • Paradigms
    REST, Functional Programming, Scrum, Test-driven Development (TDD), Kanban, Agile
  • Tools
    GitHub, Git, Capistrano, Docker Compose, Cucumber
  • Platforms
    DigitalOcean, Docker, Unix, Amazon
  • Storage
    JSON, Redis, MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, AWS S3
Education
  • Master of Science degree in Theoretical Physics
    Kings College London - London, England
    2015 - 2016
  • Cambridge CELTA qualification in English Teaching
    Cultura Inglesa - Recife, Brazil
    2007 - 2007
  • Master of Physics degree in Physics
    Oxford University - Oxford, England
    1998 - 2002
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