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Paul M Furley, OpenPGP Developer in Liverpool, United Kingdom
Paul M Furley

OpenPGP Developer in Liverpool, United Kingdom

Member since April 13, 2015
Paul is a solid engineer and an energetic teammate. He started his professional career writing high-speed C++ but now prefers Python on Linux. Most recently, he co-founded a startup as lead developer and previously spent six months with the UK Government Digital Service. He loves efficient organizations with a strong testing philosophy and focus on quality.
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Portfolio

Experience

Location

Liverpool, United Kingdom

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Ubuntu Linux, Vim, Git

The most amazing...

...thing I've built was the software stack for a digital printing machine, from a PyQt operator GUI down to Arduino-powered machine control.

Employment

  • CTO and Lead Developer

    2014 - 2015
    Sea Level Research, Ltd.
    • Developed a RESTful API using Django REST Framework 3.
    • Built a mobile-first front-end using React.js and Bootstrap 3.
    • Configured back-end machines with Ansible, deployed from Jenkins.
    • Automated API deployment using Heroku and PostgreSQL.
    • Carried out customer discovery with Liverpool Pilots then managed and prioritized the product backlog.
    • Built the entire front- and back-end stack for an electronic tide tables application.
    Technologies: Django, Python, React, JavaScript, PostgreSQL, Ansible, Jenkins

  • Data Scientist/Software Engineer

    2013 - 2014
    ScaperWiki, Ltd.
    • Built data scrapers and aggregators, pulling, cleaning, and normalizing data from awkward sources.
    • Developed reusable helper libraries and new tooling to speed up development and ease the maintenance burden.
    • Introduced the team to unit testing and test-driven development.
    • Worked with investigative journalists to acquire and aggregate thousands of company records, supporting a corruption investigation.
    Technologies: Python, Linux, SQLite, Requests

  • Developer

    2013 - 2014
    Government Digital Service (UK)
    • Introduced my team to Django, kicking off the Stagecraft project which allows non-technical users to create new dashboards and achieve scale.
    • Used my experience of scraping poor-quality sources to build reliable collectors for government data.
    • Maintained a Linux web stack with Varnish, nginx, Gunicorn, Django/Flask, MongoDB, and PostgreSQL.
    • Improved reliability and repeatability with continuous integration scripts for Jenkins & Travis.
    • Built automated tests for a Flask/MongoDB storage back-end system.
    Technologies: Django, Flask, Python, PostgreSQL, MongoDB

  • Software Engineer

    2011 - 2013
    BAE Systems Applied Intelligence
    • Developed high-speed C++ software using STL and Boost and targeted at 64-bit Linux.
    • Ported and refactored a legacy C application into modern C++ with STL, Boost, and Protobuf.
    • Developed a C++ libpcap application to inspect NAT sessions.
    • Created an automated test harness in Python to inject test data into our C++ applications.
    • Worked day to day with Wireshark, inspecting protocols such as TCP, SSL/TLS, and FTP.
    Technologies: C++, Boost, Python, TCP, libpcap, Wireshark

  • Software Engineer

    2009 - 2009
    JF Machines, Ltd.
    • Built an entire operator user interface for PicoColour digital printing press using Python and PyQt.
    • Built an ink system controller using Arduino to replace conventional Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs).
    • Created image preparation software, integrating with Ghostscript, ImageMagick, and Python Imaging Library.
    • Researched and created image manipulation "screening" techniques to improve print quality.
    • Created a high-speed C++ image processing module in with Cython interface for use in Python.
    Technologies: Python, PyQt, C, Arduino, Python Imaging Library (PIL)

Skills

  • Languages

    C, Python, JavaScript, HTML5, SQL, Go, C++, CSS3, CSS

  • Frameworks

    Flask, Django, Django REST Framework, Bootstrap 3

  • Libraries/APIs

    Django ORM, React

  • Tools

    GPG, Ansible, Wireshark, Vim Text Editor

  • Platforms

    Linux, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Arduino, Heroku

  • Storage

    PostgreSQL, SQLite, MySQL, MongoDB

  • Other

    OpenPGP, Scraping, SSL, Public-key Cryptography, Cryptography

  • Paradigms

    Agile Software Development, Test Automation

Education

  • MEng 1st Class degree in Electronic Engineering
    2005 - 2009
    University of Durham - Durham, United Kingdom

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