Steve Talbot, Developer in Cardiff, United Kingdom
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Steve Talbot

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Bio

As a serial co-founder of tech startups, Steve has worked with a wide range of technologies and supported many engineers to do their best work—whether by troubleshooting a specific technical issue, improving the engineering process, or simply acting as an independent mentor.

Portfolio

EverKnock
Angular, Jira, Interim CTOs, Agile Development, DevOps...
Solviq
DevOps, Agile Development, Interim CTOs, Software Architecture...
Properr Software Ltd
Interim CTOs, Startup Development, Agile Development, Software Architecture...

Experience

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Agile, Engineering Management, Jira, Linux, Git, Software Architecture

The most amazing...

...platform I've built was used to transact over £400 million of residential property, 40% faster and with a 40% better success rate than the national average.

Work Experience

Chief Technology Officer

2021 - PRESENT
EverKnock
  • Served as a technical co-founder of this startup in the property tech/legal tech sector.
  • Developed the MVP to support customer discovery and fundraising.
  • Took responsibility for technology strategy, process, innovation, and engineering leadership.
Technologies: Angular, Jira, Interim CTOs, Agile Development, DevOps, Requirements & Specifications, Startup Development, Requirements Analysis, Engineering Management, Architecture, Software Architecture, System Requirements, R&D

Technology Consultant

2012 - PRESENT
Solviq
  • Provided software consultancy at director/board level to help companies build and lead engineering teams, launch new technology projects, and overcome barriers to progress.
  • Served as a consulting chief technology officer and interim director.
  • Architected digital products, infrastructure, and algorithms.
  • Invited to give talks and workshops in the School of Computer Science and Informatics at Cardiff University, the National Software Academy of Wales, and the University of South Wales.
Technologies: DevOps, Agile Development, Interim CTOs, Software Architecture, System Requirements, Engineering Management, Architecture, Startup Development, Requirements & Specifications, Requirements Analysis, R&D

Chief Technology Officer

2015 - 2019
Properr Software Ltd
  • Served as a technical co-founder of this startup in the property tech sector.
  • Recruited and led the engineering team to deliver our cloud-based platform, TrackMyMove: over £400 million worth of assets were transacted through the platform. Clients cut the timescales and fall-through rates of selling residential property by 40%.
  • Helped secure over £1.2 million in funding, including two investment raises and R&D tax credits.
  • Owned the technology strategy, process, innovation, and engineering leadership.
Technologies: Interim CTOs, Startup Development, Agile Development, Software Architecture, R&D, Engineering Management, DevOps, System Requirements, Architecture, Jira, Jenkins, Requirements & Specifications, Requirements Analysis

Interim Chief Technology Officer

2015 - 2016
Delio Wealth
  • Served as an interim, founding CTO of this high-growth startup in the financial services/fintech sector.
  • Recruited and led the team to deliver a minimum viable product for a European bank.
  • Supported the executive team through the Startup Bootcamp Fintech accelerator.
Technologies: Interim CTOs, Agile Development, Startup Development, Software Architecture, Jira, Jenkins, DevOps, Requirements & Specifications, Requirements Analysis, Engineering Management, Architecture, System Requirements, R&D

Principal Systems Engineer

2007 - 2012
General Dynamics UK
  • Served as a requirements manager on a major program with 400+ engineers, responsible for managing the system requirements and monitoring technology readiness levels, system maturity, and cross-functional design issues.
  • Led the team for a systems architecture R&D project, managing a lab for evaluating third-party products and developing supplier relationships.
  • Acted as a project manager and systems engineer for a communications software project, which required me to set up company-wide guidance for open source software usage within defense projects.
  • Held a company-wide systems engineering role, with responsibilities including interviewing, mentoring prospective chartered engineers, and developing company-wide process guidance.
Technologies: Open Source Development, Engineering Management, Requirements Analysis, Systems Engineering, R&D, Enterprise Architecture, System Requirements, Software Architecture, Architecture, Requirements & Specifications, Sparx Enterprise Architecture, DOORS

EverKnock

https://www.everknock.com/
A digital concierge to manage your home-buying journey, taking the stress out of buying your dream home. As co-founder and CTO, I was responsible for the technology strategy, software architecture, DevOps, and engineering leadership.

TrackMyMove

As co-founder and CTO, I recruited and led the engineering team to deliver the cloud-based platform, TrackMyMove. Over £400M worth of assets were transacted through the platform and clients cut the timescales and fall-through rates of selling residential property by 40%.

I was responsible for the technology strategy, software architecture, DevOps, and engineering leadership and helped raise two rounds of investment and secure R&D tax credits. The software is built around a configurable workflow engine and critical path algorithms.

TECHNOLOGIES: RESTful API, PHP, CouchDB, Elasticsearch, JavaScript, AngularJS, React, Amazon Web Services (AWS), DevOps, Ubuntu Linux, Git, Jenkins, Ansible, Packer

Delio Wealth

https://www.solviq.com/services/early-stage
As the interim CTO, I took this fintech startup through the Startup Bootcamp Fintech accelerator in London, then recruited and led the engineers to deliver a minimum viable product for a major European bank, ensuring it passed an external security audit and penetration test.

I personally architected and implemented JWT-based OAuth2 bearer authentication to support access from on-premise software installations to the cloud-based platform.

TECHNOLOGIES: PHP, JavaScript, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Elasticsearch

Musiqli

https://www.musiqli.com/
I personally architected and developed the back end of this cloud platform for the performing arts, based around the concept of digital matchmaking for musicians, and implemented the cloud infrastructure.

I also helped secure R&D grant funding from the Welsh government and supported the team through Cambridge University Judge Business School’s accelerator program.

TECHNOLOGIES: PHP, Elasticsearch, JavaScript, AngularJS, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Conduit

https://getconduit.org/
As I worked on other projects at Solviq, I found myself solving the same problem repeatedly: converting data between domain objects and document-based formats (like JSON) while validating the data thoroughly.

Conduit is a family of open-source libraries that implement this data mapping and validation, making it easy to write API-based applications without compromising good programming practice.

Conduit is licensed under the permissive MIT license, enabling me to use it freely in client projects. The release to the broader open source community is planned.
2010 - 2011

CMI Level 7 — Distinction in Strategic Management and Leadership

Cardiff School of Management - Cardiff, UK

2007 - 2008

Postgraduate Certificate in Management

University of Lancaster - Lancaster, UK

2000 - 2004

BA (Honors) and MEng Degree (First with Distinction) in Engineering

University of Cambridge - Cambridge, UK

OCTOBER 2020 - PRESENT

Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology

Institution of Engineering and Technology

JULY 2020 - PRESENT

Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

AdvanceHE

NOVEMBER 2007 - PRESENT

Chartered Engineer

Engineering Council UK

Libraries/APIs

REST API, React.js

Tools

Jenkins, Ansible, Jira, Git, Terraform, DOORS, Packer, Asterisk, Amazon Lex

Languages

PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ECMAScript (ES6), SQL, TypeScript

Paradigms

DevOps, RESTful Development, Agile Development, Requirements Analysis, Management

Platforms

AWS, Linux, Docker

Storage

Elasticsearch, PostgreSQL, MySQL, CouchDB, MongoDB

Frameworks

Silex, Symfony, AngularJS, Zend Framework, Redux, Angular, Ionic

Other

Open Source Development, Architecture, Software Architecture, System Requirements, Requirements & Specifications, Systems Engineering, Interim CTOs, Startup Development, Engineering Management, Engineering, R&D, Sparx Enterprise Architecture, University Teaching, Enterprise Architecture, Asterisk Gateway Interface (AGI)

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