Vetted on a call by a Wave consultant, not scraped. Up to £85,000.
Shipped a production data platform for a transport business single-handed: multi-stage ETL, a versioned PostgreSQL model and a React dashboard carrying 107 period metrics across 9 business units. Also built an agentic RAG system over UK food safety law with structured evaluation and guardrail design, in LangGraph with Pinecone and Voyage embeddings. Python and FastAPI on the backend, Terraform and Docker around it.
Looking forBetween roles since May and job hunting since, which they are straightforward about. Wants high ownership and the ability to actually decide things, either a startup or a small team inside something larger. Stability matters after a freelance stretch.
How they came acrossSelf-taught and self-directed, and the AI project is evidence rather than a claim. Reached several final rounds after coming back from travelling, kept missing out to more experienced candidates, and kept going.
Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL · React, TypeScript · AWS ECS, Terraform, Docker · LangGraph, Pinecone, Voyage, Anthropic
Five employers over 11 years, from a testing apprenticeship at a global IT services firm of more than 90,000 people through production operations to deployment lead on regulated government work, then an 18-month solo contract building a data platform. Average tenure 1 year 6 months, longest 3 years 9 months.
No formal AI engineering role yet, so all the AI work is self-directed rather than commercial. Available now, and flagged a Leeds commute as manageable but not ideal.
Bachelors in Digital and Technology Solutions, software engineering route. AWS Cloud Practitioner and ISTQB Foundation.
.NET and C# first, with Azure underneath: Functions, App Services, Service Bus and Application Insights. Current work is decoupling a payments business from third-party providers and rebuilding it as microservices, backend-heavy with a big DevOps share. AWS Lambda, Node and TypeScript come from earlier proptech work, so the cloud experience is not single-vendor.
Looking forSitting in a 350-engineer organisation across 60 teams with a team that is 90% in Bangalore, and the time zone gap is slowing every decision down. Wants autonomy, end-to-end ownership and a startup pace again. Recently moved to Essex and wants mostly remote.
How they came acrossAsked sharp questions about running .NET on AWS and about microservice boundaries, which is a good sign at this level. The frustration is specific and about process rather than about people.
C#, ASP.NET Core, SQL Server · Node.js, TypeScript, React · Azure Functions, Service Bus, App Services · AWS Lambda, Docker, CI/CD
Five employers over 8 years, from digital agencies into enterprise customer data, then proptech, then the merchant acquiring arm of a large UK bank. Average tenure 1 year 9 months, longest 2 years 8 months.
3 months notice, and they will not go back to ticket-driven decision making or teams split across incompatible time zones.
TypeScript end to end, with SQL, Node and React, and AWS around it. The best piece of work is 3 and a half years as lead developer at an edtech startup, taking the platform from 20 schools to more than 200 while building and mentoring a team of 3 juniors. Currently at a bootstrapped ad platform spanning Microsoft and Google Ads, with SolidJS, Next.js and RabbitMQ in the mix.
Looking forBeing made redundant as a Microsoft contract changes, with a decent package and runway to mid-March. The real driver is that they never bought into advertising as a mission and want something they do care about, ideally tech-for-good or environmental, and want to stay put this time.
How they came acrossFrank that the advertising work grated on them, which is more useful than a polished answer. Warmed to both mission-led roles we put in front of them. After a middle ground, not an up-at-5am startup.
TypeScript, Node.js, SQL, Python · React, Next.js, SolidJS, TailwindCSS · AWS, RabbitMQ, Vercel, GitHub Actions
Five employers over 5 years including teaching and freelance work, most recently 3 and a half years leading development at an edtech startup and a year at a bootstrapped advertising platform. Average tenure 2 years 2 months.
Will not work in advertising again, and strongly prefers SQL over MongoDB. Available now with redundancy runway to mid-March.
Bachelors in Computational Physics from a Russell Group university.
Tell me which came closest and I recalibrate, then come back with 10 to 15 more inside 24 hours.
Show me the wider bank