Thomas Hockaday

Software developer with a background in design. Focused on user and developer experience. Building optimised, accessible, and testable systems. Working in small full stack teams since 2017.

Skills

Languages:

  • PHP
  • JavaScript/TypeScript
  • MySQL/PostgreSQL
  • HTML
  • CSS

Tools:

  • React
  • Node.js
  • Composer
  • Docker
  • AWS
  • Git
  • Redis
  • OpenAPI

Methodologies:

  • CI/CD
  • OOP
  • SOLID
  • REST
  • DDD
  • TDD

Experience

Intelligence Fusion / Sigma7

Tech Lead, 2023 – 2024

  • Led a major API optimization project, achieving a 13x endpoint performance increase which was later documented in a Sentry case study.
  • Developed a data cloning tool which boosted the reporting output of the operations team by 10%.
  • Implemented end-to-end testing solutions with PHP and Playwright to safeguard critical paths.
  • Automated Prettier and ESLint code quality checks. Resolved a validation bug in the eslint-plugin-react ruleset.
  • Migrated extensive Postman documentation to OpenAPI to improve developer collaboration and client integration.

Lead Software Engineer, 2022 – 2023

  • Upgraded APIs to PHP 8.3, reducing code execution time by over 20%.
  • Automated CI static analysis using PHPCodeSniffer, PHPStan, and PHPInsights.
  • Optimized database usage with Redis caching and enhanced login security via rate limiting.
  • Conducted quarterly performance reviews, fostering rapid team development.

Senior Software Engineer, 2021 – 2022

  • Refactored an event-sourced Lumen API into microservices, improving performance and developer experience.
  • Managed sprint planning and supported recruitment and onboarding.

Software Engineer, 2020 – 2021

  • Built high-performance threat intelligence REST API endpoints handling 60 requests/second per client.
  • Defined CI/CD rules in GitLabCI for automated testing and deployment.
  • Compiled Postman API documentation to streamline onboarding.

Opia Ltd

Web Developer, 2017 – 2020

  • Built high-volume promotional websites using PHP, Vue, Blade, Sass, MySQL, and Docker.
  • Achieved commendations from Microsoft for WCAG 2.1 compliance and Huawei for excellence in campaign development, including an award-winning project.

Projects

Tag Connect

Design custom contact cards that can be instantly shared with others via URL or QR code. Featured a PHP 8.3 API, React Native app and React web platform. Used AWS, CircleCI and Expo for deployment. PostgreSQL database hosted on RDS. API hosted on ECS Fargate and web platform hosted in a static S3 Bucket accessed via CloudFront. Redis/ElastiCache used for preventing rate limiting issues. Fully testable local environments with Docker.

Education

New College Durham

Bachelor of Design, 2014 – 2017

Extended Diploma in IT, 2012 – 2014