Ben Worthington

Summary

Senior front-end developer with over nine years experience building high quality responsive web applications across mobile and desktop platforms.

Always applies a creative, logical and consistent approach to both software development and building user interfaces.

Conscious of demand for efficiency, performance and rapid development versus code reusability, sustainability and use of best practices.

Highly motivated to learn new skills with a strong interest in future web technologies.

Experienced communicator, from talks at international conferences and board level presentations, to producing documents tailored for audiences of all levels.

Consistently demonstrated the ability to achieve a high level of proficiency in a range of technical subjects including mobile services, consumer electronics technologies, standardisation efforts and software development.

Technical Skills

• Advanced: HTML and related APIs, CSS, JavaScript (ECMAScript) inc. DOM and related APIs, Sass/SCSS, SVG
• Experienced: React, JSX, Flux, Redux, Gulp, Git/GitHub
• TDD/BDD — React Testing Library, Jest, Mocha, Karma, Chai and Sinon
• Detailed understanding of desktop and mobile browser capabilities and W3C compliance
• Agile methodologies — part of successful Scrum and Kanban teams
• Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop
• Wide range of experience in analytical technology assessment and consultancy work
• In-depth knowledge of mobile device hardware and software platforms, mobile network architecture, and a wide range of telecoms services and service platforms

Professional Experience

1. 2019 – 2021

   Bimble Ltd, UK

   Senior front-end developer in a start-up environment. Situated within a team of developers building a full-stack web platform and mobile apps. Responsible for the development of a responsive, mobile-first website.

   Senior Front-End Developer

   • Introduced a new React based front-end platform to replace a legacy platform, first public version released within a matter of months
   • Worked closely with design and UX teams to develop an adaptive, cross-device UX
   • Adapted, and extended existing Flask-RESTPlus back-end API library where necessary

2. 2017

   MFM Investment Ltd, UK

   Updated existing user facing Angular based platform to be fully responsive, mobile first and resolution independent.

   Senior Front-End Developer

   • Led work on styling, animations, responsive UI, and instructing design department on producing resolution independent vector based iconography and images
   • Collaborated across company departments to produce universal style guidelines and code templates for all company visual presences

3. 2012 – 2017

   Gamesys Ltd, UK

   Part of a successful team of senior engineers assigned the technical leadership and future strategy of customer facing websites. Designed and developed new web platforms for multiple commercial ventures.

   Senior Front-End Developer — Client Platforms

   • Instigated work to adapt existing websites for mobile platforms, then prototyped and developed a new fully responsive, isomorphic app platform based on React/Flux
   • Led prototyping, styling and responsive UI development work for each new platform — dramatically reducing new site build time
   • Led the technical development of a new non-gaming business venture and provided technical guidance to other developers on the project
   • Provided internal technical consultancy on mobile and responsive web development, built and promoted HTML/CSS/JavaScript standards and style guides
   • Fostered strong relationships with UX and Design departments and collaborated on new design language for responsive apps

4. 2002 – 2012

   Vodafone Group Plc, UK / Germany

   Held Research and Development roles within Group Technology and Group Strategy departments — global departments responsible for planning and coordinating technology strategy across Vodafone’s operating companies.

   Technical Lead — Service Platforms, Group Technology

   • Provided in-house consultancy on web technologies, application UI design and the role of web apps in the mobile app ecosystem
   • Designed and developed mobile web apps including a web-based telecoms platform, a visual conference call platform and a customer focused smart billing platform

   Developer / Project Manager — Web & Media, Group Technology

   • Pioneered the development of mobile web apps within Vodafone — led a cross-site international team of developers in building a range of apps
   • Promoted web apps in Vodafone and the developer community through conferences, demonstrations, creating best practice guidelines and mentoring junior developers
   • Vodafone representative to the W3C for Web Applications and its predecessor Packaged Web Applications (Widgets)

   Research Engineer — Device Technologies and Multimedia, Group Strategy

   • Provided technical due diligence on hardware and services from suppliers and start-ups
   • Produced strategy papers and presentations for senior management highlighting the business impact of new technologies and services
   • Managed Vodafone’s involvement in an EU funded audiovisual technologies programme — worked with academia and start-ups, bringing their ideas to senior management
   • Vodafone representative to the DLNA

5. 1998 – 2002

   University of Reading, UK

   Managed the University’s collaboration on two major EU funded projects: COMRIS and PING — coordinated work from several international teams of developers and built software with European partners.

   Research Fellow — Dept. of Computer Science & Cybernetics

   • Designed and built a cross-platform application layer networking infrastructure allowing many tens of thousands of software agents to communicate efficiently
   • Lectured on Java networking techniques and creating scalable network infrastructures
   • Supervised undergraduate and postgraduate projects
   • Authored and co-authored research papers for international conferences and publications

Education

1. 1998

   MSc Computer Science & Cybernetics — University of Reading, UK

   Artificial intelligence, computer graphics, user interaction, image processing, software engineering, virtual environments.

   Thesis: Overcoming the Effects of Network Latencies in Distributed Synthetic Environments.

   Won an EPSRC scholarship.

2. 1997

   BSc (Hons) Physics — University of Birmingham, UK

   Applied and theoretical physics, maths, computing, laboratory work, philosophy of science.

Personal Interests

• Sport — distance running to half marathon level, squash, floorball (indoor hockey)
• Interested in many aspects of design, particularly architecture
• Promotion of science and technology — organised and ran workshops for the British Science Association and the Smallpeice Trust, generating interest in the sciences and promoting careers in software engineering

References

References are available on request.