Leo Crawford's Curriculum Vitae

I have established my career with over five years experience in the development of quality enterpise-scale software, primarily using Java Enterprise technologies. I have worked the entire software lifecycle as developer, mentor and technical lead.

I would like to persue my career working on leading edge projects where I can continue to improve my technical knowledge whilst developing my mentoring and leadership skills.

• Scalable n-tier development using Enterprise Java Beans (EJBs) from within the Weblogic Application Server.
• Database access and custom Object Persistence using JDBC
• Interfacing with legacy code using the Java Native Interface (JNI)
• The creation of specialised servers, including application servers, using Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI)
• Web Component Development using Java Server Pages (JSP) and Java Servlets from within the Apache Struts framework.
• Rich client design using Java Foundation Classes (JFC) - known as Swing and AWT
• Development of secure software using client and server side certificates
• Compiler Design
• Generating and Parsing XML and its use as a implementation neutral option for implementing subsystem boundaries.
• Designing large Object Oriented software solutions using good industry good-pratice, including heuristics, patterns and anti-patterns.
• The use of proven development processes, including RUP, to successfully deliver software projects
• Technical Mentoring to improve individual and team skills

A-level:

Mathematics (A) Computing (A) Physics (B)

Degree:

Computer Science 2:1 (BSc hons) from the University of Warwick

Through my studies I learnt a range of other languages including C, C++, Moscow ML (a functional language), SR (a concurrent language), Pascal and several scripting languages. I also have an interest in Compiler Theory, which was the topic of my final year project, and a growing interest in distributed queries and Object Persistence.

Java Certified Programmer (JCP) - 81%
Java Certified Developer (JCD) - 95%
Java Certified Enterprise Architect (JCEA) - part 1: 95%, part 2 & 3: 100%

 

Civil Service, Cheltenham, U.K.

I have worked in a number of roles within this organisation, each of which is shown below. In addition to these during the last two years I have:

• Had line management responsibilities in addition to my other roles.
• Studied as an interviewer and interviewed graduates for permanent positions within the organisation.
• Contributed and promoted to the development of an organisational Software Engineering Blueprint
• Passed Sun's certifications to be a Java Certified Programmer (JCP), Java Certified Developer (JCD) and Java Certified Enterprise Architect (JCEA).
• Developed an interest in Object Persistence resulted in me becomming professional reviewer for the book "Java Data Object" by Robin Roos

Technical authority for telecomms project using J2EE technologies within the RUP process. (6 months)

• As technical lead:
  • I am the point of contact for all external technical queries about the project, including our users, other projects and the organisations technical architects.
  • I provide architectural guardianship
  • I ensure quality and use of standards / best practice
  • I am responsible for ensuring and validating the security of the system
• I work to develop the technical skills of my ten person development team
• I take final responsibility for making technical decisions
• I liaise with my team leader and project manager to estimate tasks, allocate resources and ensure that we deliver what our customers want on-time
• I have reduced iteration durations - decreasing last minute delivery panic, improved user relationships, improved quality within project and revisited our artifacts and processes - resulting in the creation of an entirely new analysis diagram.
• My focus has been on team morale and professionalism, use of best-pratice and a sensible development processes.
• My major challenge has been empowering my team to make decisions whilst improving the standard of those decisions. My approach has been to review designs before development and provide feedback on them, but allowing the final decision to be made by my team members even if its sub-optimal. We then review its success at the end of development.
• I am one of four software skills champions representing about 50 software developers. We are responsible for their ongoing personal development and professionalism.

Technical Mentor for small-database team with limited OO experience (6 months concurrent with other work)

• I worked with a team of inexperienced OO developers to provide them with the sufficient skills to develop reusable software in demanding timescales
• Two successful projects ensued, with acclaim from the users and technical users. After the first project it was stated that "the team had developed two years worth in a few months"
• On leaving the role I interviewed for a number of contractors to fill the gaps in the team which was rapidly expanding. The demanding requirements for strong technical skills and interpersonal skills meant that the team is now held up as shining example of how contractors should fit into and develop a team.

Team Leader / Software Developer for telecomms project using J2EE technologies within the RUP process (18 months)

• As a developer:
  • I maintained a complex object-relational mapping framework which contained forward engineering capabilities direct from Rational Rose
  • I carried out a review of design patterns within the local area, and contributed to an organisation wide initiative to standardise the use of data access patterns
  • Debugged inside the Application Server and LDAP Server to identify behaviors that were non-compliant with the J2EE specification
  • Developed standalone and J2EE code
• For the last six months of this role I was a team leader for approximately five developers with all the duties this would normally entail. The challenge for me was to balance my leadership responsibilities with my development and technical mentoring that was running concurrently.

Graduate Technologist on accelerated development scheme (2 years)

• I was recruited onto a graduate training scheme which encouraged me to develop my technical, personal and presentation skills. After two years I was promoted from the scheme to a role on a leading edge business critical J2EE system.
• During the scheme I moved between areas developing my skills, specifically:
  • IP and Telecomms skills
  • Writing highly performant code using C
  • Writing a presentation framework over Struts
  • Gathering user requirements through use of prototypes
  • Enterprise scale development using J2EE and CORBA

Improvision, Coventry, U.K.

I worked as a software tester for a piece of complex image processing software, liaising with developers to prioritise and review faults as they were found.

I am a keen sportsman, participating in a number of National events, including the UK's second biggest event, the Challenger trophy. My favourite sport is Swimming which I train regularly at. I also climb, run and cycle on a fairly regular basis. I used to play rugby regularly at school, and now play the occasional game for the local Civil Service team.

At University I was a member of the University of Warwick Lifesaving Society, where I was awarded my Bronze Medallion, Award of Merit, Life Support 1, Life Support 3 and my National Pool Lifeguard Qualification. I have completed a trainer assessor course and have taught a Bronze Medallion and Life Support 1 class - in which all the pupils passed first time. I was an active member of the executive committee for the Lifesaving Society, which involved going to executive and Union meetings to discuss club and general policies, as well as organising events for the club members.

My year after graduation was spent working in New Zealand. This combined with the amazing experience of spending three months travelling back from New Zealand through many countries has given me a real appetite for seeing the world. I enjoy spending time traveling and spend as much time as possible visiting new places.