I'm a friendly web developer with knowledge of backend and frontend technologies and a keen desire to keep up to date with best practices. I appreciate the need for risk aware development from a security perspective, in addition to general TDD and CI for increased delivery confidence. I am always looking to further my knowledge and appreciate when a good question is asked well, fully embracing a team culture in which I can share my contributions and learn from others. I've taught children visual programming with Scratch in an after school class as part of the Code Club programme, which was a fun challenge. I also enjoy attending developer events on a local and national level. I like to build with free/open source software projects where possible and I am happiest when I can see the source code for myself, when dealing with external systems. I respect end users, as a developer who is only satisfied when services "Just Work" as expected.

Python Developer @ Fully remote work. Development of a web service for employers, to assist them with the automatic enrolment of employees on workplace pensions. Responsible production shell access for operational concerns and deployment capability. Ongoing documentation and testing. Python backend development with the Flask framework, featuring Celery+RabbitMQ for asynchronous processing. MongoDB storage. HTML 5 and JS frontend. From February 2015 to November 2015 (10 months) Developer / Researcher @ Development and maintenance of web applications to help schools manage their funds and generate income. Python and Django hacking on the server (PostgreSQL storage), in addition to Javascript MVC client-side development with Backbone and Marionette frameworks. Focus on best practices with standards compliant HTML 5. Frequent liaisons with the user support and product testing teams to identify bugs and inform development. Familiarity with web-based monitoring services such as Sentry, for early awareness and response to problems. Researched and implemented an automated project modularisation and build strategy, featuring Node.js and Brunch. TDD for the client facing apps, largely based on Python Nose and Mocha and employing supporting software, such as the Brunch build tool. Introduced value-added phone messaging capability via third party API integration with an SMS gateway provider. Augmented and troubleshooted interactions involving a payment gateway used for recording school meal transactions (SOAP, XML). Internal use of RESTful, JSON flavoured AJAX (Django Rest Framework). Documented JSON message protocols and implemented functionality relying on inter-service communication (Amazon SQS). Increased efficiency of SQS by enabling long polling where applicable. From September 2012 to November 2014 (2 years 3 months) Systems Consultant @ Founding member of this IT support and ethical hacking company. From June 2010 to September 2010 (4 months)

BSc (Honours), Computer & Network Technology, 2. (i) @ Northumbria University From 2008 to 2012 BTEC National Diploma for IT Practictioners, IT @ Tyne Metropolitan College From 2006 to 2008 Marc Kirkwood is skilled in: Linux, Cloud Computing, Network Security, Computer Security, Programming, CCNA, Python, Django, ECMAScript, JavaScript, C/C++ STL, HTML 5, AJAX, Web Applications, JSON