Extremely talented PHP web developer - Front-end and UX enthusiast - WordPress master

About me

I am a self motivated and expert front-end & PHP developer, working with the latest and most exciting web technologies. I enjoy an active role contributing to the web community via writing and created the extremely successful web events and community sites 12 Devs and 12 Devs of Xmas.

I’m a regular public speaker having spoken at a variety of events and conferences, from monthly meet ups, Front End London and London Web Standards, through to international conferences including the New York Sass Conf and Devs Love Bacon in London. During 2013 I wrote a book with Apress - Pro WordPress Theme Development Expert's Voice in Web Development.

I started road cycling during 2013 and after only a few months was able to start raising money for charity, most notably in 2014 where I participated in the Prudential RideLondon raising £700 for the Save the Rhino charity.

My ultimate career goal is to always be doing things that interest me and aiming to make a difference to the web.

Experience:

Senior Front-end developer

Architect (June 2013 - Present)

Senior developer on the front-end team.
Responsible for managing a team of developers (workloads and job progression).
Helped win one of the largest projects Architect had taken on; the rebuild and launch of one of Unilever’s biggest brands: Persil.
Lead developer on a large project WordPress Multisite, Sass (and Compass), and JavaScript/jQuery architecture.
Responsible for code reviews on front-end code.
Responsible for formalising the front-end processes:
- created a front-end boilerplate,
- introduced a front-end code style guide,
- helped bring in code review practices.

Because of my attitude towards process and education the agency now take more serious approach to developer education with internal practices and in the form of external training and conferences.

Front-end Developer

Big Fish (Aug 2012 - June 2013)

Dedicated front-end developer working on a variety of websites for Big Fish's clients.
Worked with up to date technologies including canvas and JavaScript to keep the client's web presence as up-to-date as possible.
Lead developer on the company’s first canvas game.
Pushed to bring responsive web design into the toolkit for the web team.

Web Developer

One Ltd (Aug 2009 - August 2012)

Lead developer for front-end and Wordpress projects.
Worked closely with the designers to create the best possible websites.
Managed the development team and web project scheduling.
Created a Wordpress boilerplate, which at the time all of our websites were based upon.
BBQ chef and occasional cake baker.

While there I initiated a large review of the practices at One, introducing more structure and maintainability through the use of tools like LESS, Git, and Codekit, as well as emphasising a better collaborative environment.

Skills:

Everyday use:

Well structured, accessible HTML
CSS/CSS3
Sass & Compass
Grunt
Git
JavaScript
jQuery
Progressive enhancement
Responsive web design
Mobile first
Accessibility
Performance
PHP
WordPress

Would like to do more of:

Design
Node
Meteor
Angular
Laravel
WebRTC

Education:

BSc (hons) Computer Science - Oxford Brookes University. 2005 - 2010

Graduated with First Class degree with honours.
Final year project entailed building a custom CMS in OOPHP.
Took a gap year in Australia (07-08).

BTEC National Diploma for IT Practitioners @ Banbury College.

Triple grade merit.

8 GCSEs @ Drayton School, Banbury.

Interests:

Working on interesting web projects out of the office.

Attending web conferences, getting the opportunity to meet new people and take on new ideas.

Cycling, both commuting and regular sportives.

Food, both cooking and eating. If I hadn’t been so interested in programming I’d have probably become a pastry chef.

Design work

BodyPolitic Dance website

Initially designed by an ex-coworker while I served as the lead developer. Since going live I've been responsible for maintenance and keeping the site relevant, designing and building several new features alongside the client.

Visit website

Karen Bengo

Full design and build for a small freelance client. Aimed at being striking and minimalistic using large powerful background images in order to highlight the client's work as a model and actress.