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Hi, I’m

Ross Elder

I am a developer.

about me

Services

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SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

I have been developing software for well over 15 years and leading software teams for over 4 of those years. I take a methodical and well thought out approach to designing quality, easy to understand and maintainable software.

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WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

Website and web application development is my speciality and im no stranger to the latest javascript based front end languages having spent a significant amount of time working with knockout.js, angular.js but most of my time in react.js

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LEARNING / MENTORING

I spend a lot of ‘spare’ time reading blogs and taking courses on websites like Pluralsight or Udemy to make sure my abilities and understanding are up to date in our constantly moving area. Im happy to pass on these learnings and the ones gained in my time in the field to others and have mentored many a junior developer over the years

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MOBILE APPLICATIONS

I have development abilities in the mobile application space also. Leaning on my familiarity with React i prefer ReactNative as my mobile development framework of choice.

Work Process

DISCOVER

IDEA

DESIGN

DEVELOP

TEST

LAUNCH

Fun Fact

24 Countries Visited

72 Hours on Learning platforms

12,000 Cups Of Coffee

7 Mk2 Golf Gti’s

resume

WORK HISTORY

November 2021 – Present

Head of Software (Interim)

Scottish courts and tribunals service (SCTS).

Leading a department of 25 members spanning multiple disciplines such as Development, UI, UX, Dev-Ops and third line support.

The role itself is varied and no day is ever exactly the same but a list of my main current duties are:

  • Liaise with the business and understand the upcoming appetite for development. 
  • Ensure required resources are available for the work to be carried out and inline with the strategic direction of the organisation.
  • Hold regular discussions with team members to discuss our direction, our processes and procedures.
  • Input into sessions with staff members of the team, making sure they have clear objectives for the year ahead.
  • Hold regular mentoring sessions with our junior developers and development opportunities.
  • Develop a curriculum / objectives for our development opportunities to follow as part of our upskilling of less experienced staff to transition them into fully fledged software engineers.
  • Manage our budget and understand where efficiencies can be made both internally and with 3rd party suppliers.
  • Liaise with procurement to make sure all licenses and external products are both beneficial to our direction and renewed where applicable

September 2020 – November 2021

Lead Developer

Scottish courts and tribunals service (SCTS).

Leading a team of seven we were tasked with setting SCTS up with an enterprise ready development environment as historically all development was outsourced to third party companies. Their goal was to take full control of all their software and its development. 

Responsibilities for this role centered around the gathering of information on numerous applications from numerous company’s. Understating said applications and documenting my findings. 

The applications would then be put into source control and CI/CD pipelines would be built to allow the dev ops process to function. 

Any modifications to the applications would also be undertaken by us going forward. 

As part of this work we identified one legacy application and put together a proposal to rewrite an old access application into a modern framework. The responsibility for the front end and api design lay with me. The project has come to its conclusion and has been greatly received by the business. It was also deployed ahead of schedule and under budget.

September 2019 – September 2020

Senior Software Developer

Infotechnics.

Working in a team with a mix of contractors and staff to complete a re-write of the company’s flagship software product Opralog from a desktop application to a web based application. The technologies used include .NET Core web APIs using entity framework core to access SQL and Oracle DBs with a knockout.js front end.

My role has been to gather specs on missing or incomplete functionality and then implement said functionality. I have also been helping out the more junior members of the team and trying to mentor them where I can which I really enjoy.

I have also been instrumental in getting Unit tests both back and front end into the CI pipeline and due to my experience with Selinium have helped the test team develop and automated testing strategy.

July 2017 – September 2019

Software Developer

Wood.

At wood I am assisting the team in adding the finishing touches to a new application and getting it ready to be rolled out. A very interesting application built using a Domain Driven Design approach and the core communication between domains being taken care of by NServiceBus, which is very interesting in itself. The front end has been created with angular and WebAPI’s take care of the interaction to the back end.

Continuous Integration builds are run through team city and deployments are handles by octopus deploy. Its a very smooth and seamless process with a great team that i have bonded with and fitted in with quickly.

Dec 2016 – July 2017

Front End Developer

Zonal

While working at Zonal I was responsible for developing a front end and extending the current back end for their web based cinema ticket system using Knockout.js, CSS3 and MVC / WebAPI.

Sept 2014 – Dec 2016

Developer

AMEC

I worked as a Developer at AMEC for nearly 2.5 years. The main portion of work was re-writing one of their legacy applications from VB3 into a modern MVC / Bootstrap / Knockout.js framework.

May 2014 – Sept 2014

Developer

MBA

I worked as a developer at MBA for 3 months, mainly concentrating on implementing the front end of their online training portal using MVC / Bootstrap and WebAPI.

EDUCATION

2004

Computing for the internet and multimedia

Rober Gordons University

I achieved a Degree in Computing for the internet and multimedia at Robert Gordons University. The course was a varied mix of all aspects of Computing, including development, database management, graphic design and web design.

Download CV

Leadership Skills

Communication

Emotional Intelligence

Vision

Decision-Making

Integrity

Adaptability

Coding Skills

React.js

React Native

Microsoft power platform

Angular.js

Knockout.js

C#

SQL Server

WebAPI

Restful API design

CSS3

jQuery

HTML5

Design Skills

Premier Pro

Photoshop

Illustrator

TESTIMONIALS

John Stewart

API Architect / Zonal

I highly recommend Ross for his outstanding performance as a software engineer on our API development team over the eight months he worked with us at Zonal. He demonstrated exceptional technical proficiency, consistently delivering high-quality, efficient, and scalable code. Ross showcased strong problem-solving skills, proactively identifying and addressing potential issues to ensure the stability and performance of our API. His collaborative spirit and effective communication made them a valuable team player, contributing significantly to our project’s success. His dedication and expertise would make him an asset to any team.

Paul Seaman

Oracle Team Lead / Amec

Ross worked as an Analyst Developer in my team between September 2014 and November 2016 and quickly became someone I depended on.

During his time with us Ross consistently produced work of a high quality in both design and
execution. Often Ross was provided with requirements light on detail and had no problem using
his own intuition and analysis skills to design and propose a potential solution.

I have no hesitation in recommending Ross for any software development role. His tremendous
software development skills, integrity and professionalism make him an ideal candidate.

Terry Carr

VP Operations – Software / Loyds register

Ross worked for Senergy Software for over eight years and it has been my pleasure to work directly with him for four of those.

His commitment to projects was unswerving and could be relied upon to bring a project in under pressure. This often demanded extended hours outside of conventional office commitments.

I have no hesitation in recommending Ross. He is determined, dependable and innovative. Very easy to work with, but most important, fun. This last quality is not to be underestimated on a project and is often the key to success, especially on long term projects.

contact

Let’s Socialize

Reach Me

based in Aberdeen, Scotland

Tel : +44 7817515458

Email

Freelance Available

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