Nicholas Stokoe

Occupational History

2012 — now

Senior Software Engineer — Controllis (Edinburgh)

A manufacturer of low-noise DC generators for off-grid telecoms applications, managed via a remote encrypted control & monitoring system. I research & develop tools & processes, and have made significant contributions to the design & implementation of the software. I was technical lead of the project to refactor the remote management application from desktop Java to a RESTful web application served by Java/Groovy. Likewise I have led projects to add subsystems for the embedded C platform, extended its web UI with AngularJS/D3, and web-based production tools for the factory. I instigated the introduction of unit/functional tests, CentOS/Ubuntu deployment automation using Ansible, .rpm/.deb packaging, migrated source control from SVN to Git, and replaced numerous ad-hoc build scripts with Gradle/Make/Git/Jenkins-based build system. (See skills list.)

2001 — 2012

Freelance IT consultant — Noodle Factory

Short & long term engagements, interleaved. Space precludes an exhaustive list.

2007 — 2012 Software engineer, systems admin, deployment automation — Interactive Information (Edinburgh)
An IT consultancy running the Aberdeen Solicitors' Property Centre website. I led or contributed to multiple projects, including migration of 13-year old CVS repositories into Git; redesigning their software/server deployment systems using Puppet, Git, and the Perl CPAN tool-chain; redesigning major legacy Perl4-esque applications in modern Perl, Catalyst, DBIx::Class; designing and implementing visitor traffic monitoring tool generating dynamic charts using database statistics compiled from Apache logs.
- Modern & legacy Perl5
- DBIx::Class
- Catalyst
- Template::Toolkit
- CPAN tool-chain
- Client-side Javascript
- HTML4/CSS2
- CentOS Linux sysadmin
- Advanced GNU Make
- Puppet
- PostgreSQL
2012 Perl developer — Smoothwall (remote working)
A network security and filtering solutions provider. I was hired to add features and fix defects in an existing web application. The client commended me on the quality of my work, noting that all requirements were met with their complete satisfaction.
- Perl
- Catalyst
- DBIx::Class
- Debian Linux
2007 — 2008 Perl specialist, deployment and monitoring systems — Sun Microsystems (Linlithgow)
My role, successfully accomplished, was to re-implement an abandoned but critically important, ubiquitously deployed monitoring tool into tested, documented, maintainable Perl which could run on legacy Solaris platforms.
- MySQL 5
- Debian Linux
- Perl 5.005003 - 5.10.0
- Solaris 8 onward
- Subversion
2002 — 2007 C++/C# software design & development — Paper River Consulting (London)
I designed large parts of this start-up's flagship document capture and workflow software solutions in C++, later C#. I also studied and promoted agile working practices and unit testing. Our solutions were deployed at the House of Commons, Price Waterhouse Coopers, HP, the Procurator Fiscal, and the FSA.
- C#
- C++ / C++.Net
- Perl
- Subversion
- Unit tests, TDD
- project management
2000 — 2003 Web application developer — Complete Genius (London)
I worked on a varied series of projects for this City-based web and financial software solutions.
- C#
- C++
- Perl
- PHP
- Flash / ActionScript
- Project Management
- sys-admin
2001 — 2012 Consultant web administrator — Railfuture (London)
I rebuilt the website for this transport campaign with an open-source content management system, and provided support & maintenance thenceforth. They were pleased with the aptitude and practical nature of my work.
- HTML/CSS
- PHP
- Perl
- Linux sysadmin
- TikiWiki deployment and configuration
2000 Freelance Perl developer — ZDNet UK (London)
I built large data XML sets for a consumer review site for this online branch of the Ziff-Davis publishing house.
- Perl
- XML
- Linux

1998 — 2000

Software Engineer — Primary Image (London)

I worked in the R&D department for this producer of high-performance graphics cards and military training simulation software.

C
C++
OpenGL
rendering algorithms

1994 — 1997

PhD student — UCL High-Energy Physics Group & CERN (London & Geneva)

I studied trigger/data-acquisition systems, developing hardware and software models for the ATLAS detector design.

C/C++
DSP assembly
Fortran
Perl
Tcl/Tk
Unix
particle detector design
image processing
discrete event simulation

Nicholas Stokoe

Skills

Computer languages and standards

Operating Systems Administration

Applications and frameworks

Design and development

Education and Qualifications

References

Occupational History

Senior Software Engineer — Controllis (Edinburgh)

Freelance IT consultant — Noodle Factory

Software Engineer — Primary Image (London)

PhD student — UCL High-Energy Physics Group & CERN (London & Geneva)