Lead Technical Consultant
Andy has a wealth of experience leading teams of skilled engineers. He thrives in architecting holistic solutions to complex technical and business challenges, identifying and delivering high-value improvements that solve human problems.
He also regularly leads and facilitates group sessions at LeadDev conferences, connecting senior and lead engineers of all backgrounds.
Outside of work, he enjoys kickboxing, live action role-playing, and playing violin in local orchestras.
2024 – Current
Forward-deployed in a multinational insurance group, Andy led engineers in creating bespoke data reporting and visualisation tools for treaty underwriters.
(We have) seen the near unheard of situations of us declining clean renewals, but where the client wants to continue the conversations for the future. This has been because of the depth of insight we have had with respect to their portfolios, and the perspective we can bring to them. Purely down to (this tool) I can confidently say that these requests are not being asked of any other reinsurer.
Enabled wider teams to accelerate prototyping and feature development by resolving organisational roadblocks with enterprise platform management and paving the path for adoption of new technologies, such as agentic coding.
Led a team of 8 – 10 developers through a substantial refactor to a critical service for UK local authorites and voters, while balancing the need to deliver high-impact features. Ensured efficient delivery against tight deadlines through clear direction, technical guidance, and getting hands-on whenever needed.
Reduced implementation cost by enabling code reuse across what was four codebases serving similar functions, whilst simultaneously delivering high-value improvements that saves tens of thousands of hours of work for electoral registration officers every month.
Championed responsible adoption of AI tooling in development work across teams within Softwire.
Led a team to experiment with agent-first coding to create an AI knowledgebase chat app to assist with writing bids and finding other internal knowledge.
Ran events such as hackathons to develop ops skills and improve knowledge around infrastucture engineering. Identified a need for communication and coaching training, then wrote and facilitated training sessions on coaching for colleagues, improving the quality of role mentorship and line management.
2022 – 2024
in partnership with Softwire
This was a joint project between Softwire and Corndel, where Corndel would resource Software Enginering and DevOps trainers from Softwire and jointly develop training material.
2023 – 2024
Wrote new courses in TypeScript and Java, including learning material, training projects, and automated testing.
Designed hiring process for new Software Engineering and DevOps professional development experts.
Fostered and grew relationships with several clients, created opportunities for selling custom courses and training outside of apprenticeship material.
2022 – 2023
Led software engineering trainers in delivering the first cohorts of apprentices on a revised SD4 IFA v1.1 standard, ensuring the retention of existing clients.
2018 – 2022
2021 – 2022
Led junior to mid level developers to share vital knowledge, maximise time and resources, and tackle challenging and varied tasks, in a multi-project, multi-technology team.
Responsible for the support and maintenence of several projects, including:
2019 – 2021
Implemented iOS and Android mobile apps for LNER, providing travellers with journey planning, live information and other useful functionality.
Architected the underlying backend, integrating several legacy systems. Designed an easy-to-use, well documented API that made integration from the mobile front-end easy, saving development time and effort.
Set up CI/CD to automate iOS, Android, and API building, testing, and deployment, reducing time-to-market.
2018 – 2019
2015 – 2018