Jez McKean

Mug Shot

I’m a front-end developer, now concentrating on UX/UI work,
backed by 20 years of full-stack industry experience.

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Professional Skills

  • CSS, including:
    • Sass (SCSS)
    • Foundation, Bootstrap, Tailwind
  • JavaScript / TypeScript, including:
    • React / Next
    • Vue / Nuxt
  • User Experience (UX) design, user-story based development.
  • Semantic HTML architecture.
  • RESTful API creation and integration using JSON / XML.
  • MySQL: database architecture, maintenance and advanced querying.
  • Hybrid Mobile App Development using Cordova and similar.
  • A host of supporting industry skills, such as Bash Scripting.

Recent Employment

Gener8

Senior Frontend Engineer

Remote Working, Jun 2022 – to present

Primarily working with TS/JS, SCSS, etc. on React (Next) user-facing projects and Chrome/Firefox/iOS-Safari extensions. Legacy-project maintenance.

Grip Events

Senior Engineer

Remote Working, Jul 2021 – Jun 2022

Used TypeScript & Angular (11+) to work on new and existing features of the end-user experience. Built and published the Grip Customer Data Platform npm package. Worked with the design team on UX matters.

Utilita Energy

Principal Web Developer

Chandler’s Ford, Jun 2018 – Jul 2021

Developed a Vue.js/Nuxt.js-based Progressive Web App (PWA) and its PHP/Laravel-based API backend to replace the dated web ‘customer portal’ with a leading-edge version with improved performance, superior UX and increased maintainability.

Added payments (handling around £1m per day) and other features to the API and the hybrid app. I helped increase the app’s user base to 275,000 customers and win the Best App prize in the uSwitch Energy Awards 2020 and the 2020 Southern Tech 100 ‘Best Use of Technology’ prize from The Business Magazine.

I mentored and assisted the whole web team across the many varied projects supporting the business and its customers. Selected the tech stack for various projects.

Senior Web Developer

Chandler’s Ford, May 2017 – Jun 2018

Led the development of a Vue.js/Cordova hybrid app and an Alexa skill using Node.js. Jointly led the development of various MVC Laravel website / web-tool projects.

Profound Works

Senior Full-stack Developer

Winchester, Jun 2015 – May 2017

Led the development of a Cordova hybrid mobile app, using AngularJS & SCSS.

I was the lead developer for various WordPress builds & their maintenance, including plugin creation, selection & configuration. 

Custom PHP development for bespoke systems. Colleague training and support.

Remarkable Content

Head Web Developer

Winchester, April 2013 – Jun 2015

Led various Concrete5 CMS builds, theme & addon development, WordPress builds and maintenance, including plugin creation, selection & configuration. Site administration, client support and training.

In-house CMS setup, theming and administration. Stand-alone static site creation (primarily front-end CSS/JS builds).  

Debian/Centos server administration. Apache & PHP configuration. MySQL admin.

Jira and Confluence installation and administration. Domain name purchase and DNS administration.

Powder Blue

Senior Web Developer

Winchester, Aug 2008 – April 2013

Development of complex yet intuitive business systems (covering staff tasks, rotas, CRM etc) both from scratch and building on existing code. 

Maintained and built various holiday booking (accommodation, flights, activities, equipment hire, etc) websites, many of which have 2-way interaction with third party systems.

Maintenance and support for various legacy systems. Trained new staff, managed junior staff. Internal systems development. Client relations and support. 

Earlier work details available on request.

Education

University of Liverpool, 2.1 BSc (Hons) in Computer Information Systems.

Shiplake College, 3 A-Levels in IT, Maths and CDT.

St Edward’s School, Oxford, 10 GCSEs in English, English Literature, Maths, CDT, French, German, Latin, Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

Other Qualifications

Foundation Certificate in DevOps from DevOpsGroup (2020).

BCS Foundation Certificate in Agile from BCS (2020).

Professional Diploma in UX Design from UX Design Institute (2019).

Selected Interests

UX: of all things – not just screen/technology-centric.

Future of energy: especially generation (e.g. tidal and solar power) and storage (e.g. powerwalls, microgrids).

Technology: 3D printing, Internet of Things; LoRa; Electric Vehicles; Home Automation.