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Tim MacKay

a photo of Tim MacKay

Notable Experiences

2024 — Successfully created and launched 🚀 this website!

2023 — Conference Speaker 🎙 at DSTL AI Fest 5 , lauded as a "confident, clear communicator" delivering to hundreds of people attending on premise and remotely

2022 — Deployed on UK Specialist Military Operations 🪖 to develop novel software

2021 — Presented to 10 Downing Street Data Science team 💬 as an exemplar in code quality and QA

Summary

Highly skilled Full Stack Developer from a military background with 15 years of experience in technical roles within and for UK Defence.

Specialised in Software Development since 2018. Dedicated to the craftsmanship of clean and maintainable code. Excellent communication skills 🗣 with experience briefing senior executives. Experience working in teams using Scrum. Experience keeping legacy systems operational as well as implementing cutting-edge technologies. Proven track record of success in improving processes and implementing innovative solutions.

Skills & Expertise

  • Backend

    • Python
      • FastAPI
      • Pydantic
      • SQLAlchemy
    • SQL

  • Frontend

    • JavaScript
      • Vue
      • Cypress
    • CSS
    • HTML

  • Tools

    • Git
    • CI Pipelines
    • Docker
    • Gitlab
    • :simple-visualstudiocode: VS Code

  • Misc

    • OWASP Top 10
    • Agile
    • Scrum
    • Mac | Linux | Windows

Work Experience

Data-Edge Analytics (Contractor)

Jan 2024 Present

  • Main Tech Stack: Python, Node.js, Docker, Gitlab, MKDocs
  • Work with data scientists 🧪 to integrate their code into a larger software eco-system
  • Standardise the containerisation and deployment of data science projects within a monorepo
  • Create, maintain and deploy python packages, with hosted documentation, using CI/CD Gitlab pipelines
  • Standardise data transformation between various data processing libraries

Specialist Military Unit Software and AI Team, MoD (Founding Member)

Feb 2022 Oct 2023

  • Main Tech Stack: Python, FastAPI, Vue, Docker, Azure DevOps
  • Led code QA by advocating and implementing automated code analysis, unit testing, code linters, technical documentation, and other quality assurance measures 🚀
  • Developed a robust data pipeline to ingest and visualise telemetry data for enhanced insights and data-driven decision-making
  • Implemented Computer Vision to enhance reconnaissance missions in deployed space
  • Worked on various systems, including Frontends, REST APIs, Databases, Raspberry Pi and Sat Comms 🛰
  • Gained fundamental knowledge of Machine Learning technologies such as facial recognition, object detection, motion detection, sentiment analysis and word embeddings

No1 Aeronautical Information Documents Unit, Royal Air Force

Aug 2018 Feb 2022

  • Main Tech Stack: PHP, MySQL, Vanilla JavaScript, jQuery, Foundation, CSS, HTML, Git
  • Maintained and improved the MilFLIP website consisting of 70,000 lines of bespoke code 🤯 that enables RAF Squadrons to access flight-critical Aeronautical Information
  • Sole developer of MilFLIP for two and a half years: I validated requirements, designed and implemented new features, tested and deployed each release
  • Mitigated critical security vulnerabilities 🔒 in alignment with OWASP Top 10 guidelines, ensuring robust security measures
  • Introduced dependency management, standardised API endpoints, and created a comprehensive README
  • Implemented end-to-end automated testing with Cypress
  • Progressively refactored key areas of the website to use Object-Oriented Programming
  • Implemented project and knowledge management with Jira and Confluence
  • Trained three junior developers and up-skilled two line managers

Before 2018

In 2009, I embarked on my journey with the Royal Air Force as an Aeronautical Cartographer, immersing myself deeply in the realm of Aeronautical Data ✈. While this document is dedicated to showcasing my career in Software Development, which commenced in earnest in 2018 (see above ), I'd like to provide a brief outline of the skills and experiences acquired in this trade that I believe have significantly enhanced my capabilities as a Developer:

  • Maintained a database of flight procedures for autopilot systems
  • Implemented over two hundred QA data checks using SQL that led to the improvement of tens of thousands of data records 📈
  • Spearheaded a pivot to focus heavily on satellite-based flight procedures, enabling RAF squadrons to embrace modern aviation practices
  • Conducted QA checks on aeronautical charts generated from data
  • Created technical documentation to aid colleagues and improve data quality