Matthew Ager

Matthew Ager I am a full-stack software developer specialising in Ruby on Rails, ReactJS and Graph databases. I conceptualise, strategise and create project architectures from the ground up, as well as creating bespoke user interfaces and experiences, and brand identities. I am highly logical, creative, passionate and exceptionally hard working — I always strive to go beyond the expected. I have worked, and learnt, at every level as a software developer, a product engineer, a UX developer, and as a co-founder. I have almost a decade of experience in creating web applications, and continue to learn and adapt to a very fast-changing field. I am well-versed in, and an admirer of, agile and scrum techniques, asynchronous communication and research-driven development. Skills • • • Ruby on Rails ReactJS/ES6 Graph databases (Neo4j, Apollo GraphQL) • • • NodeJS/ExpressJS Docker HTML/SASS Experience MARCH 2018 – PRESENT VP Software Development / Cogenis, Manchester (Remote) cogenis.com, wing.care, landscape.wing.care As the right-hand man of the founder of this startup company, I lead everything from product development and architecture to software development and deployment. Using artificial intelligence to interpret emotions found in social media communications, we built a platform to help parents understand what was going on in their children’s online lives. My time was split between conceiving the product, designing the user interface in Adobe Illustrator, the backend models and APIs in Ruby on Rails, the microservices architecture that glued the backend to the frontend via GraphQL, AI services and any third party APIs, building the frontend components in ReactJS, Dockerising everything and deploying it to our Ubuntu cloud servers, and even creating our brand. As the company grew with additional stakeholders, my role naturally evolved to lead our team of developers as we built mobile and desktop clients (iOS, Android, OS X and Windows) which communicated with our backend API. I strategised new approaches to add to our data collection techniques, managing both in-house and collaborative projects with third parties, taking our applications through external and beta testing. AUGUST 2016 – MARCH 2018 Founder / Matter Digital, Skopje ekosfera.mk (access to code repository possible upon request and completed NDA) For 18 months I founded and ran a company to design and build a new kind of social media platform, Hive: it was aimed towards groups rather than individuals. It featured many of the typical elements that are found on social media (feed, search, chat, profiles, connections etc) but registration was performed from the perspective of the group. A group could be a community organization, an NGO, an educational institution — irrespective, the needs were the same. Successful short-term projects were carried out in conjunction with the Universitiy of Ottawa, Kansas, Saints Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje, and Sarah Mercer from the University of Graz. The platform is currently being used by Eko-svest, an NGO in The Republic of North Macedonia, whose instance, Ekosfera, is the official environmental portal of the country, in which each environmental NGO is a member and uses it to report issues and collaborate on solutions. Hive is composed of a Ruby on Rails backend, Neo4j database, ReactJS frontend. I also prepared a marketting campaign with Exmouth Art Group, a regional art group in Exmouth, Devon, UK, with over 100 members, in preparation for a joint Arts Council grant application (unfortunately, this did not go ahead due to a change in committee of the group). OCTOBER 2014 – AUGUST 2016 Development Leader / We Are Apps (& Airspace), London (Remote) I lead the development of all projects from establishing estimates to completion and delivery. Working closely with members of the software engineering team and project manager, whether our own projects, full-scope solutions for clients or extensions and amendments for existing products. Heavily hands-on throughout the full stack, responsible for decisions on server (Ruby on Rails, PHP, .NET) and database languages (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL), front-end web frameworks (AngularJS, BackboneJS, React), native (iOS and Android) and cross-platform mobile frameworks (RubyMotion, Titanium, PhoneGap + multiple UI frameworks) as well as staffing and sourcing and coordinating with contractors. Ensuring that as a team, we were on top of new technologies and advancements that were of particular interest to us, for instance, both Bluetooth and WiFi proximity sensors (Beacons) and iBeacons, Smart Watches, React Native. After becoming development leader for We Are Apps, I was tasked with leading projects for Coca Cola, McDonalds, Penguin Random House, Westfield, among others, and a number of startups and SMEs. Based in Skopje, Macedonia, I connected remotely with both my team members and clients throughout each day and, as such, I was very proficient in dealing with any challenges that were thrown up. For our in-house product, Airspace, I was responsible for both technical development and roadmap. Building the server, backend, customer-facing Control Room, and RESTful API, alongside guiding product decisions and managing the team. 2 2013 – 2014 Head Programmer / Animation in Motion, Skopje All work done for parent company Images In Motion. The build of a complete back-end and web interface in Ruby on Rails which allowed for the upload of audio/video files to a server while populating a database with metadata and then the manipulation of that data to prepare it for orders from large airline companies in preparation for their in-flight entertainment systems. Including native OS X applications using MacRuby and the Apple Scripting Bridge and mobile applications (Android and iOS) via the PhoneGap framework. 2009 – 2011 Associate Lecturer / University for Information Science and Technology, Ohrid, Macedonia Lectured Mathematics 1 (Single Variable Calculus and Linear Algebra), Mathematics 2 (Multivariable Calculus and Analytic Geometry), Programming 2 (C++) and Thermodynamics. Designed course structure and wrote lectures; created examples and exams; tutored students in “labs”; set up projects utilizing visual media, Matlab and C++; fully oversaw and coordinated the courses. Designed and set up the university’s official guidelines for examination invigilation and course timetable for the 2010/2011 academic year. Full member of the senate. Education 2005 – 2009 PH.D. in Applied Mathematics / University of Leeds Thesis: “Magnetohydrodynamical Fragmentation” Member of the Astrophysical and Geophysical Fluids Group. 2002 – 2005 BSC (HONS) Mathematics / University of Leeds Publications “The Role of Thermal Instability in Star Formation” Falle, S.A.E.G; Ager, M.A.; Hartquist, T.W., 2006ASPC..359..137F: “Numerical Modeling of Space Plasma Flows” Astronum-2006 ASP Conference Series, Volume 359, Proceedings of the Conference Held 26-30 March, 2006, in Palm Springs, California, USA. 3