Sim Kennedy

Sim Kennedy simkennedy ! SimKennedy " Lead Developer 6 years of experience Data engineer/backend developer specialising in Python, Django, PostgreSQL, ElasticSearch, Apache Airflow and data pipelines (ETL/ELT). ● Experienced lead developer and data engineer with a Physics background. ● A methodical, organised and meticulous worker, with great communication skills. ● Excellent at problem solving and lateral thinking, thriving on complex challenges. ● Comfortable working independently, in close collaboration or leading a team. ● 6 years experience of remote-first working, ● Calm, patient and friendly personality. Skills: Python Django SQL/PostgreSQL ElasticSearch Apache Airflow Experience Spend Network spendnetwork.com 2014 to 2020 Lead Developer Remote / London, UK Spend Network is a small company working with public procurement data to improve openness and transparency for the public good. Their main work involves the aggregation of spend and procurement data from the UK, EU and around the world. This data is then standardised and enriched to provide services such as; data feeds, API access, web-based dashboards, consulting, analysis and bespoke research. During my time with Spend Network the internal team grew from 3 to 10. As the Lead Developer in a small data-driven company I was required to adopt many roles and wear many hats, from back-end web developer to data scientist. This involved a lot of self-learning and problem solving, as well as smart project management, teamwork, delegation and team-building and coaching. My time with Spend Network has given me experience in many areas of software development and data science, in addition to working in, and leading, a small remote-first team of developers. My responsibilities generally revolved around building and maintaining the following processes: - Scraping, harvesting or otherwise ingesting tender/contract publications (1000s/day) and UK spend data (millions of rows/month) - Cleaning and standardising the data for our data stores in PostgreSQL and Elasticsearch. - Augmenting the data by linking to various public/private and internal datasets, and using machine learning. - Maintaining API feeds for clients using Django Rest Framework. - Constructing a web-based dashboard product in Django, using Elasticsearch to power live search and analysis. Example of a public web-based dashboard from Spend Network: https://www.openopps.com - A search engine for public tenders. Software/data engineer experience gained: Highly complex data ETL/pipeline management | full-stack web development | API design/building | server management | cloud computing | advanced SQL | database administration and optimisation | web scraping | data science | data analysis | machine learning | document classification | full-text search and optimisation Development languages/tools used include: Python 2/3 | Django (and DRF) | Flask | PostgreSQL/SQL | ElasticSearch | Pandas | Jupyter | Git/GitHub | Heroku | Apache Airflow | Apache Superset | Scrapy | GCP | AWS | ElasticSearch | CircleCI | NLTK | scikitlearn Business skills developed: Agile development | project management | team leading | recruiting | client liaison | tech support | documentation | technical presentations | consulting Business tools used: Asana | Notion | G Suite | Trello | Slack | Miro . University of Sussex sussex.ac.uk 2012 to 2012 Maths Tutor Brighton, UK During my 1st year at Sussex University I worked as a math tutor with the Widening Participation Team for the university, providing teaching assistance in school math classes of students aged 15/16 years, in 1-to-1 and small groups. Self employed 2008 to 2010 Web Developer Bognor Regis I built small websites for local professionals and sub-contracted to local website design companies. This involved self-taught web technologies (HTML, CSS, PHP, SQL, JavaScript) and undertaking a self-employment course to learn about business, including accounting, marketing and administration. Felpham Community College 2007 to 2008 Learning Support Assistant Bognor Regis As a Learning Support Assistant in the Individual Learning Support department at Felpham secondary school, I helped children with learning/behavioural difficulties to understand and complete the class work. Self employed 2002 to 2004 IT Support / Web Developer Working freelance in computer maintenance and website design; including a long term contract for a website designer, building and maintaining an online shopping site for an electronics retail company. This involved database input, website construction using Dreamweaver and working with a proprietary scripting language for the back-end database. Education University of Sussex, Brighton, UK sussex.ac.uk Sep 2011 to Aug 2014 Bachelor of Science, Physics Activities and Societies: Societies: Ultimate Frisbee (Sussex Mohawks) During the Physics degree I learned advanced mathematics, logical reasoning and solving problems from first principles. I also gained experience in many other areas. The Advanced Physics Laboratory module required practical, cooperative lab work involving careful experiment planning, execution, analysis and report writing. Various modules also developed computing skills for numerical analysis and visualisation of data, working in Python, LabVIEW and MATLAB to automate acquisition, processing and output of experimental readings. Bristol University Sep 2006 to May 2007 MEng, Computer Science During my time at Bristol University I was taught how to program in C, Java and Haskell, and learned good software engineering practices and methods, i.e. planning, documenting, debugging, testing, etc. I also took units in computer architecture, maths for computer science and accounting. I left university at the end of the 1s t year for personal reasons. Chichester College 2004 to 2006 A Levels A Levels: Maths(A) Physics(A) Chemistry(B) AS Further Maths(B) AS Statistics(B) Projects silvereye ! ocds-data-review-tool.readthedocs.io " github.com/spendnetwork/silvereye OCDS Data Review Tool Python, Shell, HTML, SCSS, Sass bluetail " github.com/mysociety/bluetail An alpha project combining beneficial ownership and contracting data Python, Shell, CSS, HTML, TSQL Certificates Bachelor of Science degree in Physics University of Sussex 2014 Develop Software using ‘C++’ Level 3 Chichester College 2009 Distinction Driving Licence Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, UK ● Full, clean driving licence. Languages English Fluent Spanish A2 Interests Music Practice - Drums, percussion, piano, guitar Sports - Tennis, Ultimate Frisbee, Football, Beach Volleyball, Badminton Science - Physics, Astrophysics, Engineering, Space Exploration Flying - Simulators, hope to get paragliding and PPL licences Technology - Robotics, Automation, AI, Machine Learning Music Appreciation - Gigs, festivals, open mic, jams