Freelance web/software developer, technical consultant, dev team manager and database whizz
London, United Kingdom
- Past
-
- Head of Engineering at Trampoline Systems
- Senior Technical Developer at Headshift
- Application Developer at Orange UK Plc
- Applications Developer at Freeserve/Wanadoo
- Application Developer at Wanadoo UK (prev. Freeserve.com)
- Senior Web Developer at Rocom
- Senior Developer at Sapphire Technologies
- Education
-
- University of Durham (Van Mildert College)
- Headlands School, Bridlington
- Recommended
-
6 people have recommended Alistair - Connections
-
122
connections
- Industry
- Internet
- Websites
Alistair Davidson’s Summary
14 yrs experience of systems design and development in a wide variety of languages and environments, focussed on large-scale web systems, social software, language processing, network analytics and data mining / machine learning.
Alistair Davidson’s Specialties:
Enterprise class web system architecture & development in Ruby, Rails, Coldfusion MX, Java, SQL, C/C++, XHTML, Javascript & CSS, to team leader / senior management level. Special interest in social software, natural language processing, database design & optimisation (esp. MySQL, SQL Server), dev team processes, methodologies and recruitment.
Alistair Davidson’s Experience
-
Head of Engineering
Trampoline Systems
(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)
July 2006 — November 2009 (3 years 5 months)
Responsible for directing, managing, planning and scheduling of all technical engineering work, across development, design, architecture, infrastructure and support. Recruitment and line management of 10 engineers on multiple products, managing releases and enterprise roll-outs of our software and providing pre-sales consultancy and post-sales support to clients. Overseeing internal infrastructure and support. Serving as part of management team, feeding into product and company strategy. Acting as the primary interface between engineering and other areas of the business, and liaising with clients, partners and prospects.
-
Senior Technical Developer
Headshift
(Privately Held; Internet industry)
April 2004 — June 2006 (2 years 3 months)
Led the design and implementation of several award-winning web-based social software applications across the public and private sectors, from initial client pitches and specifications through to full roll-outs. Led a multi-disciplinary team of developers and introduced development processes and standards. Pitched successfully to the BBC Innovation Labs, one of only ten out of seventy-plus teams to ultimately win a commission.
-
Application Developer
Orange UK Plc
(Internet industry)
2001 — 2004 (3 years )
(as for Freeserve/Wanadoo)
-
Applications Developer
Freeserve/Wanadoo
(Public Company; Internet industry)
September 2001 — April 2004 (2 years 8 months)
Worked on Smartgroups.com, one of the first-generation international web-based social groups/communities applications, with several million users, processing fifty million emails per month. Redeveloped the calendar system for full localisation across arbitrary time zones. Designed the web services API and re-architected the system to introduce it. Developed a secure admin interface to provide granular roles-based permission-controlled tools for moderation and system maintenance. Developed data-mining tools to pre-emptively detect suspicious activity, preserve evidence and alert administrators.
-
Application Developer
Wanadoo UK (prev. Freeserve.com)
(Internet industry)
2001 — 2004 (3 years )
(as for Freeserve/Wanadoo)
-
Senior Web Developer
Rocom
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Telecommunications industry)
April 2000 — September 2001 (1 year 6 months)
Managed and trained a team of top-class developers to create the Rocom X / Data Exchange project, an industry-wide system aimed at automating and managing the whole supply chain from manufacters and distributer to resellers and the end user.
-
Senior Developer
Sapphire Technologies
(Public Company; 11-50 employees; Computer & Network Security industry)
July 1996 — April 2000 (3 years 10 months)
Began my career as a back-office systems developer for a large manufacturing and servicing company, the IT department of which became Sapphire Technologies, a leading IT security firm. Was made Senior Developer then later took over as web developer, developing secure web solutions for diverse clients in industries from defence to football and sports betting.
Alistair Davidson’s Education
-
University of Durham (Van Mildert College)
BSc. hons 2:1 , Physics (specialising in Astrophysics) , September 1993 — June 1996
- Activities and Societies:
- guitar,bass,comedy,duck revue,durham revue,purple fm,acting,sketchwriting
-
Headlands School, Bridlington
A levels: 3As 1B , Physics, Chemistry, Maths, General Studies , September 1985 — June 1993
- Activities and Societies:
- football,cricket,athletics,cross-country running,guitar,bass,singing,songwriting,acting,writing
Additional Information
Alistair Davidson’s Websites:
Alistair Davidson’s Interests:
guitar, bass, Aikido, scuba diving, skydiving, climbing, football, mountaineering.
Alistair Davidson’s Honors:
IDC Top 10 Innovative Application Software Companies Under $100 Million to
Watch (2009)
Red Herring Global 100 (2009)
CRM Rising Star (2008)
Gartner Cool Vendor (2008)
Oracle Partner Innovation Award 2007
BBC Innovation Labs London Winner (2006)
Prospect Magazine Best Thinktank website 2006 - (Demos)
Online Information Industry Awards, 2005 - Innovation in Knowledge Management (NIMHE KC)
Alistair Davidson’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
