cv.yaml

---
base:
  name: Ben Lovell
  title: Software Developer
  email: "[ben@lovell.io](mailto:ben@lovell.io)"
  url: "https://ben.lovell.io"
  github: "[socksy](https://github.com/socksy)"
  mastodon: "[@socksy@toot.cat](https://toot.cat/@socksy)"
  summary: Hi, I'm Ben, an experienced Senior Software Engineer with a proven track record of delivering high impact projects, enhancing workflows, and fostering technical expertise in fast paced software development environments.
experience:
  - orgName: Pitch Software GmbH
    position: Senior Software Engineer
    startDate: January 2019
    endDate: January 2024
    location: Berlin, Germany
    intro: >
      Contributed to the development of Pitch's backend and
      frontend systems, working over 4 different product areas
      and ending up specializing in the offline-first sync
      system. Some of the stuff I worked on:
    highlights:
      - >
         introduced a reproducible development environment and
         tooling, improving workflows and productivity across
         engineering team
      - >
         led a cross-team documentation working group, making
         technical onboarding smoother and improving internal
         knowledge sharing
      - >
         took initiative to fix many frontend and backend
         problems, gaining buy-in from leadership
      - >
         designed and implemented improvement's to the the
         core sync system to address data loss and developer
         productivity issues in the offline first
         functionality, working with senior leadership on a
         long-term roadmap
      - >
         mentored junior engineers, guiding them through their
         first feature implementations and fostering technical
         growth
  - orgName: Geeny/Telefonicá Next GmbH
    position: Backend Data Engineer
    startDate: March 2017
    endDate: December 2019
    location: Berlin, Germany
    intro: >
      Hired as part of the full time expansion of the Geeny
      IoT Cloud platform from Telefonicá Next GmbH, in order
      to build a data privacy first IoT solution I've:
    highlights:
      - >
         architected a microservices infrastructure on AWS with
         Docker, Kafka and HTTP/JSON
      - >
         analysed and translated product requirements into
         technical implementations
      - >
         delivered 3 crucial Clojure services under a
         month-long time constraint
      - >
         led the effort to have a 15-repo continuous
         integration and deployment process with GitLab CI/CD,
         reducing the release cycle from weeks to minutes
  - orgName: Red Pineapple Media GmbH
    position: Software Engineer
    startDate: April 2015
    endDate: February 2017
    location: Berlin, Germany
    intro: >
      I was brought on to help the urgent rewrite of the video
      ad delivery system from PHP using a modern Clojure
      stack. Working in teams from 2 to 6 people I've:
    highlights:
      - >
         rewritten business-critical APIs, improving
         performance and reducing hosting infrastructure costs
         by 70%
      - >
         developed the company's Real Time Bidding (RTB)
         bidder, expanding their reach into a multibillion
         dollar market
      - >
         played a key role in system design, partner
         communication, and architecture decisions
  - orgName: lifelife UG
    position: Full Stack Developer
    startDate: November 2014
    endDate: April 2015
    location: Berlin, Germany
    intro: >
      Created a decoupled separate service to interact with
      the main Rails application. Implemented funnel metrics,
      multiple locale support, and more.
  - orgName: Skyscanner Ltd
    position: "Intern at Change the Market (R&D)"
    startDate: June 2013
    endDate: August 2013
    location: Edinburgh, UK
    intro: >
      Built a better R&D frontend interface by writing a small
      DSL & parser (in JavaScript).
  - orgName: University of St Andrews
    position: Research Intern
    startDate: June 2012
    endDate: July 2012
    intro: >
      Created a population simulation tool for demographic and
      graph db testing.
other:
  - orgName: Clojure Berlin Meetup
    position: Co-Organizer
    startDate: October 2016
    location: Berlin, Germany
    endDate: Present
    intro: >
      Part of a small team taking turns to MC, filling in for
      lack of speakers, and keeping our 900 member meetup
      connected
  - orgName: ClojureBridge Berlin
    position: Orga Team Member and Coach
    startDate: Summer 2015
    endDate: Summer 2017
    intro: >
      Conducted outreach, triaged attendee invitations,
      organized catering, etc.
education:
  orgName: University of St Andrews
  location: St Andrews, UK
  startDate: 2010
  endDate: 2014
  result: 2.1 June 2014, BSc (Hons) in Computer Science
  intro: >
      Heavy practical education with subjects including: <br><br> *Data
      Encoding, Artificial Intelligence, Operating Systems,
      Computer Architecture, Knowledge Discovery and
      Datamining, Programming Language Design and
      Implementation (PLDI)*