About
Contact Details
Web Developer
steve at steve lacey dot net
- Bristol
- UK
Profile
I'm a web developer specialising in the front and back-end development of highly scalable websites and mobile applications using PHP frameworks and JavaScript.
I have been involved in the web industry for about 9 years and currently work at Wired Media in Bristol. Most of my time is spent on large Symfony 2 builds, stack maintenance with Puppet and leading various new strategies, sometimes you'll find me wireframing and consulting on UX too.
I'm interested in opportunities at web agencies or SaaS providers leading PHP projects whilst learning an additional language such as Node, Ruby or Python, ideally for a mixture of web apps and client builds.
Experience
Senior Developer at Wired Media
Since 2009 I have worked at Bristol-based web development / digital agency Wired Media both on placement as part of my degree and post-grad.
Gaining experience with
- PHP frameworks such as Symfony1&2 for full ecommerce solutions as well as highly scalable bespoke websites and applications, including a high traffic news site, a website for teaching sign language and another for reviewing car dealerships.
- WordPress (and formerly the in-house CMS) for content management, basic ecommerce systems and brochure websites.
- Puppet for automating the provisioning, patching, and configuration of operating system and application components across infrastructure.
- Setup, configuration and management of Linux servers across various stacks including Linode and Rackspace Cloud.
- Integrating various systems with payment gateways including Google, PayPal, Sage and WorldPay.
- Working with numerous REST & SOAP API’s spanning from social media to integrations with till-checkout systems.
Leading strategies including
- Silex & Heroku for lightweight Facebook applications.
- Migration from Subversion to Git for source control.
- An improved deployment strategy using Capistrano.
- Titanium Mobile for iOS and Android development.
Peer Assisted Learning Leader at UWE
During my second year studying at UWE I ran weekly one hour sessions for first year students as part of the Peer Assisted Learning scheme. The sessions covered the basics of frontend development and PHP for database and API interactions.
The sessions I ran received praise from students, staff and peers alike, and through them my confidence was boosted and knowledge solidified.
As part of the scheme I was trained in the subject areas of:
- Body posture & voice training.
- Assertiveness.
- Engaging the audience.
The scheme helped me improve my communication and presentational skills- key ones, that have been useful on a daily basis in my professional career.
For more information check out the PAL website.
Education
University of the West of England
BSc (Hons) Web Design
First-class honours degree (78.5%)
Year 1: 80%, Year 2: 76% & Year 3: 79%.
Toot Hill College
A-Levels
Business (C), IT (D), Physics (E)
AS-Levels
Accounting (E)
Toot Hill School
10 GCSE's
A-C including Maths, English and Science.
Skills
Building cool things in
Client-side technologies and PHP are like second languages to me, as are a variety of frameworks including Symfony1&2.
Have experience using
Maintaining, bug fixing, borrowing from and upgrading.
Hacking with
You'll often find me hacking things together in Ruby and Node.
Wanting to do more
I'm particularly interested in getting more into developing full websites and applications in Ruby, Node and Python, and frameworks like Rails, Sinatra and Django.
People say things like
An inspiration to both his teachers and classmates, Steve gets the web, and the concepts of building applications that make best use of the networked, data-driven aspects of the internet, an asset to any company that he works for. - Dan Dixon
Great to work with - Steve relates well to people, not just technology. - Paul Hulbert
We're proud to have Steve on our scheme as he's shown committment, responsibility and pro-activity. No doubt he'll be an invaluable asset to any organisation. - Fiorella Bettin
Steve's a thoughtful and patient teacher, he provided a fantastic quality of support for students on the course and was always dependable. It's great to see that someone with such a large amount of technical knowledge is so keen to share it with others. - Carl Wood
References
Wired Media
- Wired Media
- 4 Broad Plain
- Bristol
- BS2 0JP
- UK
Peer Assisted Learning
- PAL Office (4E24)
- UWE Frenchay Campus
- Bristol
- BS16 1QY
- UK
BSc (Hons) Web Design
- 3P21
- UWE Frenchay Campus
- Bristol
- BS16 1QY
- UK