Zan Baldwin

Overview

• Modern PHP (7/8) Development
• Software Architecture
• Design Patterns
• Relational Databases
• NoSQL/Graph Data Stores
• Documentation Writing
• API Design & Specification
• Linux System Administration
• Cloud Providers
• Unit & Behavioural Testing
• Containerization
• Automation

Symfony Framework · Composer · MVC · DDD · OOP · SOLID · CQRS · REST · GraphQL · MySQL/Postgres/SQLite · OpenAPI · Doctrine · DBAL · ORM · OAuth · JWT · Elastic · Mongo · Redis · Git · Debian/Ubuntu/Alpine · SystemD · SSL · Let's Encrypt · AWS · Google Cloud · Behat · PHPUnit · Blackfire · SymfonyInsight · Puppeteer · CI/CD · Jenkins · GitLab · GitHub · Travis CI · Docker · Kubernetes · JIRA · AMQP · RabbitMQ · Agile · Infinidash

Accomplishments

• Symfony 5 certified developer
• Technical and keynote speaker for multiple Symfony conferences
• Member and meeting facilitator of the Symfony CARE team and Symfony Diversity Initiative guidance team
• Technical speaker, CfP Selection Committee member, and panelist speaker for Dutch PHP Conference over multiple years
• Code of Conduct Incident Response training
• Certified ScrumMaster, and formal training with GDPR & ISO 27001
• Committee member for Brighton Pride and previously other international festivals

Example Work

• The presentation slides and corresponding example code repository for the first of my two talks at SymfonyCon Amsterdam 2019.
• Source code and documentation for my open-source, IP address abstraction library, darsyn/ip.

Experience

Senior Symfony Developer, WeDevelop

Apeldoorn, Netherlands · 2023—Present
Core Skills: PHP/Symfony · API Design · Documentation, Architecture & Guidelines

Designing and building APIs focused on data aggregation and processing.
Integrating AI into applications, without becoming a slave to it.
I do not have any intention of leaving my employment with WeDevelop.

Senior Software Engineer, Packagist

(Remote) Netherlands · 2022—2023
Core Skills: PHP/Symfony

Maintaining the package repository for the PHP language, building high-quality software supply chain tools that PHP developers around the world rely on. Day-to-day I analyse complex systems, debug customer problems, and maintain, build features and improve functionality of the main product. I work with relational databases, Linux fundamentals, system administration, queueing systems, and the Symfony framework. I also help with infrastructure projects (such as the containerization and orchestration of application deployments), mentoring junior engineers, and sales questions.

Symfony Developer, SmarterQueue

(Remote) Canada → Netherlands · 2020—2022
Core Skills: PHP/Symfony · GraphQL · Social Media · Third-party APIs

Principal backend developer for overhauling a legacy product into a modern, GraphQL-backed application.

• Identified the architectural solutions required for the challenges that arise from rebuilding a legacy application to a modern development stack from scratch.
• Improved both speed and memory performance usage of legacy product up to 50 times via application profiling.
• Maintained a 100% test coverage rate for an entire GraphQL API for both functional and unit tests.

Software Developer, Intergalactic Agency

Vancouver, Canada · 2019—2020
Core Skills: PHP/Symfony · OpenAPI · DevOps · Deployment Strategies

Lead PHP developer for in-house and client projects, both new and legacy, including: BC Liquor, Mental Health Commission Canada, Palo Alto, Eventbase, Sundance Film Festival.

• Increased the resilience of the company assets spread across multiple continents, upgraded internal source control, and added automated upgrades and backups
• Decreased company expenses and increased developer productivity by obsoleting old manual deployment processes, replacing with automated CI/CD and containerized deployment.
• Achieved 100% reliability for high-traffic projects for physical events/conferences using fewer servers, improving Intergalactic's reputation and earning repeat business from clients.
• Minor exposure to Golang and Node.js

Senior Software Developer, CarePlanner Ltd

Bristol, England · 2018—2019
Core Skills: PHP/Symfony · RESTful APIs · SaaS · Data Protection · GDPR

A leading role spearheading a project to build a RESTful API platform from the ground up for a rapidly-growing SaaS provider in the Home Care sector.

• Reduced organization's risk while storing/handling health and medical data of vulnerable individuals by ensuring strict compliance of ISO 27001 & GDPR within the developer teams.
• Consolidated market share for the organization for building APIs that brought two external companies and a local government authority to collaborate with CarePlanner rather than compete.
• Coached a Drupal 7 development team of 3 on Symfony framework from scratch.
• Minor exposure to Golang

Software Engineer, BaseKit Platform

Bristol, England · 2015—2018
Core Skills: PHP/Symfony · B2B · DevOps · Sysadmin · WHMCS · Behat

Worked on the backend of a global B2B site-building SaaS platform and its supporting projects.

• Kept a multi-million line codebase up to date, or rewrote several legacy parts, to transition the application from PHP 5.x to 7
• Ensured that builds could be reliably deployed with confidence by adding significant behavioural test case coverage on top of the existing unit tests within the CI pipeline.
• Streamlined the company's onboarding process for new developers by documenting features, technical specifications and infrastructure requirements.

Lead Technical Developer, Nosco Systems

Pontypridd, Wales · 2012—2015
Core Skills: PHP · Yii · Raspberry Pi · Fintech · Legal & Regulation · Sysadmin · Mentorship

Developer for a cloud-based digital debt and loan management application, and supporting software/hardware.

• Kept the software ahead of constantly changing legal and regulatory changes within the industry
• Handled deployments of software for both cloud-based servers and in-store shop kiosks, with bottom-line accountability for the company's infrastructure
• Led and mentored teams of developers both in-house and remote (Bulgaria), including travelling to provide training
• Performed software demonstrations at conferences for financial sector audiences

Web Developer, nerv Interactive

Cheltenham, England · 2010—2011

Delivered white-label products for clients such as BAE Systems, NHS, Skype, Gossip Consultancy, and Molson Coors.

Drupal Developer, Tigerfish Interactive

Cheltenham, England · 2010

Developed modular-based automated online social-media marketing platform.