Tesco

Role: Software Development Manager

Dates: Jan 2024 - June 2026

I continued on at Tesco, now apprising myself of a Software Development Manager role, responsible for Tesco Tills receipting and printing capabilities, within a distributed edge-computing environment alongside Azure components.

This environment mainly consisted of Java (versions 8 thru 25), Micronaut, and some complex and bespoke libraries written to interface with a range of printer hardware, alongside Shell scripts and Docker components.

I managed five directs (and a couple of dotted lines) across a range of seniority levels, providing both regular and in-depth mentoring, coaching, and giving them a platform to succeed - focussed on leading the team with a style of empathetic, trust-based leadership where change comes from the front.

Since joining the team, I increased the velocity of the team by over 50% YoY through simplification of the team’s workflow, removal of impediments to delivery and trimming out distractions, implementing a simple Kanban approach where ‘less is more’.

Contributed to the governance of a diverse domain of Customer APIs - including leadership of the support domain for over 30 applications and 40 people, and regular engagement with senior stakeholders, including Heads of Engineering and Product, and Directors.

I had additional responsibilities as the Technical lead for the rollout of next generation Tills into ROI, helping co-ordinate the technical work across a large, multi-faceted domain. Additionally worked on commercially-sensitive NDAs directly with external parties and integrations, as well as ~50 unique application teams comprising several hundred engineers, within the Tills space.

I was an Early Careers recruitment principal, focussing on bringing the best talent into Tesco’s graduate and internship schemes.

Key technologies and skills used:

  • Java 8 thru 25
  • Micronaut
  • Shell
  • Docker
  • Annual planning
  • Line management
  • Systems design and architecture

Role: Senior Software Engineer

Dates: Jan 2023 - Jan 2024

I returned to Tesco to pick up a technical lead role within a complex domain responsible for pricing interactions across the Tesco environment.

We provided delivery of modern and legacy applications utilising Java 8, 11 and 17, leveraging the Micronaut framework and Spock for unit and integration testing.

I participated in Tesco-wide recruitment, both from graduate/intern level up to senior engineers and manager, as well as contributing to the overall technology strategy with the Enterprise Architecture team, focusing on Compute workloads, placement and maturity of standards.

Key technologies used:

  • Java 8 thru 17
  • Micronaut
  • Spring Boot
  • Spock
  • Helm
  • Terraform
  • AWS
  • Azure
  • Couchbase
  • CosmosDB
  • Postgres
  • S3 Object Storage

Role: Software Development Engineer

Dates: April 2020 - April 2021

A continuation of my backend-focused developer role working in the Enterprise Search domain - that powered a plethora of abilities to search and ingest product information.

Key technologies used:

  • Java 8, 11
  • Spring Boot
  • Apache Camel
  • Docker
  • AWS
  • Azure
  • Kubernetes
  • Elasticsearch