Robert Woods
London,UK
Summary
Full stack software engineer with over eight years of experience in developing large-scale e-commerce platforms and cloud-native services. Proficient in TypeScript, React, .NET, and Node.js, with a strong focus on the complete software development lifecycle. Successfully delivered customer-facing applications and backend services for major UK retailers, ensuring high-quality production support. Demonstrated ability to lead feature development from concept to production while collaborating effectively in agile teams.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
Work history
Web Engineer
Sports Direct / Frasers Group
Shirebrook, Derbyshire
2023.11 - Current
- Develop full-stack solutions across 41 retail brands, delivering frontend features, backend services and APIs supporting high-volume e-commerce platforms.
- Design, implement and maintain integrations with third-party platforms including Epsilon, Segment, Algolia, Optimizely, Amplience CMS and Zitcha.
- Designed and delivered the Brand Stores platform, implementing routing, controllers, feature flags, configuration, Redis caching, automated testing and deployment for a customer-facing retail experience.
- Designed and built a cloud-native error processing platform from the ground up, processing multi-gigabyte datasets (up to 4GB per file) containing millions of records every 30 minutes through scheduled ingestion from GCP Storage.
- Implemented intelligent error grouping, Splunk integration, production alerting and performance optimisations to improve diagnosis of large-scale data processing failures.
- Implemented Redis-backed CMS services, GraphQL enhancements, preview functionality and observability improvements using Honeycomb.
- Developed and maintained automated end-to-end testing using Cypress and GitHub Actions.
- Investigated and resolved production issues across customer-facing applications, APIs and backend services.
- Contributed to Kubernetes deployments, Docker containerisation, Terraform infrastructure and CI/CD improvements.
- Participated in sprint planning, backlog refinement, technical estimation, code reviews and production deployments within a four-engineer development team.
- Regularly owned the delivery of features from technical design through implementation, testing and production release.
Full Stack Developer
Mountain Warehouse
London, England
2021.08 - 2023.11
- Developed customer-facing functionality for a high-traffic e-commerce platform using React, TypeScript and .NET.
- Delivered frontend and backend features across the customer purchasing journey, with a particular focus on the checkout experience.
- Implemented BLIK as a payment method within the existing Stripe integration, extending the checkout flow to support the Polish payment system.
- Led the migration from Webpack to Vite, optimising the build pipeline and bundling strategy to reduce local build times from approximately five minutes to under one minute, significantly improving the developer experience.
- Developed and maintained REST APIs and backend services supporting e-commerce functionality.
- Collaborated closely with Product Owners, QA engineers and developers to deliver features through Agile sprints using GitHub-based workflows.
- Mentored three Year in Industry (YINI) students, providing technical guidance, code reviews and day-to-day support throughout their placements.
- Led a team of three during the YINI hackathon, collaborating with twelve Year in Industry students to design, build and present a working solution.
Web Developer
TCPL
, London
2018.05 - 2021.06
- Developed and maintained enterprise e-commerce websites for agency clients, including River Island, as part of a small development team.
- Built customer-facing applications using ASP.NET MVC, Angular and JavaScript.
- Developed a bulk-edit feature for the CMS using Angular and AWS Lambda, significantly improving merchandising productivity.
- Implemented functionality allowing merchandisers to sort products by profit margin, improving search results and supporting commercial objectives.
- Created a PowerShell tool to restore production data into test environments, reducing developer dependency and improving QA efficiency.
- Delivered new features, client enhancements and production fixes across multiple concurrent client projects.
Software Development Engineer
KnowCo Ltd
2016.08 - 2018.05
- Developed a greenfield credit risk reporting solution, acting as the primary GUI developer and contributing to new client acquisition.
- Produced a proof of concept for modernising the company's flagship software from C++ to .NET Core and C#, improving scalability, security and maintainability.
- Contributed to the ongoing modernisation of internal software and engineering practices.
Apprentice Software Development Engineer
KnowCo Ltd
2015.08 - 2016.08
- Supported the migration to modern source control, issue tracking and continuous integration.
- Developed a PHP-based user management system for the company website.
- Contributed to an automated credit risk reporting solution for one of Europe's largest Islamic banks.
- Gained commercial experience across the full software development lifecycle while working alongside senior engineers.
Education
NVQ Level 3 - Software Engineering
QA Ltd
LondonAS Levels - Computing, Mathematics, Classics & Science
Reigate College
Skills
TypeScript
JavaScript
C#
NET
Nodejs
React
Nextjs
Angular
ASPNET MVC
REST APIs
GraphQL
SQL
Redis
AWS
Docker
Kubernetes
Terraform
GitHub Actions
GitHub
Git
CI/CD
Honeycomb
Splunk
Cypress
GCP Storage
Affiliations
- Bassist in touring band
- Cars
- Electronics
Timeline
Web Engineer
Sports Direct / Frasers Group
2023.11 - Current
Full Stack Developer
Mountain Warehouse
2021.08 - 2023.11
Web Developer
TCPL
2018.05 - 2021.06
Software Development Engineer
KnowCo Ltd
2016.08 - 2018.05
Apprentice Software Development Engineer
KnowCo Ltd
2015.08 - 2016.08
NVQ Level 3 - Software Engineering
QA Ltd
AS Levels - Computing, Mathematics, Classics & Science
Reigate College