| Employment History |
| Feb 2004-Aug 2004 |
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Standard Life (UK Life and Pensions Division) |
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J2EE / XML Developer |
I am currently working for Standard Life Assurance in central Edinburgh.
The UK Life and Pensions group is currently upgrading to the latest
ORIGO XML message standard, in particular the Bonds/Pensions Contract
Enquiry product. This involves:
- Message validation with XML Schemas
- Digital signature verification and trusted third parties
- Integration with back office mainframe systems via MQ using XML
During the first month of this contract I was also responsible for migrating
a number of large J2EE projects from Visual Age to WSAD / CVS, in preparation
for moving to Websphere 5.
This is the fourth ORIGO project I have worked on and this area of
E-Commerce is of particular interest to me (as is ACORD, XBRL, ebXML, etc).
Skills: J2EE on Websphere / WSAD, including: servlets/JSPs, EJBs,
JMS (with MQ Series), XML/XPath/XSLT/XLink, ORIGO Standards, SSL/PKI, JUnit, Ant,
mentoring new Java recruits.
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| Jan 2003 |
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South Lanarkshire Council |
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J2EE / Oracle 9iAS Portal Consultant |
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This was a short term consultancy role where I advised on
J2EE best practices, prototyped/demonstrated Oracle Java portlets and
mentored staff on OC4J, Oracle PDK and JDeveloper.
Skills: Oracle 9iAS/10g, OC4J, Oracle PDK and JDeveloper.
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| Apr 2003-Dec 2003 |
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SPIS, Glasgow |
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Security Cleared J2EE/ XML / XSLT Developer |
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A 3 month contract (extended to 9 months) working on an internal HR application for the
Scottish Police forces (converting a PHP application to J2EE). During this time I have worked on both
the EJB and Web tiers, however I spent most of the time working
on the transformation of XML data using server-side XSLT.
Skills: XML/XML Schema/XPath/XSLT/XMLSpy IDE, XHTML/Javascript/CSS, security, servlets, EJB, PHP/MySQL,
Oracle, JUnit, CVS, Ant, IntelliJ.
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| Feb 2003-Mar 2003 |
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Connecti, Glasgow |
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Java / J2EE Developer |
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A 6 week contract building a Struts web application for Toyota's
European dealerships portal. This involved EJB development using JBoss,
Struts in a Tomcat web container, unit testing with JUnit and third party
integration using Web Services. The work was done using Extreme Programming
and also involved working closely with web designers in order to convert
their HTML into JSPs with Struts custom tags. Skills: Servlets/JSP/Struts,
EJB, JavaMail, JBoss / Tomcat, XML, XSLT, Oracle, JUnit, Ant.
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| Jul 2002-Jan 2003 |
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BUPA, Central London |
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Java / J2EE Developer |
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A 6 month contract where I assumed responsibility for Java
development work at BUPA’s head office. This involved
working closely with Broadvision on BUPA’s Web
Personalisation projects, using the Broadvision
Enterprise Portal version 7. My duties also included
maintenance and further development of the BUPA XML B2B
quotation portal and other Web Services. Skills: all
aspects of Broadvision v7, including Jakarta Struts,
custom tag libraries, servlets/JSPs, XML/XSLT and content
management. Like Abbey National (see below), one of the
main aspects of my role was mentoring and facilitating
technology transfer from the Broadvision consultants to
BUPA employees.
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| Dec 2000-Jun 2002 |
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Abbey National, Glasgow |
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Technical Specialist |
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A 6 month contract (extended to 18 months) as a member of the
Java/Internet Development Support Group, which provides
technical support and shared infrastructure software to Abbey
National’s E-Commerce development teams. During my time there
I was given overall responsibility for XML B2B messaging
(designed and implemented the ANFIS XML B2B router) and wrote
portal software to give third parties access to Abbey
National Pension quotes systems (via XML over SSL). Part of
this work involved evaluating JAXM and SOAP). Also jointly
responsible for the Websphere / Apache servers, source code
configuration management (PVCS / Dimensions) and Visual Age
for Java training/support. In addition to Java I developed
C/C++ Windows software for the Dimensions CM server. A
valuable skill I learned during this time is a very detailed
knowledge of the HTTP protocol, which was used on numerous
occasions to fix/optimise Java servlet code. The most
satisfying aspect of this job was my work involving the Java
Security/Cryptography API, used to create digital signatures
for pension quotes, which is now incorporated into a number
of Abbey National portals.I also worked at Scottish Provident
near the end of this contract, to provide a skills transfer
to new Java trainees when the two companies merged. Skills:
Java (including JSP, servlets, XML (JAXP, JAXM, SOAP), XSLT
processors (including automatic Java code generation from
XML), dynamic PDF generation, JNI, JCE/JCA, interfacing to
IBM CICS/DB2), Websphere Application Server / Visual Age for
Java, CityWire news feeds, PVCS, Dimensions, C/C++, Windows
NT/2000.
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| Aug 2000-Dec 2000 |
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JP Morgan, Glasgow |
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Java / J2EE Developer |
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Part of a team developing a large financial reconciliation
system, using J2EE and 100% XML based. XML documents from
any number of feeds enter the system asynchronously and
are queued for processing in a multi-threaded
reconciliation processor. The entire system was component
based, with each component running in Weblogic and
configured by XML languages. The components communicated
using JMS, ultimately publishing exceptions to an external
workflow system for operators to deal with. Initially I
worked on the gateway to the workflow system, and the
Servlet/JSP user interface (also using XSLT). I then
worked on a component in the heart of the reconciliation
processor, which received individual document comparisons
and made decisions as to whether the reconciliation is
complete. The test/production environment was Unix (HPUX)
and Sybase, with the development done on Windows NT /
ClearCase.
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| Apr 2000-Jul 2000 |
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Andersen Consulting, London |
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Java / J2EE Developer |
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I initially joined an internal Andersen project using the Blue
Martini E-Commerce system with Weblogic, Oracle and XML. This
role also involved mentoring junior staff new to Java and
E-Commerce. After the project ended I transferred to the
Andersen team working with Sony on the Playstation 2 web site,
which involved extending the Dynamo Commerce Server from ATG.
I mainly worked on the order processing system, writing JHTML
templates, Java Beans and Dynamo servlets (using Visual Age
for Java) to process the shopping cart and communicate with
the financial system (SAP) and the fulfilment centre(s).
During this time I consolidated my knowledge of EJBs and
Application servers, and gained expertise in extending
‘out-of-the-box’ E-Commerce systems to meet clients’ unique
requirements.
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| Feb 2000-Mar 2000 |
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Systems & Networks, Glasgow |
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Java/Javascript Developer |
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A 2 month contract which involved the webification of a Lotus
Notes/Domino product for the construction industry. This
demanded both server and client side development: the former
required Java Agents which accessed the Domino databases and
external servers (using FTP Beans). On the client side,
Javascript was used to gather user input from dialog boxes and
communicate with Domino applets. 'Pass-thru' DHTML was also
written to improve usability.
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| Jul 1999-Jan 2000 |
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Scottish Provident, Edinburgh |
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Java Developer |
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A 7 month contract, maintaining and developing a large Internet
E-Commerce system which provides insurance quotations.
The initial 3 months of this contract involved creating an
online computer based training course for Independent Financial
Advisors, providing interactive courses and tests for emerging
insurance markets. The site uses HTML, JavaScript and Cookies
on the client side, with Java servlets on the server side for
accessing/updating the users records (test scores, course
progress and time keeping) held in an Oracle database. Lots of
use was made of JavaScript1.1's image rollover capabilities,
and Audio/Video streaming using the Real Producer, Real Server
and Real Player software from Real Networks. For the remainder
of the contract I was more involved in maintaining the
insurance quote system, which used Java servlets, JDBC and more
recently, XML. The experimental XML quotes system provided a
portal to the legacy quotes engines, parsing XML messages
conforming to the Origo DTD via IBM’s XML parser.Skills gained:
Java Servlets / JSP, XML, Visual Age for Java, Apache Web Server
configuration with SSL, interactive web technology, plug-ins,
cookies, audio/video streaming.
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| May 1999-Jun 1999 |
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Tanning Technology Europe, Surrey |
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Java Developer |
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Java / Swing GUI development (1 month contract), working at
Tanning's European Office in Chertsey, Surrey. Brought in
to develop a traditional front end interface for a new
BSkyB airtime booking system, in order to compare it with
the servlet / DHTML version which was being designed by the
existing team. The system was to be as user-friendly as
possible which meant using the new Java 1.2 drag and drop
functionality, with online help, browser-style book-marking
and user-preferences. This contract also gave me my first
commercial taste of CORBA (Visibroker), which the front-end
used to communicate with the back-end services.
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| Sep 1998-Feb 1999 |
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Tanning Technology Europe, Copenhagen |
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Java Developer |
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A 6 month contract (3 months + 3 months extension), working for
a US consultancy based at Maersk Shipping in Copenhagen, part
of the A P Møller group. Worked on the first release of a
massive software project, developing a Freight booking system
for Maersk Line's container fleet. During this time I worked on
the front-end development (80+ individual screens), which used
a Java/Swing MVC architecture interfacing with a legacy
mainframe system and a large Oracle database. The development
platform was Windows NT, using first Visual Cafe, then
JBuilder 2/3. This phase of the project was delivered on time
despite many technical difficulties and tight deadlines, giving
me invaluable experience in large-scale global software
development/testing, and a head-start in Java swing GUI
development, which was relatively new at the time.
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| Feb 1998-Aug 1998 |
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Scottish Telecom, Glasgow |
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Java / Web Developer |
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A 7 month contract (3 months + 4 months extension), maintenance
and further development of a large in-house CRM application.
The application was 2-tier, with a 'fat-client' digitally
signed Java Applet directly accessing an Oracle database using
JDBC. During the final 3 months of this contract I was seconded into
the web development team to develop Perl scripts for the
intranet web sites. The main skills I gained during this
contract were SQL and JDBC, security, and development/deployment of production
systems in a Windows environment, in particular the JBuilder
IDE and Configuration Management.
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| Aug 1997-Oct 1997 |
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MDIS, Hemel Hempstead |
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Java Developer |
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A 2 month contract (1 month + 1 month extension) which involved
developing JavaBeans for an ambitious Internet project. This
involved emulating PRO IV client software in Java (1.0.2), thus
making it platform-independent and available via the Internet.
Many of the components created are now available in the Java
Swing packages, however back in 1997 these luxuries did not
exist and building them from scratch gave me a great insight
into the fundamentals of GUI design. The latter part of this
work took place in Irvine, near LA.
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| Jul 1994-Jul 1997 |
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Aerospace Engineering Dept, University of Glasgow |
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Senior Technical Programmer |
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A 3 year contract working as a Unix System Administrator/Programmer
for a JISC NTI (New Technology Initiative) project, which aimed to
exploit spare workstation CPU cycles on idle machines for
distributed/parallel processing, particularly Hypersonic
Aerodynamics computations which normally run on large
supercomputers (e.g. Cray T3D). The project chose to use the LSF
load balancing system from Platform Computing, which involved
collaboration with this Toronto-based company. Day to day duties
included Unix system admin, testing and upgrading of LSF, user
support and training.
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| Skills |
| Java |
J2EE:
Servlets / JSP (with Struts and custom tag libraries),
EJB, JDBC, JMS (with MQ Series), JNDI (with LDAP), RMI and JavaMail using
the following application servers: Websphere, Weblogic,
Oracle AS (OC4J), Broadvision, JBoss / Tomcat, ATG Dynamo, Blue Martini
XML:
DOM/SAX parsing using JAXP/Xerces;
DTD validation and XML schemas;
B2B XML messaging using the Origo standard, XML-RPC and SOAP;
XPath/XSLT/XLink;
PDF generation using Apache-FOP;
XML for application configuration.
IDEs:
WSAD, Visual Age for Java, JDeveloper, JBuilder, Forte, Visual Cafe,
Visual J++, XMLSpy
Other development tools:
Ant, JUnit, CVS, Visual Source Safe, PVCS, Toad
J2SE:
GUI development with AWT/Swing;
JNI;
Java Security / Cryptography (including JCE)
|
| Object Oriented Programming / Design |
UML: Rational Rose (since 1998 after attending a week long course
from Rational), Together J, Argo
OOP: Design Patterns, including J2EE Design Patterns
Familiar with CORBA and IIOP.
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| General |
SQL with the following RDBMS: Oracle, DB2, Sybase,MySQL
JavaScript CSS HTML DHTML (hand-coded and using DreamWeaver or FrontPage)
HTTP / HTTPS protocols using the Apache Web Server
C/C++ (in both Windows and Unix environments)
Unix Shell scripting
Perl / PHP Programming with MySQL database
Kernel-level Unix skills: Solaris, Linux, HPUX, AIX, IRIX
Microsoft: Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP
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