Christopher L J Thomson
Phone: +1 (514) 360-6981
Email: chris@beaksoft.com
Business Focused, Software Development Team Lead with a demonstrated history of leading successful projects using modern agile methodology and tools.
PROFICIENCIES
- Extensive development experience with Java and Microsoft .Net in a full stack capacity
- Competent with all major desktop and server environments; Windows, macOS, Linux (Redhat, Debian, Ubuntu)
- Specialist in implementation of Agile methodology with Team Foundation Server/Azure DevOps Server, Jenkins, SCM, CI/CD
- Scrum.org Scrum Master (PSM1); ITIL Certificate in Service Management (ITIL 4)
EDUCATION
1999 – 2003 University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland
- Bachelor of Science with Honors (2.1) in Computing Science
1993 – 1999 Dunoon Grammar School, Dunoon, Scotland
- High School with Honors
WORK EXPERIENCE
2018 – Present, Software Development Team Lead, GS1 Canada, Toronto, Canada
Lead the organization’s migration from Team Foundation Server to Azure DevOps Server 2019 and facilitated the adoption of Azure DevOps as our primary tool for Agile Project Management and Development
- Piloted a proof of concept project and roadmap for moving our existing services into a serverless environment on IBM Cloud utilizing Docker, Kubernetes and Azure DevOps Pipelines
- Lead the implementation of a mobile front-end to the organization’s Single Sign-On portal
- Lead the development of the Machine-2-Machine project for flowing and mapping data from the Global Data Synchronization Network to a data verification web application and subsequent flow to our partners at Nielsen Brandbank
- Managed Software Development teams using Agile methodologies to ensure successful sprint planning and delivery
- Mentored team members, providing guidance to develop their technical abilities and understanding of the business
2017 – 2018, Senior Software Developer, GS1 Canada, Toronto, Canada
- Lead developer on the organization’s internal J2EE Single Sign-On application, responsible for ongoing feature implementation and support while working closely with our partner MicroFocus to integrate with their service offerings
- Developed a generic Spring Batch based mapping tool allowing the XML specification of mapping rules between different data providers/consumers which become the organization’s standard data mapping process
- Educated and guided junior developers on the implementation of data mapping processes using my custom tool
- Worked closely with QA and UAT testing teams to ensure rapid delivery of bug fixes
2014 – 2017, Career Break, Indonesia/Thailand
- After a decade in the technology industry I moved to South East Asia to fulfil a lifelong dream
- Studied to become a SCUBA Diving Instructor and went on to teach hundreds of students to safely SCUBA dive
- Managed a dive shop and hostel where I successfully; built an on-line presence for the business, significantly increased hostel bookings and occupancy, created a successful retail business, developed the business’s property including the building of swimming pool specifically for teaching diving courses
2009 – 2014, Software Developer, GS1 Canada, Toronto, Canada
Designed and developed several key back and front end components of the organization’s online retailer/item management application using C#/Asp.NET
- Created a CI/CD environment using Team Foundation Server aid code quality and automatically perform deployments/releases.
- Responsible for maintaining and customizing demonstration environments of organization’s applications used for customer facing sales presentations.
2008 – 2009 Software Developer, Ministry of Defence, Reading, England
Developed and maintained a web-based application responsible for allowing the look up and update of Ministry of Defence personnel information stored in Microsoft ADAM, whilst handling all security concerns of the customer
- Designed and implemented various small tools required to transfer data from legacy systems into Microsoft ADAM via Microsoft MIIS/ILM
- Provided customer demonstrations of products developed by myself and my team, handling objections and managing feedback to create a solution that is further tailored to the customer’s needs
- Implementation of continuous build integration, using Cruisecontrol.net and later migrating the project to Microsoft Team Foundation Server
2006 – 2008 Software Developer, Vodafone Migration Program, Newbury, England
Conducted customer facing “initial discovery interviews” with technical owners of services to be migrated and any dependant services
- Designed and developed tools to facilitate migration of data from legacy databases/applications to target database/application or to provide access to historic data
- Managing cut over of services including early life support of new service and overseeing decommissioning of old service
2005-2006 Software Developer, Automobile Association, Bracknell, England
- Set up and maintained development infrastructure including; CVS Source Control, CruiseControl Continuous Integration and Mantis Bug Tracker
- Ongoing maintenance and development of data access layer
- Implementation of user interface screens using Java Swing
HOBBIES & INTERESTS
- I love SCUBA diving and spent time in Indonesia and Thailand training to become an Open Water Diving Instructor. I have certified many new divers and also taught specialty courses
- I’m incredibly passionate about technology and endeavour to stay ahead of the bleeding edge by experimenting with the latest tools