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Steven Lawton - CV / Resume

Summary

I’m a senior software engineer with over 20 years’ experience building reliable, scalable systems across fintech, retail, publishing, public sector, and Web3. I specialise in backend and platform work, GoLang microservices, modernising legacy systems, and delivering cloud-native infrastructure that works in production. I’ve worked across regulated environments. I’ve delivered in high-trust teams and contributed open-source and internal tooling. My technical background spans hardware and software, and my project work includes:

• Developer experience - CI/CD automation, platform migration, and observability-first design.
• Infrastructure - migrating legacy systems to scalable, containerised microservices.
• Cloud-native engineering - developing microservices deployed to AWS/GCP, Kubernetes, and PaaS platforms.
• Regulatory and compliance - systems aligned with PCI DSS, GDPR, PSD2, and internal audit frameworks.
• Event-driven - RabbitMQ, Kafka, and event-driven systems built for scale and resilience.
• Payments - internal and customer-facing flows across fintech, retail, and embedded environments.
• API design - OpenAPI/AsyncAPI publishing pipelines, mocking, validation, and spec-first development.
• Internal tools and automation - building tools that unblock teams and reduce manual effort.
• AI-assisted engineering - hands-on delivery with Claude Code, plus experience applying LLM-as-judge and human-review approaches for evaluating AI-generated output.

I enjoy solving problems. I’ve learned to balance speed with rigour and pragmatism with long-term thinking. I write code that works, is easy to maintain, and self-documents. Sound engineering is as much about people as it is about the code. I have worked on critical projects where autonomy, clarity, and delivery are crucial. I’m equally comfortable building new systems, refactoring old ones, or mentoring developers. Outside of work, I volunteer as a Scout Leader, which mainly involves mud, camping, and helping kids figure things out the hard way. I’m also heavily involved in jousting in the UK, compete in HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) with longsword, and practice classical dressage.

Skills

Languages:
GoLang, Java, Node.js/TypeScript, PHP, Bash, SQL, HTML/CSS/JS, Scala, Python, Groovy, .NET

Cloud & Infrastructure:
AWS (ECS, Lambda, S3, RDS, IAM, etc), Azure, GCP, Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes (EKS, AKS), Argo CD, VPC design, security groups, cloud-agnostic platform design

Frameworks & Tools:
Spring (Boot), Akka, Scalatra, JSF, Thymeleaf, JPA/Hibernate, Keycloak, Auth0, JWT, Android SDK, Mule ESB, JBoss, WebSphere, Tomcat, Jenkins, TeamCity, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Swagger/OpenAPI, RabbitMQ, AMQP

Databases:
PostgreSQL, MS SQL Server, Aurora, MySQL, Oracle, MongoDB, DynamoDB, Neo4j, Infinispan, H2, SQLite

Testing & DevOps:

• Go: testing, testify, httptest, gomock, coverage tools, custom assertions
• Node.js: Jest, ts-node for testing flows
• Java: JUnit, TestNG, Mockito, integration test harnesses
• Other: CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI), containerisation with Docker, observability stacks (Datadog, NewRelic, Prometheus, Grafana, Kibana), supply-chain tooling (Sonatype, Veracode, golangci-lint)

AI-Assisted Engineering:
Claude Code, LLM-as-judge evaluation frameworks, human-in-the-loop review, prompt design, agentic coding workflows

Other Domains:
Web3, Solidity, Crypto assets, React Native, Flutter/Dart, Android, computer vision (YOLO, MediaPipe, DINOv2), embedded/IoT (ESP32, MQTT), SOA, RESTful/SOAP APIs, ETL, data warehousing, complex SQL, enterprise architecture, legacy modernisation, DevEx tooling

Experience

Civica - Senior Developer

Nov 2025 - Present - Remote - GovTech

• Sole engineer on a greenfield migration of a legacy .NET application to GoLang microservices with a React frontend. Architected the end-to-end migration plan and delivered the full platform foundation against it.
• Designed and implemented the integration layer with the incumbent platform, handling bi-directional data flow in and out.
• Built the stack cloud-agnostic by design, containerised workloads, portable infrastructure, no provider-locked primitives.
• Onboarded the project onto Civica’s internal Kubernetes PaaS, taking it from an empty repo to running in every environment.
• Scaffolded and stood up both the GoLang microservices backend (with PostgreSQL) and the React frontend.
• Built a lightweight identity-mock service that unblocked local development and cross-environment testing while the internal IdP remained in build, letting integrations land against a realistic token flow months ahead of the real one.
• Delivered the full CI/CD and governance toolchain to Civica’s standards: dependency scanning, SAST, linting, OpenAPI spec publishing, IaC, SQL migration pipelines, and build/release/deploy/environment-management workflows.
• Active contributor to Civica’s AI-assisted engineering rollout, with hands-on agentic coding in day-to-day delivery and contributions to internal AI quality and review processes.
• Making surgical modifications to the legacy .NET to expose data and emit events to the Microservices tech stack

Technologies: GoLang, PostgreSQL, React, TypeScript, Docker, Kubernetes, Argo CD, GitHub Actions, Terraform, OIDC, OpenAPI.

SAFE / FRMSc V3 - Senior Platform & Backend Engineer

Aug-Sep 2025 - Remote

• Split a .NET 4/6 + Node 14 monolith (carrying significant technical debt) into service-aligned workloads on AKS with per-service Ingress.
• Upgraded runtimes to .NET 9 and Node 24. Standardised Dockerfiles and images.
• Built reusable GitHub Actions for build/push/deploy with parameterised envs and namespaces.
• Hardened K8s: initContainers for deps, tuned probes, PVC for ASP.NET DataProtection keys.
• Centralised config and security: strict CORS, validated JWT issuers, Redis via secrets and K8s Service.
• Improved observability with structured logging across services & deployed an EKS stack for alerting and monitoring.
• Stabilised CI: Unit and System integration tests.
• Delivered a clean frmscdev workflow for AKS deploys.
• Delivered a clean frmsc instance in a new standalone AKS environment.

Technologies: .NET 9 (ASP.NET Core), C#, Node 24, TypeScript, Docker, AKS (Kubernetes), NGINX Ingress, cert-manager, GitHub Actions, GHCR, Terraform (AzureRM), Azure SQL, Azure Blob Storage, Redis, Keycloak (OIDC/JWT), structured logging, ISO 27001-aligned controls.

Sainsbury’s - Senior Full Stack Developer

Mar 2025 - Jul 2025 - Remote

• Improved developer experience by building robust GitHub Actions and reusable workflows in TypeScript, streamlining Sainsbury’s API onboarding across internal teams.
• Integrated OpenAPI and AsyncAPI specifications into SwaggerHub Design Hub and Portal, streamlining delivery.
• Initiated and led the design of a new backend service for managing SwaggerHub state, authentication, and authorisation within Sainsbury’s internal PaaS (Kubernetes, Helm, GitHub Actions).

Technologies: TypeScript, GitHub Actions, Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, SwaggerHub, OpenAPI, AsyncAPI

Sainsbury’s SmartShop - Senior Full Stack Developer

Nov 2023 - Mar 2025 - Remote

• Migrated legacy PHP services to GoLang microservices, significantly improving app scalability and maintainability.
• Contributed to development and optimisation of Android (Kotlin) and iOS apps using TDD and pair programming practices.
• Reduced memory allocation by 40% on a key endpoint through profiling and optimisation, cutting cloud operational costs.
• Strengthened performance, reliability, and resilience across the SmartShop ecosystem through hands-on backend development.
• Designed backend services and mobile endpoints to resist probing, spoofing, and abuse. Operating under constant exposure to production load testing, malicious actors, and synthetic traffic.
• Implemented defensive coding practices, observability hooks, and secure client/server flows within a heavily scrutinised consumer-facing environment.
• Integrated with GraphQL, REST and gRPC services from other teams, ensuring compatibility and robustness across multiple protocols, while maintaining REST as the primary interface for SmartShop

Technologies: GoLang, Android (Kotlin), iOS, Docker, AWS (ECS), TDD, Pair Programming, REST, gRPC, GraphQL

Ace Web Services Ltd - Development Lead (for Barbourne Brook)

Dec 2023 - Mar 2024 - Remote - Fixed Price Project

• Replaced a fragile, underperforming PHP application with a scalable, event-driven data pipeline built in GoLang.
• Conducted full system/code review, defined a modern architecture, and led delivery of microservices deployed to Kubernetes (EKS) via Terraform.
• Dramatically improved throughput, enabling the client to target larger customers previously blocked by performance limitations.
• Designed for scalability, observability, and future extensibility using cloud-native best practices.

Technologies: GoLang, Docker, AWS, Kubernetes (EKS), Terraform, RabbitMQ, PHP, PaaS, DevOps

Sainsbury’s Groceries Online - Senior Full Stack Developer

Nov 2022 - Nov 2023 - Remote - Contract (3 + 3 + 3 + 3 months)

• Delivered Server-Side Rendering (SSR) features across core grocery applications to boost performance and user experience.
• Built and maintained GoLang microservices for backend features and API integration.
• Streamlined DevOps workflows, integrating Node.js into the backend pipeline and improving delivery across environments.
• Led migration to a new internal Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), leveraging Kubernetes (EKS), Istio, Helm, and observability tools to modernise infrastructure and enhance scalability.
• Applied robust secrets management, environment isolation, and secure deployment practices across Kubernetes and Terraform stacks.
• Hardened microservices and API gateways for multi-team use in a large-scale, multi-tenant environment, with an emphasis on governance, auditability, and resilience.

Technologies: GoLang, Node.js, React, Docker, AWS, Kubernetes (EKS), Terraform, DevOps, Istio, Helm, Kibana

Ace Web Services Ltd - Development Lead

Oct 2022 - Dec 2022 - Remote - Fixed Price Project for whartonbc.co.uk

• Designed and delivered a bespoke self-assessment tool for Wharton Business Consultancy.
• Built a workflow where users enter job role details and answer dynamically generated questions.
• Implemented a scoring system that compares user responses to expected role competencies and suggests training pathways.
• Delivered a full-stack solution using GoLang, React, and PostgreSQL, deployed on AWS with containerisation via K8s

Technologies: GoLang, Docker, AWS, Postgres, React

Baanx Group - Development Lead

Apr 2022 - Aug 2022 - Remote - Fintech

• Led the redesign of Baanx’s core platform to meet scalability, compliance, and regulatory demands (PCI DSS, PSD2, GDPR).
• Rewrote critical product components from Node.js/React into GoLang, improving performance, modularity, and maintainability.
• Introduced containerisation with Docker, and provisioned a scalable AWS ECS environment using Terraform, enabling smooth rollout for new and existing clients.
• Migrated all B2B and B2C customers to the new infrastructure, unlocking onboarding for high-profile fintech partners.
• Architected and initiated phase two: multi-tenant capabilities, security hardening, and Keycloak-based identity and access management.
• Embedded secure secrets management, isolated environments, and zero-downtime migration.
• Supported regulatory alignment through infrastructure modernisation, process redesign, and technical upskilling of internal teams

Technologies: GoLang, Node.js, React, Docker, Terraform, RDS, Keycloak

RS Components - Senior Developer

Sep 2021 - Apr 2022 - Remote - Retail/Engineering

• Delivered a new internal payment service to replace legacy SAP components, ensuring PCI and PSD2 compliance.
• Developed and deployed Java 11 / Spring Boot microservices within RS’s DevOps environment.
• Integrated services with platforms such as Auth0, TokenX, CyberSource, Adflex, and VoxPay.
• Worked across a high-scale cloud environment using AWS, Kubernetes, Nomad, and Terraform.
• Contributed to continuous delivery workflows, leveraging GitLab CI, Datadog for observability, and Kong for API management.

Technologies: Java 11, Spring Boot, Docker, AWS, Kubernetes, Nomad, GitLab, Terraform, DynamoDB, RDS, Datadog, NewRelic, Swagger, Kong, Auth0.

Rayvn.digital / Monavate Ltd - Senior Developer

May 2021 - Sep 2021 - Remote - Fintech / Blockchain

• Helped design and build a multi-vendor marketplace and eCommerce platform using GoLang, Kafka, and Kubernetes.
• Contributed to a closed-loop digital sales and data platform, aligned with ISO 20022 messaging and blockchain integrations
• Took ownership of the company website and core product architecture, collaborating with a distributed team (including Ukraine-based developers)
• Delivered internal tooling and infrastructure, including SharePoint rollout and a Google Workspace to MS365 migration for 30+ employees
• Supported product evolution across Ethereum, Solidity, and decentralised technologies

Technologies: GoLang, Kafka, Java, Kubernetes, Docker, Azure, Linux, GitLab, Ethereum, Solidity, Jekyll

Primis Mortgage Network - Java Developer

Feb 2021 - May 2021 - Remote - Financial Services

• Maintained and extended the Toolbox platform, a key compliance and workflow tool used across the mortgage network.
• Delivered bug fixes and new feature development on a legacy stack, ensuring FCA-compliant behaviour and broker usability.
• Operated within a small, focused dev team, working across Spring Boot, Struts, EJB3, and JSP.
• Contributed to stabilising and incrementally modernising the codebase while supporting live service delivery.

Technologies: Java, Spring Boot, Angular, Struts, EJB3, JSP, IntelliJ, Linux, GitLab

Samsung - Java Developer

Oct 2018 - Feb 2021 - Cambridge (Onsite & Remote) - Mobile / Embedded Systems

• Contributed to automated testing tooling for Android devices, used globally to benchmark RF connectivity and performance.
• Maintained and extended a Java-based orchestration application coordinating test execution across hardware setups.
• Implemented JUnit and integration tests, user-driven enhancements, and critical bug fixes across Java, Bash, and Python layers.
• Ensured seamless interaction between test scripts, Android devices, and a central results processing system

Technologies: Java, Python, Android SDK, Bash, IntelliJ, Linux, Git, Gerrit, JUnit, TestNG, Mockito, Jira, Agile/Scrum

Nokia - Java Developer

May 2018 - Sept 2018 - Cambridge - Video Ad Delivery / Media Streaming

• Built RESTful Spring Boot microservices to serve re-encoded, personalised video ads on-the-fly based on user streaming profiles.
• Developed new functionality in Dockerised backend services, contributing to a scalable content delivery pipeline
• Supported QA by maintaining and extending Python-based simulators used for automated testing
• Delivered unit and integration test coverage using JUnit, Mockito, and TestNG

Technologies: Java 8, Spring Boot, Docker, Spring MVC, Eureka, Zuul, MySQL Cluster, Python, IntelliJ, Git, GitLab, Jira, Linux, Agile/Scrum

RS Components - Java Developer

October 2016 - April 2018 - Corby - Infrastructure Modernisation & eCommerce

• Led upgrade of legacy tech stack to enable a high-pressure data centre migration
• Contributed to multiple follow-on projects, including:
  • Migrating the entire eCommerce site to HTTPS-only.
  • Implementing China-specific regulatory changes for regional compliance.
  • Rewriting the B2B eCommerce solution using Spring Boot microservices in preparation for cloud migration.
• Refactored and containerised legacy servlet-based Java code into modern Docker-based microservices, deployed to physical servers with a view to future cloud migration.

Technologies: Docker, Spring Boot, mongo, Seam, Struts, Oracle, Java, Spring MVC, JBoss, Linux, Apache, JPA/hibernate, Agile/Scrum, RESTful Web Services, SOA continuous build, JUnit, TestNG, Mockito, Jira.

BGL Group - Java Developer

Nov 2015 - Feb 2016 - Peterborough - Insurance & Telematics Integration

• Contributed to the O2 Telematics project as part of a large Agile team.
• Designed and implemented the integration of O2’s SSO system into BGL’s internal services, enabling secure exchange of telematics data with providers and customers.
• Worked across RESTful APIs (O2) and SOAP services (BGL) to bridge legacy and modern systems.
• Delivered work in a high-compliance insurance context, with careful attention to data security and integration reliability.

Technologies: Java, Mule ESB, Tomcat, REST, SOAP, SSO, Git, Jira, Bamboo, Confluence

MoMo Group Ltd - Java/Scala Developer

Jan 2015 - Nov 2015 - Cambridge - Fintech Startup

• Delivered backend services for MoMo Top (global mobile top-up via PayPal) and a new mobile banking application.
• Quickly upskilled in Scala, moving from initial Java work to core feature development using Akka and Scalatra.
• Designed and implemented key product functionality as part of a small Agile team, collaborating closely with senior management on high-priority initiatives.
• Built RESTful APIs and service-oriented components to support mobile-first user experiences in global financial contexts.

Technologies: Scala, Java, Akka, Scalatra, MySQL, MyBatis, T24, Tomcat, Jetty, Nginx, Linux, Jira, Bitbucket, Bamboo, Confluence.

Jagex Ltd - Java Developer / Web Systems Developer

2013 - 2014 - Cambridge - Games / Online Services

• Maintained and extended the Microtransaction (MTX) platform powering in-game and app-based purchases for Jagex titles.
• Delivered both customer-facing applications and critical internal RESTful services, supporting online game infrastructure.
• Contributed to story estimation, task breakdown, and delivery planning within an Agile Scrum team.
• Maintained rigorous automated test suites (unit, integration, regression), ensuring platform reliability across services.
• Built service-oriented backend components and participated in cross-team software-as-a-service (SaaS) integrations.

Technologies: Java, Groovy, Spring MVC, JPA/Hibernate, Postgres, Informix, Neo4j, Infinispan, RabbitMQ, JBoss, Linux, Nginx, Git, Eclipse, Jira, JUnit, TestNG, Mockito.

PCMS - Java Developer

2011 - 2013 - Huntingdon - Retail Software (ePOS)

• Delivered a custom Electronic Point of Sale (ePOS) platform for a Tier 1 Australian retailer, completing the project three months ahead of schedule and under budget - a first for the company.
• Extended the core BeanStore product to meet client-specific requirements across a large retail estate.
• Worked in a newly formed Agile Scrum team, contributing to sprint planning, story breakdown, estimation, and technical delivery.
• Developed features and fixes against customer-defined acceptance criteria, and collaborated with QA and business analysts to ensure quality.
• Supported internal testing teams by providing fixes, guidance, and context on implementation and expected behaviour

Technologies: Java, Spring MVC, Struts, JPA/Hibernate, DB2, Oracle, JBoss, WebSphere, Linux, Mercurial, Eclipse, JUnit, TestNG, Mockito, iText, Maven, Crystal Reports, Jira.

TravelTainment Ltd - Developer

2010 - 2011 - Peterborough - Travel Tech / eCommerce

• Developed and maintained enterprise web applications used by travel agents and tour operators worldwide, built using Java, PHP, and Seam.
• Created and maintained data adaptor services to transform and standardise inbound formats (e.g. flat files, SOAP, REST, custom XML) into internal representations for processing and caching.
• Sole developer for a Spring Web Flow-based product targeting international markets, from initial design to delivery.
• Actively contributed to international Agile teams, collaborating across time zones and disciplines.
• Involved in technical interviewing, assessing candidates and advising management on hiring decisions.

Technologies: Java, PHP, Seam, Spring Web Flow, jQuery, JBoss, JBoss ESB, XSLT, JPA/Hibernate, DB2, Oracle, MySQL, LDAP, Linux, SVN, Maven, JUnit, TestNG, Eclipse, Jira.

Whistlebrook Ltd - Analyst Developer

2004 - 2010 - St Ives, Cambridgeshire - Fintech / Bespoke Software

• Delivered full lifecycle software solutions for high-profile clients including Suzuki GB, TNT, and major UK building societies.
• Hands-on across analysis, estimation, development, testing, documentation, deployment, and 3rd-line support.
• Led technical handovers, authored support documentation, and provided ongoing assistance for legacy systems across financial products
• Acted as on-call escalation contact for business-critical deployments, including on-site visits and direct client liaison.
• Co-founded and maintained internal IT infrastructure, later supporting a dedicated infra team in 3rd-line capacity.
• Provisioned new development environments: virtual machines, OS installs, hardware setup, and complete application stacks.

Technologies: VB.NET, C#, Java, SQL Server, Oracle, legacy MS Access systems, IIS, Windows Server, VMWare, bespoke ETL tools, internal DevOps workflows

Open Source & Personal Projects

stevenlawton.com - Personal Platform & Shop

• Full relaunch of my personal site as a Laravel 12 monolith with Blade, HTMX, Alpine.js, Tailwind, and MySQL, hosted on IONOS shared hosting. A constrained stack to prove that a rich, interactive product experience doesn’t require a heavyweight SPA.
• Built a credits-based monetisation model with Stripe integration, powering a paywalled tools area and a pre-order shop (launched with a HEMA practice card deck).
• Architected the whole thing end-to-end before writing code: sub-projects span Legal & Compliance, Checkout & Payments, User Accounts, Shop, Credit System, and Tools & Generators, with dependency-chained delivery.

Technologies: Laravel 12, PHP, Blade, HTMX, Alpine.js, Tailwind, SQLite, Stripe.

HEMA Scout - Tournament Intelligence Tool

• PHP web tool that scrapes hemascorecard.com and hemaratings.com to build competitive intelligence profiles on HEMA tournament opponents.
• Rules-based analysis engine surfacing fight patterns, strengths, and weaknesses from historical pool data.
• Designed with an isolated API endpoint so a future AI-powered analysis layer can plug in without touching the scraping or scoring cores.
• Used in anger: applied the tool to my own pools before a longsword tournaments to prepare match-by-match.

Technologies: PHP, web scraping, REST API design, rules engine.

Strike Recorder - HEMA Pendulum Impact Measurement

• ESP32-S3 firmware capturing high-frequency impact data: an ADXL375 ±200g accelerometer at 3200 Hz over SPI for the strike spike, and a BNO055 9DOF IMU at 100 Hz over I2C for swing arc and angular velocity.
• Custom-built pendulum target designed to derive peak force, impact duration, energy transfer, and swing dynamics from raw sensor data.
• Dual-core capture loop on the ESP32 writes raw binary to SD card per strike event and broadcasts it over BLE.
• Cross-platform Flutter companion app (strike_recorder) connects to the device over BLE, pulls captured data, and renders force-time curves and swing dynamics live with fl_chart.
• Full firmware → BLE → mobile UI loop end-to-end.

Technologies: ESP32-S3, C++, PlatformIO, ADXL375, BNO055, SPI, I2C, SD card, BLE, Flutter, Dart, fl_chart, sensor fusion.

MS:Inspector - Medieval Manuscript Computer Vision Pipeline

• Computer vision system for searching and classifying objects (arms, armour, clothing, heraldry) in medieval manuscript images.
• Pipeline: YOLOv8 detection → DINOv2 embeddings → UMAP dimensionality reduction → HDBSCAN clustering.
• Go API and PostgreSQL backend, React frontend. Scraper pulls around 20,000 manuscript images from public digitised collections.
• Domain methodology validated, yielding the key insight that object categories are evolutionary spectrums and that geometry is more stable than terminology.

Technologies: GoLang, PostgreSQL, React, YOLOv8, DINOv2, UMAP, HDBSCAN, Python, computer vision.

Heating - Multi-Zone Smart Heating & Cooling Stack

• End-to-end heating/cooling control system for my office: bespoke ESP32 firmware, a Go backend, and a React frontend, glued together with MQTT and Modbus TCP.
• Multiple firmwares working together - a primary ESP32 controller, a temperature-sensor node fleet (DS18B20 over OneWire), a flashed Sonoff smart-switch firmware for relay loads, an IR transmitter for split-AC units, and a Tapo integration for plug-loads.
• Go service handles setpoint logic, state persistence, and audit logging; PID loops drive zone-level control. Designed so individual nodes can be added, replaced, or re-flashed without disturbing the rest of the system.

Technologies: ESP32, C++, Go, React, MQTT, Modbus TCP, PID, DS18B20/OneWire, Sonoff (custom firmware), IR remote control, Tapo, Home Assistant.

DF-1 Gateway - Bringing Legacy Allen-Bradley PLCs onto Ethernet

• Raspberry Pi gateway built around a from-scratch Go implementation of Allen-Bradley’s DF-1 half-duplex serial protocol, turning SLC/PLC-5 controllers that predate Ethernet into network-addressable devices.
• Frame-level handling on the serial side: DLE/STX/ETX framing, CRC-16 validation, transaction sequence tracking, and async request/response correlation over a shared serial port.
• Decodes the full file-type set (N/B/T/C/R/F/S - integers, bits, timers, counters, control, float, status), so reads and writes line up with how the PLC programmer thinks about the controller.
• Practical outcome: legacy industrial hardware that would otherwise need replacing (or expensive vendor gateways) becomes accessible to modern services over Ethernet, without any change to the PLC programs themselves.

Technologies: Go, Raspberry Pi, Linux, RS-232 serial, Allen-Bradley DF-1, binary framing, CRC, industrial protocols, legacy modernisation.

Selected Smaller GitHub Projects

• ip-monitor - Discord bot in Go for monitoring IP changes with pinned-message sync.
• go-telegram-alert - Lightweight Go logger extension that forwards logs to Telegram.
• GPT-Whisper-captions - Subtitle generator using Whisper and Go, producing embedded captions from transcribed video audio.
• xlsReader - Go library for reading legacy .xls Excel files. Maintained fork with improvements and usage documentation.
• SliceWize (Private) - Self-hosted task/project management system with an MCP server, used daily for planning my own work.
• ace-loto-backend / ace-loto-pwa (Private) GoLang + TypeScript stack for a Lock-Out Tag-Out (LOTO) management PWA with QR-based check-in, audit logs, and API validation.

Additional private projects span DevOps, eCommerce, API design, computer vision, and developer tooling - frequently built using Go, Docker, Kubernetes, and TypeScript.

Transferability:
Experience gained in fintech, retail, public sector, and e-commerce is highly transferable to SaaS, infrastructure, Web3, and regulated industries. Comfortable working across domains where performance, security, and team agility are key.

Why Me?

I’m the person teams turn to when something’s complex, messy, or stuck. Whether refactoring a legacy system, launching a new service, or developing internal tooling, I focus on leaving systems clearer, teams faster, and outcomes stronger. Trusted to work independently or lead delivery when it matters, I’ve built a career on pragmatism, depth, and delivering results.

Contact

• Email: stevenlawton@gmail.com
• Phone: +44 (0)7944 722392
• GitHub: github.com/stevenlawton
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/steven-lawton
• Website: stevenlawton.com
• Company: acewebservices.co.uk
• Location: Cambridgeshire, UK (Remote-friendly)