Nov 2016 – Feb 2019 · 2 yrs 3 mos

Nov 2015 – Nov 2016 · 1 yr

Oct 2014 – Nov 2015 · 1 yr 1 mo

Oct 2013 – Oct 2014 · 1 yr

• The main focus of my work in this role is currently the EU FP7 funded SCAPE project, which consists of organisations from several countries.
• A summary of my work in this role:
• 1. Identifying the requirements, designing and producing well documented open-source software, with unit tests and continuous integration
• 2. Working on the continuous integration of software produced within the SCAPE Project, involving the use of Travis CI and Jenkins
• 3. Responsible for the setup and maintenance of departmental Hadoop cluster and other machines
• 4. Ensuring that fixes/patches and issues are contributed back to upstream projects, for example with OpenJPEG, Apache Tika, Apache PDFBox, Jhove and EpubCheck
• 5. Documenting work carried out, and preservation workflows in the SCAPE Project wiki
• 6. Peer reviewing work within the digital preservation community
• 7. Creating and developing links to other staff and areas within, and external to, the organisation
• 8. Active member of the digital preservation community – via conferences, meetings, social media, blog posts & comments
• 9. Effective line management of contractor and staff; including the beginning and end of staff lifecycle
• 10. Planning and managing work assigned to my staff, in line with strategic priorities
• 11. Proactively leading and coordinating an international team in a SCAPE work package, delivering according to schedule
• 12. Producing and presenting work in a clear manner both internally and externally, including at international conferences (such as iPres 2103)

Oct 2012 – Oct 2013 · 1 yr

• One aspect of my work in this role to date has been working on the SCAPE project, an EU funded project. My involvement has largely been investigating how digital preservation issues can be solved using large scale processing techniques and how to programmatically validate and quality assure the outcomes. Code I developed that uses Hadoop and Taverna to perform large scale image format migrations from TIFF to JP2, with quality assurance, was used as a demonstrator within a presentation during the second year EU review of the SCAPE project. I planned, installed and manage our departmental 29-node Hadoop cluster.
• I energetically contribute to meetings and hackathons, making good links with international partners. I am an active contributor at hackathon for example at one SPRUCE event I was a member of the team that created a PDF/A validation tool. Where applicable I have engaged with open-source projects, contributing bug reports and prototype patches, for example Jhove1, epubcheck and OpenJPEG. I am part of a small team of two that runs functional review/continuous improvement for the SCAPE/OPF projects; this involves using Jenkins and Travis for continuous improvement.
• I have been lead author on a conference paper and co-author on a conference poster. I have contributed towards internal British Library projects, for example the quality assurance of images and defining digital preservation principles.
• I have taken a very pro-active and driven approach to get to know people, to find out what happens within the British Library and other institutions, and to share my skills, expertise and knowledge wherever applicable.
• Having identified a need for communication between developers who are the only developers in their teams I initiated and arrange an internal networking group for developers to facilitate links and to re-use work that has been done. This is a natural synergy with our corporate strategy of “One British Library”.

Dec 2011 – Sep 2012 · 9 mos

May 2008 – Dec 2011 · 3 yrs 7 mos

• I moved to the London office of The Forensic Science Service to change speciality to tachograph route tracing for analogue and digital tachographs. This involved analysis of the speed/time information recorded by the tachograph, to calculate distances between features and to match that with maps to identify the route taken by a vehicle. The training was largely self motivated and I completed it in half the expected time, to a very high standard.
• Analogue tachographs are wax covered discs approximately the size of a CD. They require analysis with specialist microscopes. Digital tachographs look like car radios and require specialist software to extract the required data.
• This position required good problem solving, analysis and communication skills. I had to analyse the tachograph recordings, make detailed written reports and communicate my findings to various stake holders such as officers, barristers, opposing expert witnesses, judges and juries.
• I had to routinely give evidence in court as an expert witness.
• During this time I mentored junior and senior staff in these analytical methods. I also contributed to the validation of scientific methods.
• I was also a casefile reviewer, checking the critical findings and statements of colleagues.

Jul 2006 – May 2008 · 1 yr 10 mos

• JFK Forensics was acquired by The Forensic Science Service and I continued in my previous role, described below. When the company was acquired I made the most of being part of a larger organisation and made lasting links with people throughout the company. I semi-frequently has cause to work in the London office.
• I passed the training courses required by The Forensic Science Service through self motivated learning.

Jun 2002 – Jul 2006 · 4 yrs 1 mo · Warrington, United Kingdom

• In this position my forensic speciality was image analysis. This involved clarifying images/video and comparison of images.
• I interfaced with law enforcement officials, solicitors, barristers and opposing experts. I was an expert witness and had to give evidence in court.