Ralph Wynne Jones

Address: London, UK
Tel: Available upon request
Email: RalphJones@totalchange.com
Web: https://www.totalchange.com/ralph/

Expert software engineer, architect, and leader experienced in designing and building highly scalable web and data software products. Experienced in a broad range of programming languages and frameworks including Java, JavaScript, Scala, Kotlin, Spring, Spark, REST, gRPC, etc. Comfortable with a variety of infrastructures and tooling including AWS, on-premises, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Chef, etc. Used to navigating a large, complex organisation following Agile processes.

Professional Experience

Principal Software Engineer at Expedia Group, London May 2013 to present

Cross-organisational, multi-disciplined software engineer and architect within Expedia Group's Platform Architecture team reporting to Expedia Group's Chief Architect, driving transformational change across the 7,500+ strong global technology community.

Presently focused on delivery of Expedia Group's API First strategy bringing a consistent API experience for internal developers and external partners, including B2D (Business to Developer).

Defined Expedia Group's security standards & guidelines adopting a zero-trust approach, federating multiple internal and external identity providers into a single consistent authentication service, building workload-to-workload authentication and authorisation into infrastructure.

Developed a multivariate A/B testing platform that allows Expedia Group to run over 1000 tests a year generating a conversion increase of 19 basis points.

Developed clickstream tooling and data pipeline capturing over 20,000 events per second and producing a critical database in Expedia Group's data lake. Engineering teams leverage self-service tools to capture their events whilst analysts use the data to support product development.

Senior engineering manager. Prior to my current role as an Individual Contributor I managed a team of 15 engineers and technical product managers spread globally in the US, London, Hungary and India.

Key architect within Expedia Group's data platform, focused on streaming infrastructure, aiming to converge and bring a consistent experience to over 10 pre-existing platforms across both cloud and on-premises.

Regular presenter to small, medium and large (1500+) audiences.

Travelling, Worldwide Apr. 2012 to May 2013

A career break exploring Europe in a campervan and backpacking in Morocco and South America. Along the way I learnt best practices for Spring, GWT, JPA and JMS in an all requests online radio project where broadcasts coincide with the end of the working week.

Production Manager at GOSS Interactive, Plymouth Jan. 2004 to Apr. 2012

Led a multi-disciplined department made up of Project Managers, Software Developers, Front End Web Developers, Graphic Designers and Testers. Together we designed, developed and delivered high-profile, enterprise-scale web applications in Java, ASP.NET and ColdFusion, frequently underpinned by GOSS’s Content Management System, iCM.

Managed the diverse requirements of over 80 public and private sector clients. Delivered numerous award winning solutions and instrumental in a client achieving a saving of £7,000,000 by channel shifting 75% of bookings online.

Introduced Agile working practises enabling delivery of cutting-edge applications and ensuring competitiveness for GOSS’s clients. Designed and implemented complex high demand, highly available, load balanced network infrastructures. Developed for and deployed to Windows, Linux and Solaris based installations.

Software Engineer at Richfords Fire & Flood, Redruth Oct. 2001 to Jan. 2004

Employed on a Teaching Company Scheme (renamed Knowledge Transfer Partnerships) with the University of Plymouth to update the Company's legacy MS-DOS/Paradox based software to a modern Windows client/server application.

Desktop application development using Delphi, server-side development using J2EE 1.4 and mobile development using Annoto digital pen technology.

Web Developer at Tell Communications, Plymouth Jun. 1999 to Sep. 2000

Sandwich year of BSc (hons). Designing and developing dynamic web applications using classic ASP with VBScript.

Voluntary Experience

Volunteer at Doctors of the World UK, London Sept. 2013 to present

Installing, configuring and maintaining a cloud (AWS) deployed CRM solution to digitise visitors interactions with the East London clinic.

Referral Panel Chair at Youth Offending Team, Plymouth Feb. 2009 to Apr. 2012

Volunteer chair of referral panels for the Plymouth branch of the Youth Offending Service. Referral orders are a form of restorative justice issued by the court for first time offenders aged 17 and under. Panel members represent the community and draw up a contract to which the young person must comply or return to court to face sentencing.

Personal Experience

DiscoDJ https://github.com/KolonelKustard/discodj

Developed for my wedding, DiscoDJ allows the audience to request their choice of song to the playlist. Importantly the source playlist only contained the music my wife and I wanted to dance to. It is designed to work offline in a barn in the middle of nowhere.

Education/Qualifications

Oracle Certified Master, Java SE6 Developer (OCMJD) Sep. 2012

Oracle Java SE Performance Tuning Course Sep. 2012

Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) Jan. 2002

University of Plymouth Sep. 1997 to Jun. 2001

BSc (hons) MediaLab Arts, 1st class honours

Interests

I try and keep fit and enjoy heading off for day cycles at weekends. Quiet time usually consists of reading the paper or a good book, watching a good film or playing the piano. I'll usually have some little project on the go.

References

Available upon request.