Kieran Topping

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employment

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Profile

Extremely competent and versatile analyst, developer, and technical architect with ten years experience in many IT sectors.

A team leader, well versed in widely-used web technologies and standard IT methodologies.

Particular expertise in:

Oracle - Analysis, schema design, development, performance-tuning, dba.
Java - Webapp design/development, multi-threaded applications, performance analysis/tuning, Lucene search engine.

[further expertise]

Very confident working in high-performance web delivery environments.

Diligent, innovative, and highly skilled.

Skills and Experience

Web/Internet: Eight years developing and maintaining websites, ranging from small static sites to large, high-performance, dynamic websites (some delivering over 2 million pages per day). Main areas of expertise:

	Java webapps	XML & XSLT
	Lucene (search engine)	Javascript / AJAX / REST / Rhino
	Oracle databases (see below)	PHP, JSP & Perl

Databases: Nine years Oracle experience, much of it at DBA level. Very competent in following areas:

	SQL, PL/SQL	Schema design / DDL
	Performance tuning	JDBC, Perl DBI
	Backup / recovery policy	mySQL

Systems: Seven years UNIX & LINUX experience. Skilled in the following areas (among others):

	Scripting (bash & perl)	Backup / recovery
	Performance monitoring	Security (OS & application)

Other: Over the past ten years, I have also used the following - each for at least three years:

C, C++, Apache & Tomcat webservers, Tcl, Vignette Storyserver, Pro*C

Other Operating systems: Good Windows (95-XP) knowledge.
Graphics: Good working knowledge of various industry-standard graphics packages.

Employment History

Kitsite Ltd

http://www.kitsite.com/

41 Clink St Studios, London. SE1 9DG. (020) 7378 6655
February 2002 - present
Job Title: Director / Technical Architect.
Company size: Six permanent employees.
Nature of business: Hosted webapps for large, content-rich websites (including The BBC, Guardian Media Group, The Community Fund & Mercury Interactive).
Main duties: Technical architecture. Oracle DBA. Product development. Line management. Project management. Strategy.
Chief technologies: Java, Lucene, Tomcat, Apache webserver, Oracle, PL/SQL, XML, XSLT, Perl.

Guardian Newspapers Ltd

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Guardian Unlimited, 3-7 Ray St, London. EC1R 3ER. (020) 7278 2332
February 1999 - February 2002
Job Title: Senior Developer
Nature of business: Publishing Guardian Unlimited's content-rich news, sport and current affairs websites.
Main duties: Technical architecture. Web systems design and implementation (including an in-house CMS application). Oracle database design and implementation. Team management and recruitment.
Chief technologies: Apache, Zeus, QAS, Verity, Vignette Storyserver, Tcl, Oracle SQL & PL/SQL, Perl, XML, HTML, Javascript.

Interlink Ltd (bought by CR2)

http://www.cr2.com/

September 1997 - January 1999
Job Title: Senior Oracle Analyst Programmer.
Nature of business: Development of credit card management systems for banking and retail sectors.
Main duties: Designing/developing financial transaction software for Oracle, Windows and Unix platforms. Team leading and training.
Chief technologies: C, C++, Pro*C, SQL, PL/SQL, MFC.

Digital Audio Research Ltd.

http://www.dar.uk.com/

August 1995 - September 1997
Job Title: Analyst Programmer
Main duties: Designing/developing multi-platform real-time audio software. Field installation.
Chief technologies: C, C++, PL/M, MFC

Main Projects and Responsibilities

At Kitsite, I am responsible for the following:

Technical architecture and product development during all stages:
- Product strategy.
- Requirement-gathering & prioritising.
- Database schema design & implementation.
- Java & PL/SQL coding.
- Performance tuning.
Oracle 9i/10g database administration (production and development servers).
Client support, including bespoke development and bug reporting/fixing.
Project/account management.
All search engine requirements (including a bespoke hosted search application, based on Lucene).
Sysadmin (Linux/Unix), including OS/application installation, network setup/administration, security, backups, trouble-shooting.

In 2004, Kitsite was responsible for relaunching Guardian Unlimited's award winning jobs website. I was responsible for the design and implementation of the search engine functionality. Through a mixture of good technology choice (Java, Tomcat, Lucene), efficient coding, caching, tuning, and horizontal scalability, our design was robust enough to easily handle over 2 million hits per day.

At Guardian Unlimited, as a Senior Developer I reported directly to the Chief Technical Officer. I was responsible for the following:

Technical architecture strategy and implementation.
Developing and overseeing a wide range of applications for a website delivering over 2 million page impressions per day, including an integrated CMS for an internal staff of 160.
Programming in a number of languages, both individually, and as the leader of a team.
Developing feed management and content syndication systems. Migration to other platforms and providers (eg WML/WAP, PDA, Cable & Wireless, Altavista, Yahoo).
Developing and overseeing unit tests for a multi-million pound system re-architecture.
Prioritising technical resource to ensure that the (often conflicting) requirements of the commercial, editorial, and production teams were met.
Management of full project lifecycle, including dealing with external suppliers and clients.
Line management, recruitment and staff training.

At Interlink, as a Senior Oracle Analyst Programmer, I had the following responsibilities:

Developing key modules to carry out online transaction processing, interest calculation and statement production for a credit card management system. Analysis/coding in C, PL/SQL, Oracle Reports.
Implementation of an encryption module for the online transaction system, including a software encryptor and a number of serial and TCP/IP drivers for hardware encryptors.
Developing add-ins for MS DevStudio. In particular, a module to integrate compiling and debugging of Oracle PL/SQL packages within DevStudio's IDE.
Writing C, PL/SQL and Oracle programming guidelines, plus a set of Oracle aptitude tests.
Extensive beta-testing.

At Digital Audio Resarch, as an Analyst Programmer, I was responsible for the following:

Developing a number of new modules for a hard disk-based real-time audio editing system. Programming in C and C++, on Windows 95, DOS, and iRMX.
Extensive liaison with an International client base.

Education and Training

1992-1995	University of Nottingham Mathematics Honours Degree
1990-1992 A-levels:	Alton College, Alton, Hampshire. Maths, Physics, Economics, Further Maths - AABB
	Training & short courses
1997-present	DataTrain UK 2-day Oracle performance-tuning course. 3-day course: Oracle Reports, and other Oracle builder applications. 5-day SQL and PL/SQL course.
	Oracle (Ireland) 1-day Oracle security course.
	Trade shows/conferences
1997-present	Various trade shows, including:
	WWW9 Conference, Amsterdam.
	FOWA (Future of Web Apps), London.

Other Achievements and Interests

I have coached mathematics to A-level standard.
I am a competent musician and played in a semi-professional band for many years.
I play a number of sports to an enjoyable standard.