Software Developer
- email: ben@lovell.io
- website: https://ben.lovell.io
- github: socksy
- mastodon: @socksy@toot.cat
Experience
Pitch Software GmbH
Senior Software EngineerBerlin, Germany
January 2019 – January 2024
Contributed to the development of Pitch's backend and frontend systems, working over 4 different product areas and ending up specializing in the offline-first sync system. Some of the stuff I worked on:
- introduced a reproducible development environment and tooling, improving workflows and productivity across engineering team
- led a cross-team documentation working group, making technical onboarding smoother and improving internal knowledge sharing
- took initiative to fix many frontend and backend problems, gaining buy-in from leadership
- designed and implemented improvement's to the the core sync system to address data loss and developer productivity issues in the offline first functionality, working with senior leadership on a long-term roadmap
- mentored junior engineers, guiding them through their first feature implementations and fostering technical growth
Geeny/Telefonicá Next GmbH
Backend Data EngineerBerlin, Germany
March 2017 – December 2019
Hired as part of the full time expansion of the Geeny IoT Cloud platform from Telefonicá Next GmbH, in order to build a data privacy first IoT solution I've:
- architected a microservices infrastructure on AWS with Docker, Kafka and HTTP/JSON
- analysed and translated product requirements into technical implementations
- delivered 3 crucial Clojure services under a month-long time constraint
- led the effort to have a 15-repo continuous integration and deployment process with GitLab CI/CD, reducing the release cycle from weeks to minutes
Red Pineapple Media GmbH
Software EngineerBerlin, Germany
April 2015 – February 2017
I was brought on to help the urgent rewrite of the video ad delivery system from PHP using a modern Clojure stack. Working in teams from 2 to 6 people I've:
- rewritten business-critical APIs, improving performance and reducing hosting infrastructure costs by 70%
- developed the company's Real Time Bidding (RTB) bidder, expanding their reach into a multibillion dollar market
- played a key role in system design, partner communication, and architecture decisions
lifelife UG
Full Stack DeveloperBerlin, Germany
November 2014 – April 2015
Created a decoupled separate service to interact with the main Rails application. Implemented funnel metrics, multiple locale support, and more.
Skyscanner Ltd
Intern at Change the Market (R&D)Edinburgh, UK
June 2013 – August 2013
Built a better R&D frontend interface by writing a small DSL & parser (in JavaScript).
University of St Andrews
Research InternJune 2012 – July 2012
Created a population simulation tool for demographic and graph db testing.
Outside Responsibilities
Clojure Berlin Meetup
Co-OrganizerBerlin, Germany
October 2016 – Present
Part of a small team taking turns to MC, filling in for lack of speakers, and keeping our 900 member meetup connected
ClojureBridge Berlin
Orga Team Member and CoachSummer 2015 – Summer 2017
Conducted outreach, triaged attendee invitations, organized catering, etc.
Education
University of St Andrews
2.1 June 2014, BSc (Hons) in Computer ScienceSt Andrews, UK
2010 – 2014
Heavy practical education with subjects including:
Data Encoding, Artificial Intelligence, Operating Systems, Computer Architecture, Knowledge Discovery and Datamining, Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI)