Resume of Paul Heap

Paul Heap
Full Stack Engineer/Architect/Manager

About

Full stack Engineer, Manager & Architect. I believe in always remaining hands on, even when in a management heavy role

Work Experience

Scubago
October 2018 – December 2021
IT Director
With LiveAboard.com up and running and transitioned smoothly to an operational team, I moved to incubate another startup within the same organisation.
Highlights
  • Architected and wrote substantial elements of all the cloud based IT systems
  • Hired and guided a team to build the required software within my designed architecture
  • Took over and completed/maintained systems due to covid pandemic
LiveAboard.com
March 2015 – October 2018
Director & Co-Founder
Building and scaling out the IT side of what is now a fast growing travel company. Operating as the principal engineer and system architect to quickly produce all the IT systems required to run a medium sized travel business. Hiring, outsourcing, managing resources, and deploying code daily across several systems daily. Having had the experience with already creating corporate versions of all the required systems for a travel OTA, it was an ideal time in my career to start a travel business.
Highlights
  • Founded the company in 2013, went full time in 2015
  • Designed and built the software from affiliate system to CMS, site, payment system
  • Achieved the clearly stated growth and performance goals
Agoda
January 2013 – February 2015
Acquisition Development Manager
I was focused on recruiting, developing and managing several cross functional teams, which supported business activities across the paid channels. My focus since 2014 was to not become part of the development process, and to focus more on the product side, and developing my teams' abilities to execute through individual development and coaching. Tag management, performance analysis, affiliate attribution, conversion to MVC and mobile, conversion optimisation, and scaling Restful APIs used by third parties are some of the activities i was involved with. Operating to help convert the company culture to Agile at the grass roots level through participation in company-wide scrums and product reviews. I was fortunate enough to receive company harvard/google based leadership program training during this period, which gave me the knowledge to set an example of executing a team leadership role at a higher level.
Agoda
September 2009 – January 2013
Front End Development Manager
Focused on developing site features/mechanisms, and running the front end team. This was a major growth period for the company, so hiring, experimenting, and growth hacking our way to a billion dollar company. My main focus was on technical execution of front end changes and usage/development of the Split testing framework.
Net Niche Software
January 2009 – September 2009
Software Development Manager
Hired a team of 5 developers in Bangkok, in addition to remotely managing a team of 7 in Myanmar. Managed the deployment and development of the smart product, performing code reviews and all server code updates. Presented frequently to the board of directors and set the IT direction for the company. Extensively rewrote and remodelled the software architecture to make it scalable.
Agoda
October 2005 – August 2007
Chief Architect
Initially focused on code generation to be able to bootstrap Agoda's IT infrastructure, including a CMS, SEO the first two site builds. Personally developed the core technology powering the site with Url rewriting at the core, hiring and leading a team of 7. Became the 'go to' technical guy for the company at that stage, serving directly under the CTO. Eventually left to pursue my own ambitions as a spot forex trader and run my own startup Forex trading advisory service and site.
ImageIntellect
February 2003 – March 2005
CTO
Jointly managed a web development company, with a hands-on peer programming approach. Attended all client meetings for requirements gathering, clarification and handling pre-sales technical queries. Trained programmers on .Net best practises. Rebuilt the internal network and development environment and processes from the ground up. Produced websites for various local clients.
Inetasia Solutions
February 2001 – February 2003
CTO
Dual Role of Software Development Manager and CTO. Responsible for all IT aspects relating to hosting and developing 20-30 major websites. Managing, coaching and reviewing the work of 20 developers, giving client deliverables, speaking at events, optimising time to market under high pressure. Used Nunit, regulator, NDoc, CodeSmith, generating code to meet tight delivery schedules. Managed subcontracted developers. Supported CMM implementation, and acting SCM Manager. Interviewed, hired and coach all technical staff. Provided weekly reports for clients, and was the client touch point for all foreign clients (notably haliburton & CBRE)
Various Jobs
November 1995 – January 2001
Software Engineer
Worked various contracts and full time jobs whilst travelling, including London, Leeds, Cambridge and Melbourne, including writing an engineering focused desktop software, music industry licensing software, superannuation management software and a POS client. I have been writing and designing software and games since I was 10 years old.

Contact

Education

  • 1992 1995

    University of Leeds

    Bachelor of Science (BSc)

    Cognitive science

    Courses
    • Computing/AI
    • Philosophy
    • Psychology
  • 1990 1991

    Lancaster & Morecambe College

    Maths (A/100%), Statistics (A/100%)

Skills

E-commerce Master
Conversion Optimization Split Testing Site Performance Tuning SEO Agile Methodologies CMS/Admin/Reporting Systems CDN optimisation
Server Side Master
ASP.NET Core WebAPI MVC Blazor C# Microsoft SQL Server/Stored Procedures DocumentDB Identity Server Redis
Client Side Master
Vue Handlebars Javascript JQuery HTML5
Microsoft Azure Master
Azure Service Bus Traffic Manager Load Balancing Recursive Blob Processing Queue Implementations Function Apps Logic Apps Cognitive Search (elastic) AAD Administration
APIs Master
Imagekit.io AWS Cloudfront Google Stripe Twilio WhatsApp
Tools Master
VS Pro Git Postman Azure Data Studio Azure Storage Explorer Slack Teams Jira
Learning Master
Blazor Hybrid Apps .Net 6/Maui TypeScript MermaidJS GraphDB

References

I had a privilege to work for Paul during my employment in Agoda. He was always supportive and easy to reach whenever I needed him. His guidelines were very helpful, whether it was about professional aspect or just dealing with other stakeholders. He would listen to my ideas and always point me in right direction to achieve my goals. I really enjoyed working with him.

Paul is simply brilliant at building teams. His ability to hire while insuring that not only would his teams get stronger, they would also enjoy working together is inspirational. I loved really enjoyed working with Paul - and I'm proud to call him a great friend.