Chris Coates

Nottingham, UK · Lead Software Engineer

I am a technology leader responsible for driving engineering strategy and delivery across customer-facing and internal digital platforms. I build and develop high-performing teams, establish strong engineering standards, and create an environment where people can deliver high-quality, scalable solutions aligned to business goals.

Working closely with Product, Design, and Senior Stakeholders, I help shape technical direction, prioritisation, and long-term platform evolution to ensure technology delivers measurable value to the organisation and its members.

While I lead engineering strategy and delivery, I remain deeply hands-on — writing and shipping production code, making architectural decisions, and driving complex technical initiatives end-to-end to ensure we deliver scalable, resilient solutions.

I am highly adaptable and comfortable adopting new technologies, languages, and frameworks, ensuring our technical approach evolves with organisational needs. I am passionate about building teams, improving engineering maturity, and aligning technology with strategic outcomes.


Experience

Lead Software Engineer

Slimming World
October 2019 - Present

Senior Software Engineer

Lakeside Financial Solutions
March 2019 - September 2019

Senior Software Engineer

Parexel
November 2018 - February 2019

Software Engineer

Parexel
August 2016 - October 2018

Projects

Slimming World Web Application
  • Feature-rich WebApp & Mobile App for people on a journey to achieve weight loss.
  • Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, ASP.NET 6.0, React, MongoDB, Elastic, SQL Server, Micro Services, Octopus Deploy, Azure.

Financial Adviser Platform
  • WebApp for financial advisers, admin and company owners to process clients' financial portfolios.
  • Visual Studio, ASP.NET Core, Razor, MVC, SQL Server, Azure Active Directory, Octopus Deploy, Azure.

Randomisation Application
  • Application for Randomising Patients on a clinical trial. Full platform built from the ground up.
  • Visual Studio, ASP.NET Core, Razor, MVC, SQL Server, Azure Active Directory, Octopus Deploy, Azure

Health Alert System
  • An Android App and Web Reporting App to help fight Malaria in Sub Saharan Africa.
  • Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Angular, Xamarin, NUnit, TDD & BDD, Octopus Deploy, Azure

ClinPhone Mobile
  • A mobile application for iOS and Android used to supply and dispense medication.
  • Visual Studio, Xamarin Studio, Eclipse, NUnit, SQL Server, IBM Mobile first platform. Delivered to Apple & Google App Stores.


Education

Makers Academy

Web Development Bootcamp
  • Europe's leading web development bootcamp
  • Highly selective admission process
  • Independent learning and problem-solving
  • Strong emphasis on pair programming and group projects
  • Best practice of key principles: OOP, TDD, SOLID, MVC, Agile Methodologies & XP Values
March 2016 - June 2016

University of Brigthon

BA (Honours) in IT & Computing with QTS (First Class)
  • FDSC in Computing (Computer Games Development)
  • Awarded a scholarship in second year for being in the highest performing 10%
September 2007 - June 2010

Languages & Tools

Programming Languages & Tools
  • ASP.NET full & ASP.NET Core, React, Rails, XCode, Node, Angular, EF & EF Core, MongoDB, SQL Server
  • Docker, Kubernetes
  • C#, Javascript, Ruby, Swift
  • Azure, Azure Active Directory, Application Insights, Blue/Green Deployments (Using Slots)
  • Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Xcode, Eclipse
  • TeamCity, Jenkins, Octopus Deploy, Proget
  • NUnit, XUnit, SpecFlow, XCTest, RSpec, Capybara, Jasmine, Karma, Protractor
  • Releasing to Apple & Google App Stores

Workflow
  • Git, GitFlow, Github, BitBucket, VSTS
  • Agile Development & Scrum
  • Cross Functional Teams
  • Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment

Skills

Passionate Learner
  • Fully immerse myself into quickly learning new languages, frameworks and technology. Pair programming to maximise potential. Regular attender of Nottingham Meetups to keep abreast of new tech and opportunity to strengthen my knowledge.
  • Curious nature with a passion to embrace and learn new technologies and solutions to provide great experiences for the end user.

Clear Communicator
  • Articulate ideas and complex concepts to members of the team including our distributed team working in Minsk and Hyderabad. Feedback from team and pair partners have noted my ability to present, explain and discuss ideas and strategies clearly.
  • Commitment to working in an Agile environment. Have scrum mastered three projects where I have led stand-ups, sprint planning and retros.

Determined and Tenacious
  • I thrive on succeeding as part of a team. I work on personal projects and spend time researching new technologies to enrich the stack.
  • Strong believer in a can-do attitude. Passionate about SOLID principles and producing clean code.

Interests

  • Spending time with family & friends
  • Drinking coffee
  • Cooking & eating good food
  • Brewing my own beer (I do a good IPA )
  • Playing & watching sport
  • Gardening
  • Listening to music & going to gigs