Hello, I’m David, a software engineer.
Employment
I’m Head of Software Engineering at Kraken Technologies, the technology part of Octopus Energy Group. I help run a department of engineers building the “Kraken” software platform that underpins the business.
Octopus Energy became the 15th UK tech “unicorn” in May 2020, after investment from Origin Energy.
Previously I’ve worked as:
- Director of Engineering at Yoyo Wallet, a payments and loyalty start-up;
- a Technical Director (and various other roles) at Tangent Snowball, a digital agency;
- an Operational Researcher at HM Revenue and Customs.
One of my strengths is building and running teams that write high-quality, maintainable software.
Interests
Everything to do with software; but especially:
- Design, patterns and architecture.
- Tests, testing and TDD (I’m a keen advocate of London-school TDD and Discovery testing).
- Vim, Git, and working at the command-line (I originally wrote the site commandlinefu.com).
- Python, Javascript, Golang.
- AWS, the “Hashistack”, infrastructure-as-code.
- The practices of effective teams: code review, continuous deployment, pairing etc
Conference talks
- Discovery testing, PyLadies June 2017, London
- How to write a view, DjangoCon EU June 2015, Cardiff
- Oscar and the art of Django applications, PyCon PL 2014, Szczyrk, Poland
- “Beware of the box”, eCommerce Expo 2014, London
- An introduction to django-oscar, DjangoCon EU 2014, Ille De Embiez, France
- A smörgåsbord of testing, PyConUK 2013, Coventry, UK
- Writing a Django e-Commerce framework, OSCON 2012, Portland, USA
- Migrating from PHP to Python and Django, ConFoo 2012, Montreal, Canada
- Writing a Django e-Commerce framework, ConFoo 2012, Montreal, Canada
- Commandlinefu for web developers, ConFoo 2011, Montreal, Canada
Plus several talks for local Python/Django user groups. Assorted slidedecks are available on Speakerdeck.
Education
I have a PhD in Applied Mathematics as well as a 1st class MMath Mathematics degree from the University of Nottingham and a few published papers:
- Sqrt(5):2 mode interactions on a square lattice
Int. J. Bif. and Chaos 14 11 3883-3897
D.M. Winterbottom - Oscillatory pattern formation with a conservation law
Nonlinearity 18 1031-1056
D.M. Winterbottom, P.C. Matthews, S.M. Cox - Pattern Formation in a Model of a Vibrated Granular Layer
SIAM J. Appl. Dyn. Syst. 7(1) 63-78
D.M. Winterbottom, S.M. Cox, P.C. Matthews