cv.yaml

---
base:
  name: Ben Lovell
  title: Software Developer
  email: "[ben@lovell.io](mailto:ben@lovell.io)"
  url: "https://ben.lovell.io"
  github: "[socksy](https://github.com/socksy)"
  mastodon: "[@socksy@toot.cat](https://toot.cat/@socksy)"
  bluesky: "[@ben.lovell.io](https://bsky.app/profile/ben.lovell.io)"
  linkedin: "[benjlovell](https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjlovell/)"
  summary: >
    Hi, I'm Ben, an experienced Senior Software Engineer with a **proven track record** of delivering **high impact projects**, enhancing workflows, and **fostering technical expertise** in fast paced software development environments.
  skills:
    best:
      - Clojure & ClojureScript
      - Python
      - Backend Architecture
      - Dev Tooling
      - PostgreSQL
      - Infrastructure
      - Data Intensive engineering
      - Microservice design (REST + async)
      - CI/CD
    good:
      - Infrastructure as code
      - Ruby (+ Ruby on Rails)
      - TypeScript/JavaScript
      - React
      - Nix
      - Docker
      - Cassandra
      - Kafka
    ok:
      - Scala
      - Go
      - Rust
      - HTML/CSS
      - Kubernetes
      - MongoDB
      - Compilers/Parsers
experience:
  - orgName: Tower
    position: Senior Software Engineer
    startDate: June 2025
    location: Berlin, Germany
    intro: >
      Contributed to CLI tooling, backend infrastructure, and developer
      experience for Tower's serverless Python platform. Core contributor across
      the Rust CLI, Go/Rust/TypeScript monorepo, and infrastructure:
    highlights:
      - >
         led, architected and implemented the development of an MCP
         (Model Context Protocol) server in the Rust CLI, proving
         critical for adoption
      - >
         improved reactivity and reduced backend load & frontend data
         consumption by introducing a shoulder tap SSE/fetch system
      - >
         designed and built the Organizations multi-tenancy
         system end-to-end, including database migrations,
         API changes, and billing integration
      - >
         migrated infrastructure provisioning to Terraform/OpenTofu,
         including EKS dataplane, AWS SSO user management, and
         observability pipelines
      - >
         parallelized Go test suite with isolated databases,
         reducing test runs from ~1m30s to ~5s, and eliminating
         flaky tests
    tech:
      - Rust
      - Go
      - TypeScript/React
      - Terraform
      - PostgreSQL & Redis
      - Nix
  - orgName: Self Employment
    position: Freelancer & Open Source
    startDate: September 2024
    endDate: June 2025
    location: Berlin, Germany
    intro: >
      Took time between roles for contract work and open
      source contributions.
    highlights:
      - helped designed and implement a dependency injection framework in Rust for a client
      - contributed packages to NixOS
      - worked on some small projects for a Clojure TUI, incident response management, clojure.berlin
    tech:
      - Rust
      - Nix
      - Clojure/Babashka
      - Terraform
  - orgName: Pitch Software GmbH
    position: Senior Software Engineer
    startDate: January 2019
    endDate: April 2024
    location: Berlin, Germany
    intro: >
      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:
    highlights:
      - >
         introduced a reproducible development environment and
         tooling, improving workflows and productivity across
         engineering team using a combination of nix, docker, 
         bash and Python
      - >
         led a cross-team documentation working group, making
         technical onboarding smoother and improving internal
         knowledge sharing
      - >
         took initiative to fix many frontend (CLJS/React) and 
         backend (CLJ/Postgres) problems, gaining buy-in from 
         leadership with cost/benefit analyses
      - >
         designed and implemented improvements to 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
    tech:
      - Clojure/ClojureScript
      - PostgreSQL
      - Docker
      - AWS
      - TypeScript
      - Nix
  - orgName: Geeny/Telefonicá Next GmbH
    position: Backend Data Engineer
    startDate: March 2017
    endDate: December 2019
    location: Berlin, Germany
    intro: >
      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:
    highlights:
      - >
         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
    tech:
      - Scala
      - Clojure
      - Kafka
      - Postgres
      - Docker
      - AWS
      - Kubernetes
      - Protobufs
  - orgName: Red Pineapple Media GmbH
    position: Software Engineer
    startDate: April 2015
    endDate: February 2017
    location: Berlin, Germany
    intro: >
      I was brought on to help the urgent rewrite of the video
      ad delivery system from PHP using a modern Clojure
      stack. Key role in system design and performance.
    tech:
      - Clojure
      - MySQL
      - Cassandra
      - OpenRTB
      - Gatling
      - AWS
  - orgName: lifelife UG
    position: Full Stack Developer
    startDate: November 2014
    endDate: April 2015
    location: Berlin, Germany
    intro: >
      Created a decoupled separate service to interact with
      the main Rails application. Implemented funnel metrics,
      multiple locale support, and more.
    tech:
      - Ruby on Rails
      - Sinatra
  - orgName: Skyscanner Ltd
    position: "Intern at Change the Market (R&D)"
    startDate: June 2013
    endDate: August 2013
    location: Edinburgh, UK
    intro: >
      Built a better R&D frontend interface by writing a small
      DSL & parser (in JavaScript).
    tech:
      - Parser/Compiler writing
      - Python
  - orgName: University of St Andrews
    position: Research Intern
    startDate: June 2012
    endDate: July 2012
    intro: >
      Created a population simulation tool for demographic and
      graph db testing.
other:
  - orgName: Clojure Berlin Meetup
    position: Co-Organizer
    startDate: October 2016
    location: Berlin, Germany
    endDate: Present
    intro: >
      Part of a small team taking turns to MC, filling in for
      lack of speakers, and keeping our 900 member meetup
      connected
  - orgName: ClojureBridge Berlin
    position: Orga Team Member and Coach
    startDate: Summer 2015
    endDate: Summer 2017
    intro: >
      Conducted outreach, triaged attendee invitations,
      organized catering, etc.
education:
  orgName: University of St Andrews
  location: St Andrews, UK
  startDate: 2010
  endDate: 2014
  result: 2.1, BSc (Hons) in Computer Science
  intro: >
      Heavy practical education with subjects including: <br>*Data
      Encoding, Artificial Intelligence, Operating Systems,
      Computer Architecture, Knowledge Discovery and
      Datamining, Programming Language Design and
      Implementation (PLDI)*