Stephen King

Download CV

Software Engineer | Python Developer

Summary

Security Check (SC) Cleared Senior Python Developer and Software Engineer with 18+ years of expertise in automation, embedded systems, and scalable software design. Skilled at modernizing legacy systems, streamlining workflows, and building efficient, maintainable codebases. Equally effective as an independent problem-solver or collaborative team member, with a proactive, results-focused approach that consistently delivers measurable improvements in performance and reliability.

💻 Key Skills

Python, Javascript Git, GitHub FastAPI, Django AWS IaC, Ansible, Terraform Technical Documentation BDD, Robot Framework, Behave IoT, Single Board Computers

Automation (QA, AWS, Networks, CI/CD) Networking Linux, Bash scripting Docker ETL OpenAPI, REST APIs, GraphQL, gRPC Microservice Architecture NoSQL, CouchDB, Elasticsearch, Redis

🎓 Education

• MSc. Biochemistry, University of Reading.
• BSc. Biochemistry with Chemistry, University of Reading.
• ‘A’ Levels: Physics, Chemistry, Pure Mathematics and Biology.

📜 Professional Qualifications

Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) Cisco Certified Design Professional (CCDP) Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrator (CCEA)

Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Cisco Certified Design Associate (CCDA) Citrix Certified Administrator (CCA)

👨‍💻 Employment History

ToFollow | Senior Python Developer in AI | Oct. 2025 –

• Developed end-to-end Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and retrieval pipelines using LangChain and LlamaIndex, spanning multi-format document ingestion and normalisation, adaptive chunking strategies, embedding generation, vector indexing, and retrieval orchestration with LLM response synthesis.
• Assisted in engineering vector database solutions and semantic search systems using Qdrant and Pinecone, implementing hybrid retrieval combining dense vector similarity with sparse keyword search to improve retrieval precision across large-scale document corpora.
• Designed and deployed scalable, asynchronous REST APIs using FastAPI to expose RAG and LLM capabilities, supporting streaming responses, concurrent multi-user workloads, and clean separation between retrieval and generation layers.
• Applied Hugging Face Transformers and sentence-transformers to evaluate and deploy domain-appropriate embedding models and cross-encoder rerankers, improving contextual relevance and retrieval quality across heterogeneous data sources.
• Implemented end-to-end CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions to test, build, and containerise applications with Docker, push images to Amazon ECR, and deploy using ECS to custom EC2 instances.
• Built interactive Streamlit frontends to surface RAG pipeline capabilities, enabling real-time document upload, query input with streaming LLM response rendering, retrieval transparency (source citation and chunk inspection), and configurable pipeline parameters.

MetOffice | Senior Scientific Software Engineer | Dec. 2024 – Jul. 2025

• Contributed to the next-generation Forecasting system, replacing the legacy Fortran-based MORST model with a modern Python and Cylc-based post-processing pipeline centred around JULES (Joint UK Land Environment Simulator).
• Migrated three legacy Fortran datafeeds to Python, improving maintainability and aligning with the Met Office’s strategy to separate post-processing from core modelling infrastructure.
• Developed Directed Acyclic/Cyclic Graph (DAG/DCG) workflows using the Cylc workflow scheduling engine, streamlining the extraction and processing of meteorological data from MOGREPS-UK, UKV, and Global weather models.
• Processed and analysed high-resolution, multidimensional meteorological datasets in NetCDF format using Jupyter notebooks and Python libraries including xarray, NumPy, pandas, and SciPy, with Matplotlib and Seaborn for visualisation.
• Managed Python environments with Conda/Mamba and integrated JFrog Artifactory for secure, versioned package distribution across the team.
• Implemented CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions to automate testing and deployment of the post-processing pipeline.

Freelance | Python Developer | Sep. 2023 – Nov. 2024

• Provided direct independent software development services to several clients, with recent focus on start-up IoT projects, medical diagnostic devices and robotic SDKs.
• Implemented a CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions to build, test, and package Python applications, publishing artefacts to Amazon S3 and orchestrating deployment to EC2 instances via Ansible, delivering a fully automated, repeatable release process.
• Operated within a GitOps workflow, leveraging ArgoCD as the continuous delivery tool for declarative, Git-driven application deployment.
• Engineered an end-to-end medical imaging solution using OpenCV, PyTorch, Hugging Face transfer learning, and YOLOv8 object detection to automate bacterial colony identification and antibiotic efficacy scoring, supporting faster and more accurate clinical diagnostics.

AMD | Senior Python Developer | Jan. 2020 – Jul. 2023

• Led a team to design and implement a fully automated CI testing framework, exposing results and controls via a FastAPI service hosted on AWS with MongoDB as the data store. Leveraged AWS Lambda functions and boto3 for pipeline orchestration and event-driven automation.
• Automated network infrastructure provisioning and configuration across the test estate using Python network automation libraries (nornir, netmiko, napalm, fabric), Ansible playbooks for configuration management, and Pulumi for Infrastructure as Code.
• Worked with both NoSQL and relational data sources where appropriate, including use of PostgreSQL and SQLAlchemy for service integration.
• Developed comprehensive functional and load tests for web interfaces using Playwright and Locust Python scripts.
• Diagnosed inefficiencies and gaps in existing ecosystems and recommended/implemented remediation through process improvement, automation and tooling.
• Engaged in agile ceremonies including planning, retrospectives, backlog refinement, demonstrations and daily stand-ups.
• Conducted code reviews, provided technical guidance, and mentored junior developers to improve code quality and development practices.

Career Break | Jan. 2019 – Nov. 2019

This period was taken to renovate the house and relocate.

Qualcomm | Automation Engineer | Aug. 2016 – Dec. 2018

• Maintained and extended the Python automation framework, resolving bugs and engineering new features aligned with CI/CD principles.
• Led the migration of the Python 2 codebase to Python 3, developing and implementing the conversion strategy end-to-end.
• Built PyQt5 desktop tools and utilities to support testing and debugging workflows.
• Achieved 100% unit test coverage using pytest.
• Extended automation tooling for Software Configuration Management, release, and code control in a complex engineering environment.
• Managed source code across a distributed Git/Gerrit infrastructure.
• Mentored colleagues in Python development and delivered training for new framework users.
• Streamlined the toolchain by integrating disparate tools, improving team velocity and consistency.

Cisco | Python Developer in Test (DevOps) | Jul. 2011 – Aug. 2016

• Built and maintained automated test suites in Python and Selenium to validate software functionality across multiple platforms and environments.
• Designed scalable, maintainable test infrastructure and frameworks integrated into the full development lifecycle.
• Integrated automated tests into CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, supporting continuous and reliable software delivery.
• Automated deployment and environment consistency using Ansible playbooks and Puppet manifests.
• Performed system integration testing of microservice architectures using CouchDB, Memcached, ActiveMQ, Redis, and Squid.
• Managed virtualised test environments with VMware, VirtualBox, and KVM; adopted Docker for consistent development environments.
• Conducted performance and load testing with JMeter to validate scalability and efficiency.
• Monitored and analysed system metrics using the ELK stack, Grafana, Graphite, and Prometheus.
• Diagnosed complex network issues using Wireshark, tcpdump, and nmap.
• Participated in code reviews, advocated for testing best practices, and tracked issues in Jira.

Solarflare Communications | Python Developer in Test | Mar. 2010 – Jun. 2011

• Built an automated test framework in Python combining open source and commercial tools to validate the performance and protocol functionality of 10Gb network devices.
• Ran comparative performance tests against competitor products, visualising results with Matplotlib to support product positioning decisions.
• Developed test specifications based on IETF RFC and IEEE standards, automating protocol verification using IXIA packet generators.
• Built and maintained reporting dashboards using Django.
• Collaborated with cross-functional product teams to define test strategies, plans, and processes.

3Com | QA Automation Engineer | Feb. 2009 – Jan. 2010

• Tested all functional and non-functional aspects of C++ embedded software on a unified security platform, encompassing firewall, Router, web filtering, spam filtering and anti-Virus functionality.
• Utilised Spirent Smartbits packet generators, Avalanche traffic generators and automated tests with Python, Perl and Tcl.

Citrix | QA Team Leader | Dec. 2005 – Dec. 2008

• Completed many diverse full life cycle testing projects including release 4.5 of Presentation Server, XenApp, XenDesktop, XenServer and Edgesight products.
• Complex server farm environments were generated using VMware with automation scripts.
• Collaborated with product teams to implement and deploy test strategies, test plans, and test processes.

BT | Network Support Analyst

• Responsible for 3rd line support of the ISP Network infrastructure components.
• Diverse equipment base supported including Cabletron 8000 routers, Cisco Catalyst 5000/5500 Cisco 7500’s, F5 BigIP, Nokia ip650 and checkpoint-1.
• Implemented an “Acceptance into Service” procedure for newly installed networks: A comprehensive set of tests to confirm supportability.

3Com | Protocol Verification Engineer

• Created test specifications utilising 3Com design documentation and specifications from the following standards bodies: IANA, IETF and IEEE.
• Designed test specifications for agent features and packet level protocol functionality for the following: VLAN tagging (802.1q), GMRP (802.1P), Spanning Tree (802.1d), Aggregated links (802.3ad), QoS, IGMP, SNMPv2c & v3, IGMPv3, Syslog, QoS, SNTP and 802.1x
• Identified areas for test automation. Maintained and updated existing test automation systems utilizing JavaScript.
• Participated in high level test planning and forecasting activities. Generated clear concise written reports of testing activities, progress of assigned areas of responsibility and product defects.

---

Full Career history available upon request

Digital object identifier: