Ben Hardy

Experience

• 

  Something Else Limited

  May 2002 - Jun 2005

  Graphic & Web Designer

  As a website, flash developer, and graphic designer I managed the digital media for Something Else Limited who operated a nightclub and restaurant in Surrey. Along with the marketing team I designed the main website along with flash adverts and promotional flyers.As an addition to the main site I developed an online console for the DJs to upload their most recent playlists, allowing visitors to listen to current sets.The role was driven by deadlines for upcoming events and required me to create designs from scratch in order to receive feedback on the drafts. Show less

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  Unique Design Solutions

  Jun 2005 - Jul 2007

  Graphic & Web Designer

  I moved to work as a self-employed web and graphic designer due to previous high volume requests for sites and promotional artwork. Working by myself helped me improve my time management and project management skills. I worked right through from concept to final design and my work varied from individual posters, logos and flash movies to full company branding including websites.

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  EdenGroup - 'Work Liberated'

  Jul 2007 - May 2010

  Client Services Manager

  I was brought to InsideOut to help with the IT and website development. My role developed to work on the company's biggest client as a Client Services Associate. Due to my adherance to strict deadlines and personal organisation I was promoted to Client Services Manager to manage a team of 5 CSA's and numerous clients.

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  Atlantic Umbrella Company

  May 2010 - Oct 2011

  Application Manager

  As an expansion to an already existing Umbrella Service, Atlantic Bureau Services was created to manage the Mid and Back Office requirements for recruitment companies. My role was to build and develop the structure for the weekly and monthly operations. The main focus of my work was to streamline the day to day running of all integrations and data transfer.

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  Anova Accountancy Services

  Oct 2011 - Dec 2012

  Application Manager

  Atlantic Bureau Services separated from the Umbrella side in 2011 and merged with two chartered accountancy practices, Collards and Routledge Taylor, and from this merge Anova Accounting Services was created. Anova provided all accounting services including personal and corporate accounting and payroll bureau for recruitment agencies.My role within Anova was to...- Configure, maintain and debug integrations - This included... - DML - SFTP file transfer - XML or CSV imports- Overall management of the software and linked services Show less

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  Voyager Recruitment Software

  Dec 2012 - May 2016

  Data Engineer

  Having previous experience with a chartered accountants my role within Voyager provided an insight into the financial aspect of the recruitment industry. I worked on the Mid-Office product, which bridged the gap between front office sales and back office accounts.Having this experience gave me an understanding of what the users were looking to achieve and ultimately making the most of the software.Situated between the support and development team I was a 3rd line escalation point and SQL analyst for customer queries, bespoke requests and product planning. This involved...- Debugging of stored procedures- Performance tuning and optimisation (PTO)- Report writing & design- Legacy data type analysis Show less

• 

  ActiveOps

  Jun 2016 - now

  As ActiveOps continues to grow in the digital operations sector, so does the demand for a well performing and scalable data platform. The data engineering team works alongside the infra-ops, tech support, and development teams to enhance our software solutions and service levels.With a primary goal of administering and developing our PaaS offering, I am tipping the balance from reactive to proactive management of data challenges. I have implemented a data centralisation strategy to enable secure, self-service access to operational data via a governed Lakehouse repository.To support our client applications we have recently deployed a medallion architecture repository. This uses streaming Delta Live Tables for up to the minute aggregated data to remove the strain from the transactional databases and supports the growing AI and ML models for new features.Automation of tasks aligning with contractual and regulatory obligations plays a significant part in these projects with a focus on data lifecycle management and central governance.Key Responsibilities: - Data strategy - Architecture design (HLD & LLD) - Data modelling - Automation & integration (ETL / ELT) - Data security and risk management - Cost analysis - Backlog orchestration - Project management (Agile methodology with DevOps) - Data lifecycle management (anonymisation, archiving, & retention policies) - Performance monitoring - Production troubleshooting and optimisation - Pre-production peer review - TSQL scripting - General maintenance (upgrades / migrations / configurations) - Maintenance plans (backups and indexing strategy) - HADR - Innovation (research and solution design) Show less Within the Tech Projects team, I worked alongside development to manage the data migration from the legacy SQL Server application over to Azure SQL DB. With the new PaaS architecture on Azure this has provided an opportunity to explore the vast range of tools Microsoft has to offer.Complex reporting requirements added an additional challenge to the tight scheduled roadmap, so we were able to assist by constructing new OData API's.The primary focus of the team was to assist both development and tech support with both internal and external facing projects that fall outside of their BAU boundaries. Show less Situated in the IT Operations team, my primary role involved performance tuning and optimisation for both the legacy and current release applications for data anomalies and performance issues. Providing reusable solutions for 1st line support also played a key part in reducing ticket escalations and customer SLA response times.Utilising DML for a quick turnaround on inbound support queries, I constructed a script library for the global 2nd line investigations. These were used in conjunction with a variety of error handling and transactional statements (TCL) to prevent data loss and accidental updates.Deconstruction of stored procedures for debugging and sprint prioritisation was a common task, primarily on the reporting side (SSRS). I also automated the global daily monitoring of delta loads to the data warehouse and cube processing (SSAS).Longer term road map projects involve migrations from SQL Server to Azure SQL DB and the introduction of other new elements from Azure, for a more secure and scalable platform.Regular short term projects consisted of bespoke SSIS packages for data extraction, import and export processes to meet client requirements. Show less

  • Head of Data Engineering

    Jun 2022 - now

  • Senior Data Engineer

    Sept 2019 - Jun 2022

  • Data Engineer

    Jun 2016 - Sept 2019