Mark Williams

Lead Developer building PHP, Vue and Python web platforms, and the teams behind them.

I've spent nearly 20 years building for the web and 7 years leading development teams. I take legacy codebases and turn them into tested, maintainable platforms, and I bring the habits that keep them that way: automated testing, monitoring, clear sprints and well-supported developers.

Available now for Lead Developer and Engineering Manager roles, permanent or contract
Email me See my experience

How I work

Most recently I was Lead Web Developer at Citizen Ticket, a SaaS ticketing and booking platform for events, venues and visitor attractions. I line-managed a team of 4 developers, running 1:1s, appraisals, hiring and onboarding, and shared project management and sprint planning with the CTO while staying hands-on in the code.

I'm at my best close to both the code and the people using it. I've been the main technical contact for customer service and account management teams, so I think about how engineering decisions land with clients. I use AI-assisted development with Claude and Cursor every day.

I'm based in Coventry and happy working remotely or hybrid across Coventry, Warwickshire and Birmingham.

Experience

WhenRole and highlights
2025 – now Independent Developer Stratx.app Python platform that takes in crypto trading signals and places trades through third-party APIs, with a Vue front end and full PyTest coverage.
2022 – 2025 Lead Web Developer Citizen Ticket
  • Led and line-managed a team of 4 developers
  • Shared project management and sprint planning with the CTO
  • Main technical contact for customer service and account management
2021 – 2022 Full Stack Web Developer Citizen Ticket
  • Led the migration of a legacy codebase to a modern, testable architecture
  • Introduced Vue.js, Cypress end-to-end testing and Sentry monitoring
  • Optimised MySQL queries and trained developers and QA in SASS, Cypress and Git
2016 – 2021 Web Developer Jellyhaus Custom WordPress plugins, WooCommerce solutions and greenfield Symfony projects for agency clients.
2012 – 2016 Development Team Leader Intelligentgolf
  • Led the team behind a codebase powering 550+ golf club websites
  • Built an AngularJS scoring app that worked offline on courses with poor signal
  • Shipped features used by over 200,000 golfers
2005 – 2013 Web Developer and Owner Ignition Driving School Built and ran the business's websites and eCommerce in PHP and MySQL.

Skills

Leadership
Line management, 1:1s and appraisals, hiring and onboarding, sprint planning, mentoring, legacy modernisation
Back end
PHP (Laravel, Symfony), Python, MySQL, REST API integrations
Front end
Vue, TypeScript, JavaScript, Angular, React, HTML, CSS and SASS
Quality
PHPUnit, PyTest, Cypress, Sentry
Tools
AWS, Git, Claude, Cursor

Selected projects

Stratx

Python, Vue, PyTest

An automated trading platform that ingests signals from external sources, places trades through exchange APIs and compares the results of different strategies. The code is private, and I'm happy to walk through it at interview.

Dynamic pricing for Blindsnbits

PHP, MySQL, WooCommerce

A WooCommerce shop with a pricing engine covering more than 15,000 product combinations.

Offline golf scoring app

AngularJS, Intelligentgolf

A mobile scoring app built to keep working where courses have no signal, used by golfers across hundreds of clubs.

Get in touch

mark@willcowd.co.uk

I'm available to start immediately and open to permanent or contract roles. Email me and I'll send my full CV.