Nicholas Fitton
Senior software engineer
Working in Team Fresh @ Humaans
I am a senior engineer with a passion for creating innovative solutions for greater good. With over 7 years of experience, I have managed projects, built integrations, and solved complex problems using technologies such as React, React Native, Gatsby, Next.js, and more. I have a proven track record of driving results and achieving impact in my previous roles, including projects to implement push notifications, optimize app updates, and create help sections from scratch.
Experience
Humaans.io
2024 - present
Working at Humaans is a very unique experience. I am able to implement changes that significatly improve the work life of others.
At Humaans we aspire to write safe code quickly, leveraging ReScript to extingush a plethora of issues we could experience in a vanilla JS application.
OVO Energy
2021 - 2024
At OVO I’ve worn many hats, from junior React Native dev to interim Engineering Manager to Senior Platforms Lead. I’ve been able to work on a plethora of React based projects including React Native & NextJS.
During my tenure, I’ve successfully managed projects, built new integrations, and investigated innovative solutions to challenges in the energy industry.
Post-Quantum
2017 - 2021
Here I sharpened my software engineering skills, notably in quantum encryption, biometric security, and source-of-truth technology. Utilizing tools like Angular, Vue, Protractor, CyPress, Java Spring, Groovy, and Kubernetes, I developed innovative cybersecurity solutions.
This experience enhanced my ability to create secure, robust applications, contributing significantly to the company’s mission of protecting sensitive data and solidifying my foundation in the software engineering industry.
Skills
An arbitrary list of languages and framesworks I've worked with, because everyone seems to do it and I don't want to miss out!
Backend Frameworks
Whilst it has not been my main focus, I have worked on a small set of backend systems.
Frontend Frameworks
Over the years I have worked & played with a range of different frameworks to help build a general understanding of the web exosystem and what tools are best for which jobs.
Testing Frameworks
Testing is important to me and I believe a lot of enterprises manage their test processes wrong. Nonetheless, I have worked with a selection of testing systems.
Expertise
Engineering Management
In my tenure at OVO Energy, I undertook the role of a SEM for a quarter, leading a compact team of four developers, including myself. My responsibilities extended beyond project management to encompass effective inter-team communication and maintaining my contributions as an Engineer.
During this period, we delivered key projects, including the development and launch of a new app for support teams, a successful study to simplify a project by removing Redux, and the implementation of a new screen view type across various project journeys, which was well-received by customers and developers.
Software Engineering
I am passionate about developing tooling that empowers other developers to achieve remarkable results efficiently. A recent focus of mine has been optimizing Detox test runs on CI machines. Previously, these tests took over 90 minutes and were prone to failure due to flakey tests and a challenging developer experience (DX) stemming from team inexperience.
Addressing these issues was an engaging and rewarding journey. I led the investigation and concluded with an e2e test suite that didn't reduce coverage, reduced test time and test flake.
Mentoring
As a mentor at OVO Energy, I enjoy sharing my knowledge and expertise with fellow team members, helping them develop their skills and achieve their career goals. I also actively mentor externally, providing guidance and support to aspiring software engineers in the broader tech community. I believe in the power of mentorship in fostering growth and empowering others to reach their full potential.
Cooking
In my off time, I love to cook, whether it be an intricate meal for two or a large dinner for many. I find my development experience helps me manage the multitasking of cooking a large meal, for example, I recently cooked christmas dinner for 7 and you can find my process for managing it here.
Side Projects
In my free time, I like to write up side projects. This ranges from solving problems in my work life, trying out different frameworks/ideologies, or PoC's of projects that could become secondary income streams.
Git gif
When creating PR's I will often upload media to show the visual changes I've made. This will usually consist of GIFs that I manually converted with ffmpeg.
Whilst this process works, having to remember the incatations to appease ffmpeg can be a pain. Instead, I wrote this project to take videos and convert them to gifs.