David Gray
David Gray with his dog

Southampton / Remote

David Gray

Over 20 years of software development and management experience

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Career

Experience

From hands-on systems development to leading engineering through acquisition and scale.

  1. Head of Engineering

    December 2025 – Present

    Voly — Remote, UK

    Report to:
    Andy Reeves - Group CTO
    Direct Reports:
    Voly Crew Solutions Engineering Team of 6

    Business Value Delivered

    • Led the full migration of workrest systems and data into Voly’s infrastructure with 99.998% uptime
    • Rapidly scaled the engineering team from 2 to 8 in less than 6 months
    • Directed technical design and delivery for the new Voly Payroll SAAS, integrating workrest capabilities into Voly’s ecosystem, projected to deliver greater than 60% of all ongoing revenue across the group
    • Contributed to standardised development life cycles across Voly, improving release quality and engineering consistency
    • Improved engineering throughput by refining processes, documentation and coding standards
    • Achieved personal goals of migrating workrest, building and stabilising the team and delivering key strategic initiatives

    Description

    • Acquired workrest in December 2025
    • TUPE’d across from workrest, working alongside former Amazon Video Director Andy Reeves
    • Partnered closely with Product to align engineering output with strategic and commercial priorities
    • Maintained and enhanced the existing workrest platform throughout organisational change, ensuring uninterrupted customer value
    • Responsible for all technical decisions for VCS (formerly workrest) and the Voly Payroll system
    • Near daily hands-on with Laravel 12 and PHP 8.4, React, etc.
    • Senior code sign-off and release manager
    • Responsible for all DevOps for VCS (formerly workrest), including cost analysis, scaling, backups, disaster recovery planning, etc.
    • Hands-on management style — one of the team, know the code

  2. Chief Technology Officer

    September 2018 – December 2025

    workrest — Remote, UK

    Acquired by Voly

    Reported to:
    Tim Fletcher - Founder CEO
    Direct Reports:
    All of Engineering

    Business Value Delivered

    • Delivered major architectural upgrades that improved system reliability and sync performance for low-connectivity vessels
    • Built and developed a high-performing engineering team, improving delivery speed and code quality
    • Modernised infrastructure and strengthened security, ensuring compliance with ISO27001 and IMO standards
    • Launched new automation and workflow features that reduced manual workload for maritime operators
    • Enhanced customer satisfaction through consistent feature delivery and platform stability
    • Positioned workrest for acquisition by establishing strong technical foundations and clear product–market fit
    • Played a key role in the successful acquisition and migration of workrest by Voly

    Description

    • Led technology strategy for workrest — web, mobile and integrations
    • Responsible for all technical decisions
    • Primary backend engineer working with Laravel 12 and PHP 8.4, etc.
    • Technical staff hiring, onboarding, and development
    • Improved cross-team collaboration by aligning Product, Operations and Engineering around shared delivery goals
    • DevOps, infrastructure and 3rd party platform provider decision making, deployments and maintenance
    • 3rd party integrations and technical consultation
    • Technical feasibility and reporting to the board

  3. Lead Software Engineer

    October 2017 – August 2018

    Ridown Design + Communications — Fareham

    Reported to:
    Paul Robbins - Head Of Development

    Business Value Delivered

    • Development of multiple, multi-platform ecommerce solutions
    • Banking and financial services integrations (Vindica, GoCardless, PayPal, Netpay)
    • Migration of largest platform from an ancient bespoke framework into Laravel 5.6

    Description

    • Technical planner and system architect of multiple solutions
    • Consultant on technical feasibility and time–cost factors in new projects
    • Educator and mentor to junior staff

  4. Lead Software Engineer

    May 2017 – October 2017

    Maru/edr — Southampton

    Rebranded to The Harris Poll

    Reported to:
    Angelos Devletoglou - Director of Technical Operations

    Business Value Delivered

    • Integration of US and CA based software service acquisitions into UK based primary platform
    • Development of intermediary solutions to facilitate transformation of acquisitions’ data and asset migration
    • Assisted in dockerisation of legacy services and championed DDD for future development

    Description

    • Formerly eDigitalResearch Plc
    • Brought back to help with domain knowledge and onboarding of Maru group acquisitions
    • Resumed previously held responsibilities, including solution architecture, project planning, scrum lead, sign-off, build processes and deployment

  5. Software Engineer

    March 2017 – May 2017

    Audiolock — Southampton

    Reported to:
    Ben Rush - Founder CEO

    Business Value Delivered

    • Developed a solution to scan millions of sites for pirated content
    • Evidence collection, screenshots, fingerprint analysis of audio/video
    • Counter counter-copyright protection enforcement solutions

    Description

    • Multi cloud service provider distribution and residential IP providing VPN utilisation
    • Primarily PHP, Docker, Redis, Beanstalkd and MySQL on AWS and Azure

  6. Lead Software Engineer

    March 2016 – March 2017

    Efficio Limited — Fareham

    Reported to:
    James Jenkinson - Vice President and Partner
    Direct Reports:
    Development team of 9

    Business Value Delivered

    • Brought development team up to modern standards, tooling, methodologies and practices (Git, TDD, SoC, Agile, Scrums, etc.)
    • Implemented versioning, QA, peer review and build process; installed, managed and maintained associated software
    • Rewrote form handling and validation; implemented background queue and job processing; updated codebase to not use facades; separated generic library functionality; implemented session handling, breadcrumbs, authentication and authorisation, and separation between view and model

    Description

    • Lead developer of a team of 9 (2 external, 1 remote)
    • Scrum master and basic reporting to senior management (burndown, velocity, etc.)
    • Mentored developers, handling 1-2-1s, basic HR, performance reviews, objectives, etc.
    • Conducted interviews and hiring including contractors and remotely located staff; helped manage relationships with external software development partners
    • Consulted and assisted in implementing application development workflow and procedure
    • Senior sign-off on peer review

  7. Lead Software Engineer

    March 2013 – March 2016

    eDigitalResearch Plc — Southampton

    Acquired by Maru Group

    Reported to:
    Shane Wright - CTO
    Direct Reports:
    Technical Operations team of 3

    Business Value Delivered

    • Architected and oversaw and/or implemented multiple platform solutions
    • Responsible for multiple platform subsystems (3rd Party Integrations, Mail Integration and Mass Mail System, Panel System, Site System, Analytics Driver and Charting Engine)
    • Designed and championed new stack, coding standards, coding styles, build process, tooling, implementing up-to-date technologies, methodologies and documentation with a focus on reduced overheads, higher iterative rates, lower learning curve and industry standardisation to aid in recruitment, training and company growth
    • Chief contributor to conversion from a platform provider to a SAAS provider

    Description

    • Handled research/product/technical communications, technical requirements, feasibility studies, and consultancy of technical capabilities
    • Senior sign-off on code review and solution acceptance

  8. Sr Data Systems Developer

    June 2011 – March 2013

    eDigitalResearch Ltd — Southampton

    Reported to:
    Shane Wright - CTO
    Direct Reports:
    Technical Operations team of 3

    Business Value Delivered

    • Responsible for largest client’s technical aspects; jointly responsible for quadrupling client worth, before handing over to team and moving back to Strategic Development team
    • Developed multiple bespoke solutions to resolve client requirements; converted many into products or subsystems of existing platform

    Description

    • Lead Technical Operations team of 3; handled technical communications with clients, team personal progression, scrum mastering, mentoring, reporting, etc.
    • B2B data transfers, big data, including ETL processes and encryption

  9. Applications Developer

    April 2009 – June 2011

    eDigitalResearch Ltd — Southampton

    Reported to:
    Shane Wright - CTO

    Business Value Delivered

    • Designed and implemented analytic driver for core platform
    • One of three who designed and developed eDR’s core platform v2

    Description

    • Responsible for various optimisations (PHP/SQL queries)

  10. Systems Developer

    December 2004 – April 2009

    murphx Innovative Solutions Ltd — Southampton

    Acquired by The Daisy Group

    Reported to:
    Ben Murphy - Founder, Technical Director, CTO

    Business Value Delivered

    • PHP and MySQL software development of XML based web service applications
    • Development and use of APIs and client-facing portals

    Description

    • Project planning and management
    • Technical and client-facing documentation writing
    • Procedure writing and maintaining internal company wiki and task tracking systems

Capability

Skills

Over 20 years of software development and management — spanning full-stack delivery, APIs, cloud platforms and, more recently, AI-assisted workflows — have built a wide, hard-won knowledge of the craft. That time has also shaped how I lead engineering and grow teams. I’ve seen, adopted and adapted as the industry shifted, and I use that experience across bleeding-edge work and the legacy platforms that still need care.

Expert — Deep understanding, specialised knowledge and highly developed skills, with extensive practical experience, can mentor and teach

Advanced — Core understanding, in-depth knowledge, strong skills, real world experience, can teach

Proficient — Practical experience, good knowledge

AI — How I use AI to design, build and deliver software

Soft Skills — How I lead teams, grow people and keep delivery moving

Methodologies — How I deliver and collaborate on software — a non-exhaustive list

Principles — How I design and reason about software — a non-exhaustive list

Patterns — Architectural and development patterns I use in practice — a non-exhaustive list

Expert

Deep understanding, specialised knowledge and highly developed skills, with extensive practical experience, can mentor and teach

  • JavaScript / TypeScript
  • React
  • Vue
  • Laravel
  • PHP
  • HTML / CSS / SCSS / Bootstrap / Tailwind
  • Font Awesome
  • AngularJS / jQuery
  • API
  • GraphQL / Apollo Client
  • Zend
  • System Architecture
  • Permissions
  • PHPUnit / Codeception / Code Sniffer
  • Google Store / Apple Store / Expo
  • AWS
  • IIS / Apache / nginx / node / Caddy / Octane / FrankenPHP
  • REDIS
  • JIRA / Bitbucket / Confluence / Atlassian admin
  • Teams / Slack administration
  • Sentry
  • Feature Flags

Advanced

Core understanding, in-depth knowledge, strong skills, real world experience, can teach

  • Auditing
  • Query Optimisation
  • Symfony
  • Git
  • OpenAPI / Swagger
  • PostgreSQL / MSSQL / MySQL
  • Linux / Windows / Mac
  • Docker
  • DevOps / Platform Engineering
  • SVN
  • Cassandra / Couchbase / MongoDB / S3

Proficient

Practical experience, good knowledge

  • Selenium
  • Realtime Responsiveness

AI

How I use AI to design, build and deliver software

  • Prompt Engineering
  • AI-Assisted Software Development
  • AI Agent Workflows & Tool Use
  • AI for Code Review & Refactoring
  • Responsible AI & Data Privacy
  • Automating QA & Test Generation with AI
  • Cost, Latency & Token Optimisation
  • IDE integrated AI (e.g.: Junie)
  • Claude Code
  • Cursor
  • ChatGPT Codex

Soft Skills

How I lead teams, grow people and keep delivery moving

  • Technical Team Leadership
  • Team Management (incl. remote)
  • Project Management
  • Technical Documentation
  • Database Management
  • Mentoring & Coaching
  • Stakeholder Management
  • Cross-functional Collaboration
  • Hiring & Interviewing
  • Decision Making Under Ambiguity
  • Prioritisation & Roadmapping
  • Empathy & Psychological Safety
  • Performance Management
  • Vendor & Partner Management
  • Incident Leadership / Crisis Response
  • Knowledge Sharing & Enablement
  • Product Sense / Customer Empathy
  • Risk Assessment
  • Continuous Improvement / Retrospectives

Methodologies

How I deliver and collaborate on software — a non-exhaustive list

  • Domain-Driven Design (DDD)
  • Twelve-Factor App
  • Software as a Service (SaaS)
  • Single-Page Application (SPA)
  • Full Stack
  • API Design
  • Test-Driven Development (TDD)
  • Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD)
  • Agile
  • Scrum
  • Kanban
  • MoSCoW Prioritisation (Must, Should, Could, Won’t)
  • Observability (Logs, Metrics, Traces)
  • Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
  • Pair Programming
  • Trunk-Based Development

Principles

How I design and reason about software — a non-exhaustive list

  • SOLID Principles
  • Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
  • Separation of Concerns (SoC)
  • Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY)
  • Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS)
  • You Aren’t Gonna Need It (YAGNI)

Patterns

Architectural and development patterns I use in practice — a non-exhaustive list

  • Adapter / Anti-Corruption Layer
  • Event-Driven Architecture (EDA)
  • Facade
  • Factory
  • Feature Toggles
  • Model–View–Controller (MVC)
  • Multitenancy
  • Publisher–Subscriber (Pub/Sub)
  • Repository
  • REST / Resource-Oriented Design
  • Singleton
  • Strangler Fig
  • CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation)
  • Decorator
  • Microservices
  • Offline Sync
  • Optimistic updates
  • Event Sourcing

About

Outside of work

A passionate techy, old school nerd/geek, lover of all things science, oracle of useless information, board gamer, PC gamer, dog dad and father. I also run 100-gamer-strong LAN parties up to 4 times a year.

Born
2nd July 1984
Nationality
British
Licence
Full Driver's Licence

People

References

Happy to introduce on request.

  • Andy Reeves

    Group CTO, Voly

  • Tim Fletcher

    Founder CEO, workrest