Lead Technical Architect at PRWD
Manchester, United Kingdom
- Current
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- Co-founder at Wisdom Hive Prediction Markets
- Lead Technical Architect at PRWD
- Past
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- Web Developer at Ixis IT Ltd.
- Editor at LiberalReview.com
- Developer at WebSpire Solutions Ltd.
- Software Engineer at St. Helens College
- Education
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- Liverpool John Moores University
- University of Chester
- Recommended
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4 people have recommended Rob - Connections
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157
connections
- Industry
- Computer Software
- Websites
Rob Knight’s Summary
I'm the Lead Technical Architect at PRWD. This means that I am responsible for designing and implementing software projects for our clients, creating bespoke solutions in line with their needs. I'm also responsible for investigating and pioneering the use of new technologies to serve client needs, particularly in the retail and manufacturing sectors.
My role encapsulates the conception, design and implementation of a variety of software solutions, based on enterprise design patterns. I work primarily with the Symfony PHP framework for server-side logic and data storage. For client-side development, I tend to use jQuery, augmented with some libraries of my own for a more MVC-style approach.
As well as public-facing web applications, I have also created client-server applications using Adobe AIR on the front-end, as a client to an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
In my role as Lead Technical Architect I work closely with the User Experience Director to align software development and user experience goals. I recently gave a talk on the insights gained from this to the Northern User Experience group and have become a fully-fledged advocate of user-centered design as a principle and practice.
I have 9 years experience in software development, having worked in web development for the last 4 years. I have a long-standing passion for software development of all kinds and love getting to grips with difficult problems; finding the right solution to a problem is what I enjoy and - fortunately! - it's what I do for a living. Having worked in a few different environments, I'm now greatly enjoying my role at PRWD.
Rob Knight’s Specialties:
Systems analysis, application design, software implementation using PHP, JQuery, Dojo, Zend Framework, Symfony and built on application layer products such as MySQL and Apache.
Rob Knight’s Experience
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Co-founder
Wisdom Hive Prediction Markets
(Information Services industry)
October 2008 — Present (1 year 4 months)
Co-founder and developer of the Wisdom Hive prediction markets, an open source information market engine.
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Lead Technical Architect
PRWD
(Privately Held; Information Technology and Services industry)
May 2008 — Present (1 year 9 months)
Providing technical concepts, designs and implementation to deliver projects based on user-centered design principles. Working closely with all project stakeholders, my responsibility is to ensure that technical projects are delivered on time with high quality, reliability and in full compliance with user requirements.
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Web Developer
Ixis IT Ltd.
(Internet industry)
August 2007 — April 2008 (9 months)
At Ixis I worked as a PHP web developer, working primarily with the Drupal Content Management System. I developed several Drupal modules and themes and developed front-end solutions using unobtrusive JavaScript and AJAX, primarily using the JQuery library.
In this role I also had to develop my understanding of SEO and search-related topics, as well as an understanding of RSS and other forms of content syndication. I also developed several websites which made use of new technologies such as Amazon S3 for data storage, and Facebook applications. I worked on sites which ranged from online magazines to e-commerce stores and public sector information portals. I also gained experience of full-text search engines including Sphinx and Lucene. -
Editor
LiberalReview.com
(Publishing industry)
January 2006 — April 2008 (2 years 4 months)
Liberal Review was a group blog for British liberals which operated between January 2006 and May 2008 and is currently on hiatus.
I worked as editor, commissioning new articles and contributing a substantial number of articles personally. I was also responsible for the aesthetic and technical development of the website, first built on Drupal 4.6, then moved to 4.7 and later Drupal 5. This was my first real experience of web editing and authoring. -
Developer
WebSpire Solutions Ltd.
(Internet industry)
July 2005 — July 2007 (2 years 1 month)
At WebSpire I worked as a lead PHP developer, with additional duties in server administration and maintenance. I developed database-driven web applications and gained my first experience of open-source Content Management Systems - specifically TextPattern and Drupal.
This role encouraged me to develop my core skills in PHP, SQL and JavaScript. -
Software Engineer
St. Helens College
(Education Management industry)
September 1999 — April 2001 (1 year 8 months)
At St. Helens College I worked as a Software Engineer in the Systems Department. I made use of a range of technologies, primarily doing development work in C/C++.
As a personal project, I developed a Windows instant messaging application. This involved creating COM components, dealing with multi-threading and concurrency and socket programming.
Rob Knight’s Education
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Liverpool John Moores University
Software Engineering 2001 — 2004
Transferred from a course in Computer Games Development - whilst the experience of computer game technology was fascinating, I found that the disciplines of software engineering were more interesting in their own right.
As well as university assignments, I spent a lot of my time working on personal projects, learning PHP, JavaScript and MySQL. -
University of Chester
MSc , Software Projects , 2009
Additional Information
Rob Knight’s Websites:
Rob Knight’s Interests:
PHP, Erlang, JavaScript, XMPP, enterprise software, blogging, politics, economics and business, VRM, prediction markets
Rob Knight’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
