Lee Freeman
Summary
Senior Full Stack Engineer with 8+ years of TypeScript/NodeJS experience, 5+ years working with cloud-native technologies and 2 years with Kotlin/Spring Boot, contributing to a proven track record of leveraging AI-native workflows (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot) to accelerate delivery and maintain high code standards. Extensive experience with Kubernetes deployments, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Helm) and implementing CI/CD pipelines across multiple providers (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps). Strong track record of collaborating with platform teams to deliver scalable solutions and establishing best practices for cloud-native development.
Work experience
Senior Software Engineer
IKEA (contract) (2024-04-01 - Present)
Full Stack Engineer working in IKEA's logistics domain, contributing to both application development, infrastructure maintenance and AI automation. Working with Terraform for infrastructure changes and GitHub Actions for deployment pipelines across multiple cloud providers. Implemented observability solutions using OpenTelemetry, Splunk, and Prometheus. Key achievements: - Contributed to multi-region Kubernetes deployments using Terraform and GitHub Actions, with particular focus on extending our infrastructure to support the China region while meeting compliance requirements - Implemented auto-scaling solutions using KEDA, working with OpenTelemetry and Prometheus metrics to optimize resource usage - Enhanced CI/CD pipelines in GitHub Actions to support our multi-environment deployment strategy - Improved system observability by implementing comprehensive monitoring solutions, enabling effective incident response - Helped team members adopt infrastructure best practices and cloud-native development patterns
Lead Developer (Ziggo)
VodafoneZiggo (contract) (2023-07-01 - 2024-03-31)
Led development of a new customer self-service portal that became the template for future user-facing applications at VodafoneZiggo. Worked closely with the platform team to implement scalable deployment processes on Kubernetes with automated environment provisioning through GitLab CI. Key achievements: - Collaborated with platform team to implement automated environment provisioning on their multi-tenant Kubernetes platform - Built comprehensive GitLab CI pipelines enabling automatic environment creation and cleanup for feature branches - Implemented OAuth 2.0/OIDC authentication patterns that were adopted as standard practice across teams - Created Helm chart templates for consistent application deployment across environments - Shared expertise in cloud-native development practices across multiple teams, helping establish standards for container deployment and CI/CD
Lead Developer (Vodafone)
VodafoneZiggo (contract) (2022-07-01 - 2023-06-30)
I grew into a lead role where I rebuilt the development environment for new architectures, implemented OIDC authentication to unlock access to new internal APIs for the delivery of an eSim project, and continued modernizing our CI processes. I was responsible for scoping new work and stewarding the shared component library.
Senior Software Engineer (Vodafone)
VodafoneZiggo (contract) (2021-05-01 - 2022-06-30)
I worked on modernising the My Vodafone web React application. This included a migration to using NestJS as a BFF, deployed via GitLabCI to Kubernetes with Helm, complete simultaneous migrations of from BitBucket/Jenkins pipelines deployed on prem to Gitlab CI deployed to AWS and refactoring our Cypress suite to run in parallel on Gitlab CI.
Full Stack Engineer
ABN AMRO Bank N.V. (2020-09-30 - 2021-04-30)
I worked on an internal application to visualize the bank's interconnected applications, activities and organizational data. I wrote Cypher queries for our Neo4J database, import scripts and APIs in NodeJS and front-end components in Vue. As part of a migration to Azure, I took responsibility for containerizing and deploying our component library in Storybook to Kubernetes via Azure Pipelines, and used Helm templating to setup feature branch deploys to help our UX designers as part of the review process.
Software Engineer
ERIKS Digital (2018-08-31 - 2020-08-31)
I mostly worked on an internal sales tool which aggregated useful product data for ur colleagues. It was principally built with Neo4J, Apollo GraphQL and React, and supported by Python, the Cypher query language, Jest and Cypress. This built on top of previous projects that I had worked on to help guide customers to the correct products.
Web Developer
Aliens Are Among Us (2017-06-30 - 2018-07-31)
Worked on a variety of projects (live events application, eBook reading software, insurance platform) using technologies like React, Ember, D3 and jQuery
Editor/Content Developer/Project Manager
Open University/self-employed (2012-08-01 - 2017-03-31)
I worked in various editorial roles both at the Open University and as a freelancer after moving to Amsterdam, mostly delivering online courses for FutureLearn and OpenLearn.
Education
The University of Huddersfield
Bachelor of Arts (BA) - Music Technology & Popular Music
2008 - 2012
Skills
TypeScript, React, Node.js, Kubernetes, Kotlin, Spring Boot, AI Automation, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus stack, GitHub Actions, Gitlab CI, Playwright, Docker, Terraform, Helm, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Vue, Astro, Svelte, Tailwind, Webpack, NestJS, Neo4j, CI/CD, Git, Cypher, Redux, Cypress, HTML, CSS, Redis, GraphQL, JavaScript