Recommendations - CV

Jo is a very knowledgeable software engineer and organised manager. Jo has been extremely helpful and patient while managing me, which has been greatly appreciated.

Her ability to breakdown projects into smaller, more manageable tasks is very impressive. All while thinking of every edge case that could appear, which has always helped ensure our products have been launched in the best state possible.

I have been very lucky to have been managed by (and work with!) Jo, which has in turn made me a much better software engineer and more open-minded person. She would be an asset to any company.

March 7, 2023

Oliver Cooke, Full Stack Developer at Poplar Studio

It has been an honour and a pleasure to work with Jo at Poplar Studio, in her capacity as Engineering Lead. We had a very transparent interviewing process where she made clear some things were very important to her in terms of work culture, and that clear expectation helped us set expectations. I wanted to point that out, as I am truly grateful for the impact she's had on Poplar's company culture, being a champion for diversity, inclusivity and overall cultural intelligence/agility. All of our staff over time have said that we have managed to build one of the best company cultures that they had ever experienced, and Jo's contribution has been invaluable, as a leader. Others will be better placed to comment on her technical expertise (as I'm not her direct technical manager), but I know that she has delivered on all of her objectives over the past few years, including building and maintaining our tech architecture, managing a team of software engineers, and contributing to our product vision and execution. The roster of impressive companies she has already worked at is a testament to how good she is, and we have been glad to count Poplar as one of them.

February 23, 2023

David Ripert, CEO & Founder at Poplar Studio

Jo has been a cherished and pivotal member of the team at Poplar Studio - as a member of the leadership team she has been involved in a diverse range of challenges from investor pitches and board meetings through to line management, process definition and hands on coding.

On a technical level, her meticulous attention to detail and ambition to empower teams through clear processes and best practice has enabled a stable and efficient dev environment to be built, while continuing to move at the pace required as a startup. She has also brought individual strengths to our products in a hands-on coding capacity, for example in the areas of accessibility and platform migrations specifically.

However the greatest strength that Jo brings to any organisation she works for is herself and her honesty. Jo has helped us to build a more inclusive and open culture which is fundamental to a supportive, encouraging and ambitious team. She has frequently led through sharing openly about herself which has inspired many of the team and myself.

Jo has often acted as a valuable foil to my own perspective, providing challenges from a different viewpoint that's allowed us to take into account a wider array of considerations when making decisions and agreeing strategy. Additionally, she has provided thoughtful and reliable counsel to me which I'm very grateful for.

I feel fortunate to have had the chance to work with Jo and learnt a lot from her and look forward to following her journey. Given the right environment and support, Jo will make a huge positive impact through her compassionate, positive, approachable and encouraging nature.

February 15, 2023

Laurie Ainley, Co-Founder & CTO at Poplar Studio

Jo is an extremely talented and knowledgeable software engineer, who has the ability to pick up something new and, not only understand it quickly, but also to get working with it immediately. She cares deeply about both the product and the team members, and gives great positive feedback during code review. Pairing sessions were always fun as we swiftly fell into the classic roles of driver and navigator, seamlessly switching between them in order to produce great quality work. 100% would work with Jo again!

August 28, 2020

Neal Brooks, Senior Software Engineer, MyBuilder

During her time at MyBuilder Jo was a trusted pair of hands to tackle any technical challenge.

Just after joining she eagerly got stuck into our project to build a new insurance project for MyBuilder customers. This was our first project to be built entirely on AWS Lambda with Bref in PHP and Symfony. It was fully event-sourced with CQRS and DDD. Once it was live we had very few problems a testament to the skills of Jo and the team who worked on it.

She was then tackled, with great attention to detail, a migration of a key API from Symfony 3 to 5 as well as adding psalm to the code to ensure everything was correct in the code. This was done quickly and well. It became the template for moving other projects.

She was also often the first person to review pull requests made by the other developers and she has a keen eye for technical flaws in PHP and Symfony.

Jo is highly skilled at PHP, Symfony.

August 24, 2020

Gavin Love, CTO, MyBuilder.com

Over the last two years Jo has made a major impact in the modernisation of the development practice. Together we were able to breath new life into CI pipelines and step closer to the development dream of Continuous Development.

Jo's competitive nature has meant that the projects for which she was development lead provided examples to the other development teams in the company, showing how best to adopt new technologies, and push forward in embracing new DevOps practices.

While working on projects together, she displayed an impressive understanding of PHP, Symfony, and general development practices, and was able to leverage her wider skill sets to work closely with operations to define new practices, and troubleshoot issues when they arose.

June 14, 2017

Robert Gornall, Development Support Engineer, The Mill

I've worked with Jo for the past 9 months in two projects within the Mill Product Development Team. Jo is a very talented developer, as well as a fierce team leader and hard worker. She's constantly building the bridge between design and development, which made my daily work as a designer, in all the projects I worked with her, feel very collaborative.

Anyone would be very lucky to work with her, and I'd love to work with her in the future!

June 6, 2017

Núria Quero, Junior UX Designer, The Mill

During her time at the Mill, for me, Jo demonstrated an apt attitude for getting things done thoroughly and to the highest standard possible whilst remaining approachable and accessible to both her clients and fellow team members.

Her approach to client interaction was very hands on including her use of client-team meetings, she also applied a good approach to the Agile methodology: her ever updated full-stack and Dev-Ops skill-set lead to realistic deadlines and sturdy resultant software.

Jo also presented as an excellent mentor, it was because of her that I was able to get to grips with the inner workings and some of the caveats present in the Symfony Framework. Her approach to modelling and testing code was also useful- to this end Jo was even an official mentor at a PHP UK conference.

I therefore recommend Jo for her high-end (current) technical and engineering skills, organisational and leadership skills, and social skills.

Jo: a true professional in this field.

June 5, 2017

Roderick Timmerman, Software Developer, The Mill

Talented, Efficient and thorough are the terms when Jo comes to mind.

I had the pleasure of working alongside Jo for over 2 years. She is a dedicated professional with immense amounts of knowledge which she is happy to share with others.

I was very impressed by her approach to the projects as well as her ability to see those projects to the end. I had the opportunity to learn a lot from her during her time at The Mill.

Above all, I can say she will be an asset to any business. I wish her a very successful future.

June 4, 2017

Danish Javed, Software Developer, The Mill

Jo's first task at The Mill was to listen to me rambling on about my half baked idea to create a tool for quoting out VFX work. A day later she approached me with a detailed and well considered brief. The amount of detail she managed to remember from our single exchange was mindbogglingly impressive. Throughout the project she was an absolute pleasure to work with. Patient, understanding and easy to talk to. Jo always had a handle on the priorities. She helped change the way we do things at The Mill, and I am proud to say I helped her (sort of helped her).

June 2, 2017

David Fleet, Head of 3D, The Mill

I'm very glad that I had my first experience in web development while working alongside Jo on the project she was managing. Jo always ensured the project moved smoothly, collaboratively involving the entire team with their strengths and encouraging individual personal growth. Jo is an attentive team leader and I'm very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with her.

Feb 3, 2017

Marty Gormley, Frontend Developer, The Mill

Jo is one of the most talented developers that I have had the pleasure of working with. She is not only incredibly skilled and knowledgable about what she does, but is also quick-thinking and level-headed, seeing only challenges and solutions where others would see problems. Jo was an absolute joy to work with, and I'm sure that she will excel at any opportunity put in front of her.

Nov 10, 2014

Angel Capobianco Storey, Copywriter, Holler Digital Ltd

I worked with Jo on many projects at Holler for various clients. Jo is a very talented and hard working developer. She has a wide range of knowledge of web technologies and practices and always strives to achieve the best in her projects. Jo also has very good attention to detail and does not leave any circumstance unplanned. She was a great lead and always provided me with anything I'd need in order to carry out my duties as a front end developer.

Oct 30, 2014

Simon Holmes, Developer, Holler Digital Ltd

Jo is an excellent developer, with great attention to details and has superior technical knowledge.

Sep 8, 2014

Hana Smart, Head of Production, Holler Digital Ltd

I started working with Jo at Holler straight after graduating from university, and I feel that her guidance and support not only played a huge role in helping me gain competence in a myriad of skills and technologies, but also gave me the confidence, encouragement and general industry advice that I felt helped me to get the best possible start to my career. A strong team-player, developer, mentor, and friend; Jo will prove an invaluable asset to any team.

March 12, 2013

Christopher Pole, Developer, Holler Digital Ltd

Jo is a really great person to work with. She also happens to be a top notch PHP/Symfony developer. She's also dived in to help us out with all sorts of things like debugging issues on we missing memory on servers and a whole range of other stuff. I hope we get the chance to work together again.

December 10, 2010

James Deakin, Chief Technical Officer, Skive Creative

Jo writes solid code and process documentation, and is a strong advocate of the Right Way to do things. The Right Way will generally save you a lot of headaches, in the world of production code. Hire her.

October 4, 2010

Steve Sexton, Sysadmin, Pod1 Ltd

Jo is an excellent developer who has an immense capacity for retaining and using information, and has an attention to detail that I wish I could provide for all of my developers!

She has been a great help on many occasions and helped pioneer many new ideas and projects.

September 9, 2010

Robin Lewis, Senior Client Support Analyst, Pod1

Jo is a knowledgable, proficient and experienced web developer. She takes a lot of pride in her projects and is always keen to help with any development questions or problems I might have in mine. She is a pleasure to work with and a great asset within any team.

September 10, 2010

Hannah Stothard, Senior Front End Developer, Pod1

Jo is a highly skilled developer, very motivated, and takes great care to ensure her projects are successful. Working on websites with Jo was made significantly easier due to her willingness to provide help and advice in all areas of a site build.

September 9, 2010

Matthew Havelock, Web Developer, Pod1

Jo is one of the most diligent developers I have had the pleasure of working with. She is quick, focused and takes a great deal of pride in the work she produces - a great asset to any project that needs a quick turnaround!

December 15, 2009

Ethel Okorji, Project Manager, Pod1

Throughout all the projects I have worked on with Jo she has been dedicated, thorough and her attention to detail and time management is fantastic. A highly motivated individual with great client facing abilities and willing to help with all aspects of her work. I would regularly come to Jo with queries and questions.

April 20, 2009

Charlotte Ludlow, Project Manager, Pod1

I have found Jo great to work with on all my projects and have known her to deliver fantastic projects on time if not early. She cares about her work and clients immensely ensuring speed and quality at the same time. Due to her attention to detail, ability to pick up any code and being reliable she was often brought onto a project or client to troubleshoot. Jo was always a great asset to have on the team and I would have no hesitation to work with her on any kind of project or recommend her.

April 20, 2009

Nathalie Wermeille, Head of Projects, Pod1