• SAM TIDBALL

    Full Stack PHP Developer

Sam TidballFull Stack PHP Developer

I'm a young, experienced Full Stack PHP developer from Cornwall, UK.

Hey, I'm Sam and I'm a talented developer, specialising in PHP, that would love to work with you! I am a full stack developer that loves working with new tech and have almost 10 years experience working with high volume, complex websites and APIs - I'll be able to help!

my employment

Lead PHP Developer – crowdfunder.co.uk

Employed as the Lead PHP Developer for the UK's leading crowdfunding platform to develop the startup's website and build new features required for business' development. I lead the developers in the team, helping to develop their skills and also onboard all the new developers, helping them get up to speed with the system.


I've been developing and maintaining high demand payment systems (Stripe, PayPal, GoCardless and MangoPay) used throughout the site which are used by thousands of people per day.


As part of the job, I've worked on building a RESTFUL API which was used to power a 3rd party site for a nationwide competition last year called VOOM. Due to the competition, it was crucial to make it extremely scalable with high performance.


It includes using Redis and Resque to manage and queue tasks to keep the site stable whilst serving a high volume of traffic. We also write 100s of unit tests to ensure we don't release bad code.


Technology Used:

PHP 7, Twig, AWS, HTML5, LESS/CSS, Grunt, Gulp, Javascript, Docker, Redis, Resque, Stripe, PayPal, GoCardless, Unit Testing, Restful API, Agile Development, MySQL, Mail APIs (Mandrill).

2015 - Present

Lead Developer & Co-Founder – Instachimp

Instachimp is a company created through the love of imagery and technology to put their own unique twist on live event photography. As the lead developer at Instachimp, it was my responsibility and challenge to invent a huge scalable web based system capable of handling 1000s of photos an hour at multiple venues around the world.


I've developed a whole system which finds Instagram & Twitter images matching the event's hashtag and prints them within seconds right in front of the end user. Based on a realtime API system, it feeds into a local server on site at the event. The local app, built in Node JS, processes and prints the images whilst displaying them onto 100s of TVs around the premises simultaneously.


As the technical lead of the business, I managed all the servers and ensured they were secure and functioning correctly. I planned, deployed and fine tuned the MYSQL and NoSQL (elasticsearch, Redis, memcached) databases.


Due to the nature of the business, I had to handle incoming client requests to the system and manage the team to get large updates out fast and reliably, sometimes within hours.


Being the Co-Founder, I was also in charge of teams around the business and managed the day to day running of the business. This has helped me grow a great sense of how different departments work and has been a skill I've used everywhere since to help bring different departments together. I also worked directly with clients arranging events and any last minute technical changes that could be required to finalise a deal.


During my time at Instachimp, we gained a number of high profile clients such as Domino's Pizza, Redbull and Plymouth University whilst printing over 20,000 photos.


Technology Used:

PHP 7, Twig, HTML5, LESS/CSS, NodeJS, Electron, Websockets, Restful API, Javascript, Docker, Redis, Resque, RabbitMQ, Unit Testing, Rackspace, CentOs, Agile Development, MySQL, Mongo, Mail APIs (Sendgrid & Mailgun).

2014 - 2016

Lead Developer – Tickethive

During 2012 I developed a new ticketing platform called Tickethive. The system provides tickets to some of the most popular Cornish events such as The Masked Ball and during it's first 6 months sold just over 9,000 tickets turning over £500,000.


Tickethive was built from scratch using PHP and includes a backend system built on Laravel, fully scalable API and deployable distributed software. The backend system allows the users to create/edit events, monitor ticket sales and analytics, embed an iframe into their own site and manage ticket allocations.


Tickethive also has a barcode scanning system which is a desktop app built in C++ deployed on site at events such as Love Riot. I've been in charge of managing teams of 15 people to efficiently but effectively get 4000 people into the event arena whilst checking that their tickets are valid.


Technology Used:

PHP 5.6, Laravel, Lumen, Blade, HTML5, LESS/SASS/CSS, NodeJS, Restful API, Javascript, Vagrant, Rackspace, Memcache, CentOs, MySQL, Mail APIs (Sendgrid & Mailgun).

2012 - 2015

Web Designer/Developer – Rolling Sixes

Whilst working for Rolling Sixes, I worked on a number of website projects that required site designs and custom functionality. My tasks here included managing projects and directly contacting customers to collaborate on projects and ideas. My biggest project at Rolling Sixes was developing an RFID system built in C which I used to manage 400 members of staff at a large festival in 2012. The system monitored the hours and whereabouts of the staff which allowed us to accurately calculate wages and areas that required more staff.

2012 - 2015

Web Designer/Developer – Pixedo

After I left college I worked as a freelancer developing websites and custom systems. These include sites based in the UK and Holland ranging from bands and DJs to a large sports website.

In this time I also managed the client's servers providing maintenance, support, disaster recovery and security.


Technology Used:

AWS, CentOs, NGINX, MySQL, Docker, Vagrant, CPanel, Jenkins, PHP 5.6-7, Laravel, Lumen, Blade, Twig, HTML5, LESS/SASS/CSS, NodeJS, Restful API, Javascript, Vagrant, Docker, Rackspace, Memcache, Mail APIs (Sendgrid & Mailgun).

2010 - Present

my skills

Here's just a little bit about what I can do

Programming Skills

PHP (8.2)
Databases (MySQL, MariaDB, Mongo)
API Design
Payment Gateways (Stripe, PayPal, GoCardless and more)
Node JS
Queues/Event Systems (Resque, RabbitMQ, custom)
Frameworks (Laravel, Codeignitor, Symfony, Slim)
HTML/CSS
Jquery

Other Things

Apache
Nginx
Redis
Unit Testing
Memcached
Intercom
Docker
Git
Stripe
GoCardless
PayPal
LESS/SASS
HTML Email
Phone Gap
Cordova
Deployment Systems
Agile
Kanban
Jira
Youtrack
Bitbucket
Github
Chatbots
Server Management

languages skills

  • English

  • French

  • Dutch

get in touch with me

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