Gavin Davies Limited is a software consultancy
About Gavin Davies
Based in sunny(!) Cardiff in Wales, I provide software consultancy informed by decades of experience.
I am part of the Equal Experts network
Company details
- Company number
- 14227143
- VAT number
- 434 9751 69
- Website
- gavindavieslimited.com
- Contact
- info@gavindavieslimited.com
- linkedin.com/in/gavd
Gavin Davies Limited has liability insurance and public indemnity insurance.
Approach
I am an expert software generalist. This means I do not particularly specialise; I'm something more akin to a general practitioner in that I have decades of experience and I can turn my hand to any task. That said, much of my recent experience is in the Devops domain!
As such, what's distinctive about me is not so much matching the technologies I've worked with in the past against a set of technologies a role uses like a dating site would! The value I bring, whilst heavily technically informed, is based on my ability to synthesise my extremely broad experience and gift for problem analysis.
I'm not married to any particular technology stack (I'm married to genius UX/data specialist Mrs Davies!), nor am I overly dogmatic about particular approaches and paradigms. Instead, I enjoy calmly, logically and collaboratively creating and improving systems, organisations, processes, strategies, and products.
What I value is having meaty problems to solve, friendly and bright people to work with, and being able to contribute in multiple ways including but not limited to developing code or infrastructure, as valuable and enjoyable as that is. I also love to thoroughly understand a system and then clearly and concisely present my findings to provide the team with solid context and data to make decisions with.
So many in this industry are tech-first, but it has pleasantly surprised me how often the most elegant solutions require no code at all. The most valuable investments we make are in people. That's not just something I say because it sounds good; that's a soul-deep conviction that I hold.
The skills map on this website gives a taste of what I bring to the table. Many of the roles I've worked in have been nominally devops or software dev, but the true picture of the value I bring is so much broader!
In this era of AI becoming a vast force multiplier, I believe that my ability to carefully articulate objectives and technical problems, combined with my analytical and diagnostic skills, mean I can be extremely valuable to any organisation with problems to solve and software to build.
Do please feel free to get in touch if you think I could help your organisation!
Skill Set
Click the skills map to enlarge
- Diagnostic
- Fault-finding, RCA, and resolution
- System exploration and characterisation
- Courageous, calm and dogged approach to problem-solving
- Methodically and forensically reproducing issues
- Technical
- DevOps
- Cost saving
- Infrastructure as code
- Building platforms
- Working alongside or within dev teams
- Software engineering
- Using AI (LLMs) as a force multiplier
- Prompt engineering
- Custom vector databases
- Polyglot (language agnostic)
- Multiparadigm
- All kinds of software testing
- Fullstack
- Microcontrollers
- Frontend
- Accessibility
- SEO
- Progressive enhancement
- Backend
- Embedded systems
- Produced successful video games
- Software design/architecture
- Security
- Telemetry
- Observability
- Logs and their thorough analysis
- Accurate, effective, actionable metrics
- Alerting and reactive infrastructure
- DevOps
- Organisational
- Software team design (Conway's law)
- Organisation and technical strategy
- Devising roadmaps, milestones and goals
- Pivoting effectively in response to change
- Defining "north star" and other key metrics
- Startups
- Helping early stage/greenfield orgs hit the ground running
- Helping scale-ups to professionalise
- Technical leadership
- Mentoring
- Training and coaching
- Leading by example through discipline and professionalism
- Optimising flow by iterating on process and team alignment
- Informational
- Accurate, effective, robust technical documentation
- Presenting complex information succinctly and comprehensibly with personality and levity
- Chairing and facilitating effective meetings
- Researching topics and synthesising findings
- Authored three technical books
- Confident public speaker both internally and at conferences
- Hosting podcasts
- Clear, well-thought-out demos and documentation of work done
Experience
Operability Engineer at HM Revenue & Customs DPS
Aug 2025 - present
Devops consultant contractor and Tech Lead at HM Revenue & Customs MDTP
Aug 2022 - July 2025
I had the pleasure of working with a fantastic telemetry team on HMRC's MDTP (Multichannel Digital Tax Platform). In this role, I was part of a team maintaining observability, logs, metrics and alerting for a bold and innovative platform.
The role involved a lot of IaC (Infrastructure as Code) via Terraform, creation and maintenance of Scala DSLs and Python tooling, and of course getting to grips with Kubernetes (EKS + ECK operator), Elasticsearch, Kibana, Grafana, Clickhouse, Sensu, Pagerduty, and more AWS services than you could shake a telegraph pole at!
I am told that my ability to synthesise information sources, present information, and dogged approach to fault correction was extremely valuable in this role.
Tech: Kubernetes (EKS with ECK operator) · Helm · Python · Scala · Apache Kafka · Grafana · ClickHouse · Elastic Stack (ELK) · Terraform with Terragrunt · Docker · Pagerduty
Skills: Enterprise Consulting · Organizational Consulting · Product demos · Backlog crafting · Kanban
VP Engineering at BindHQ
Sep 2020 - July 2022
At this fintech startup, I was tasked with building an engineering team from strategy through recruitment to onboarding, coaching and beyond.
At the same time, I continued to make individual contributions, particularly in the infrastructure and backend code areas.
I oversaw and contributed to a vast refactor which replaced a Clojure application with a more scalable and performant PHP version
Tech: JavaScript · PHP · Software Development · Symfony · Software Design · HTML5 · Elasticsearch · Amazon Web Services (AWS) · Docker · Terraform with Terragrunt · JVM analysis and diagnostics
Skills: Line management · Technical strategy · Hiring · Interviewing · Scrum · Planning · Team Topologies
Senior Systems Engineer (DevOps) at Backbase
Jun 2019 - Sep 2020
Supporting hundreds of developers with their pipelines and environments as part of the build team.
I was involved with the Devops COP (Community of Practice).
Tech: Amazon Web Services (AWS) · CI (Jenkins) · Kubernetes · Go (GoLang) · Node.js · Artifactory
Skills: Product support
Solutions Architect at Bipsync
Aug 2016 - May 2019
Role:
- Managing AWS infrastructure with Terraform
- Automation of deployment and testing with Jenkins
- Coding in PHP, Node.js, Ansible, Terraform, shell and more
- Monitoring, alerting and responding to infrastructure issues
- Provision and maintenance of virtual machines for the development team
- Technical documentation
- Process improvement
- AWS security and cost analysis
Key achievements:
- Developed post-release smoke test suite
- Containerised and parallelised test/deploy pipeline so different software configurations could be tested in parallel
- Managed releases, software upgrades and patching
- Transparent workflow with daily status reports to C-suite
- Slack integrations for custom monitoring and alerting
Tech: Amazon Web Services (AWS) · CI (Jenkins, Travis, Github CI) · PHP · Backbone.js · Containerisation · OS hardening · Ansible · TDD
Skills: Presenting to the board · Public speaking · Technical writing
Automation Engineer at Radify
Jan 2014 - Jul 2016
Providing automation, coding and consultancy.
Orchestration of Amazon Web Services, application deployment, and continuous delivery pipeline automation.
Tech: Amazon Web Services (AWS) · Node.js · AngularJS · PHP · Distributed functions · IaC · Immutable infrastructure · Ansible
Skills: Technical writing · Public speaking · Technical strategy · SEO · TDD
Principal Software Developer at Box UK
Aug 2007 - Jan 2014
Working on client builds and core product features in Agile teams, including:
- Part of the product team for the Amaxus CMS; clients include National Gallery (PHP, Ext-JS).
- Upgraded, enhanced and documented the BBC mapping toolkit (from Glow to jQuery).
- Built BBC mobile travel website (Java/Spring, PHP/Zend, first app on FORGE platform).
- Designed and built Science Without Borders site (PHP/Symfony2, Bootstrap, Solr).
- Built TV/games platform for the under-fives with integrated physics (Intel App Framework, Cordova, Box2D, HTML5 audio/video).
Technical writing
- Prolific writer for the company's blog.
- Documentation of products.
- Developed technical culture
- Started and developed tech talks within the organisation.
- Operated as developer in test.
- Set coding standards and co-defined technical strategy of the organisation.
Training
- Performing code analysis & review.
- Mentoring new developers.
- Teaching programming masterclasses and masterclasses for education.
Pioneered automation and Devops culture as part of the SysAdmin team
- Built and maintained Continuous Integration setup (Jenkins, RedHat, Windows).
- Coded and released Jenkins plugins.
Tech: PHP · SQL Server · MySQL · C# · Flash · JavaScript · Ruby · Cucumber
Skills: Organising meetups · Tech talks · Tech blogging · Training · Automated testing · TDD
Software Developer, Lisol
Jun 2005 - Sep 2007
- SQL Server and ASP.Net applications in the education sector, focusing on standards-compliant, accessible web applications
- Development in C# .Net 2.0, JavaScript (including AJAX) and Flash
- Ported ASP classic scripts to patterns-based .Net application.
- Integrated off-the-shelf components with bespoke code.
- Set up and managed source control.
- Set up continuous integration server using CruiseControl.Net, MSBuild, FXCop, Nunit, Subversion, and Selenium to automatically version, build, deploy, and test a web application that was mixed ASP.Net 2.0 and ASP classic. This also produced an installer that could update any version of the product.
- Organised team of developers, QA'd their commits, assigned work.
Tech: ASP · SQL Server · C# · AJAX · Continuous integration via CruiseControl · JavaScript
Freelance coder
2005 - Jan 2014
- WordPress implementation, including custom plugins.
- Mobile apps, both native hybrid apps using Cordova, Trigger.io and AppMobi.
- Symfony2 application for furniture business with counterpart surveying app.
- Wrote the backend for milliondollarhomepage.com in PHP.
- Maintained Humanbeatbox.com (40,000 user community) between 2004 and about 2007.
- Produced many Flash games with millions of players.
- Coded multiple Flash games for massive media and sports clients.
- Implemented online shopping cart systems using Magento and OSCommerce.
- Built and maintained Debian and RedHat web servers.
- Use of Google tools, such as sitemaster tools, Google Drive, etc.
The Million Dollar Homepage
2005
I knew Alex Tew from the beatboxing scene (I helped him run humanbeatbox.com) and he reached out to me saying "I'm on Richard and Judy in the morning, I need a back end system to load these pixels into the Million Dollar Homepage!".
I built that system and operated it for him as he survived the media storm!
Tech: PHP · Shell scripting
Software developer at Comtec (Europe) Ltd
2005
- Java/.Net developer in the travel sector.
- Created bespoke load testing software.
- Assisted in development of the Flight Booking Engine (Java, MySQL, XML, JSP, Servlets)
- Created tools for monitoring and analysing the Flight Booking Engine (.NET including VB.NET and C#.NET).
- Developed online reports (ASP.Net, XHTML, CSS, AJAX).
- Worked in a large and diverse team.
Tech: Java · Crystal Reports · .Net · JavaScript
Web developer at VSI-thinking
2001-2005
Web developer doing HTML, JavaScript, ASP, SQL Server, Access, Excel etcetera
Tech: ASP · SQL · C# · PhotoShop
Software developer at Emkay Computer Services
1997-2000
I occasionally worked for Emkay during holidays and notably worked there during the summer of 2000. I produced a website for them and also learned about physically building PCs. I got my first tastes of SQL, ActionScript and VB here.
Published works
Git Workflow Discipline. 2021.
Self-published via Leanpub
Using Build Tools. 2015.
Published by 5 Simple Steps
Deal With It: Attitude for Coders. 2012.
Self-published via Leanpub
Recent research vlog
My bi-weekly vlog of what I’m learning about in tech, hosted on youtube.com/@gavindavieslimited. I make these videos as a way of documenting my progress, and as a forcing function - by explaining what I’ve been doing, it forces me to understand it a bit better. These are not necessarily topics in which I claim any expertise, just things I’m currently experimenting with and learning about!
From Wizards to Wordsmiths: the emotional impact of AI on software professionals
Published
CTRL + CV: Scraping my own website because hiring portals are terrible
Published
Levelling up: from Chatbots to Custom AI with RAG and Local LLMs
Published
Building a Raspberry Pi 5 based K8s cluster
Published
Older content is available on request.
Education and qualifications
- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (in progress)
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional - June 2020
- Sitecore CMS Website .NET Developer (SND) - May 2015
- Full clean UK driver's license with pass plus
- Computer Science and Geography B.Sc. Hons, first class, Aberystwyth University
- 4 A-levels (2 As, B, C)
- 10 GCSEs (A*, 7 As, B, C)
Odds and ends
I am one of the founders of Unified Diff, Cardiff's popular tech meetup.
I was a host of the Never Out Of Beta podcast.
I ran CardiffDevWorkshop, offering free software workshops
I like tinkering with Raspberry Pi and Arduino, having built drum machines, synths, custom chat applications, LLM-based chatbots and more on my local clusters and boards.
I've given dozens of tech talks, both online and at conferences including PHP UK, Swanseacon and Port 80.
I produce electronic music, including building some of my own instruments and effects.
I love to tinker with electronics; I'm a serial purchaser and repairer of broken 90s consoles!
I try to release at least an album a year, listened to by up to 6 people!
I have performed at Glastonbury.
I once did a beatboxing gig in a nuclear bunker with a man from a Fruit Pastilles advert.
I have taught Muay Thai and boxing.