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LOUIS GOLDSBROUGHENGINEERING / PEOPLE / PRODUCTS

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LOUIS GOLDSBROUGH / LEAD ENGINEER

Good engineering.
Stronger teams.

I build the conditions for people to deliver good software.

Technical judgement, a hands-on development background and a belief that people do their best work with clarity, trust and room to grow.

My career has taken me from an HSBC apprenticeship, through automation at Barnsley Council, to leading engineering teams at the Home Office. I still build products of my own.

See what that looks like in practice
2 → ~20Engineering capability grown
across three teams200+Members of the technical
community I created2015 → todayFrom apprentice developer
to engineering leadership

02 / LEADERSHIP

What I bring to a team.

Clear direction, people who can grow, and engineering practices that hold up beyond the first release.

01

Build the team.
Build the capability.

~20 engineers / 3 teams

I grew a small development capability into three teams, bringing together developers, testing and DevOps expertise. The work included recruitment, shared standards, stakeholder relationships and leading a product into live service.

My contribution & approach

My contribution

Assessed and recruited people, established the way work moved through delivery, developed shared guidance and supported engineering leads.

What it taught me

A growing team needs shared expectations and space for people to take ownership. I use coaching, regular feedback and clear responsibilities to make that possible.

02

Make the decision
understandable.

Technical direction / specialist collaboration

I designed an approach that allowed multiple teams to deliver on a shared platform, discussed it with Microsoft engineering specialists and worked with a DevOps specialist on implementation.

My contribution & approach

My contribution

Framed the constraints, designed the overall approach and explained the trade-offs. Detailed implementation was carried out by the specialist engineer.

How I use that judgement now

I ask what problem a proposed change solves, what it costs in delivery effort and what improvement it makes. Engineers should be able to explain the reasoning, and colleagues should understand the consequences.

03

Own what happens
after delivery.

Quality / support / product priorities

I connect engineering quality with the realities of running a service: review, testing, documentation, maintenance and clear ownership. I bring product and technical colleagues together so this work has a place alongside new features.

My contribution & approach

My contribution

Established shared standards for design, peer review, test evidence, acceptance and release preparation. Help teams improve support information and coordinate engineering attention when issues arise.

The wider responsibility

Workforce planning, coaching and resource oversight are part of keeping delivery sustainable. My focus is making the next decision easier for the team, as well as getting today’s work done.

04

Help knowledge
travel further.

200+ community members

I created a Microsoft technology community that brought engineers, architects and product colleagues together to share questions, platform news, reusable ideas and technical sessions.

My contribution & approach

My contribution

Started the community, encouraged participation and organised sessions with Microsoft. I also contributed to low-code standards and collaborative workshops.

Why it matters

Leadership also happens beyond a reporting line. Giving people somewhere useful to learn and contribute connects expertise that individual teams might otherwise miss.

“a balance between high quality delivery, creating a resourceful learning space and also a great empathy for the team's well being.”
Ramya JayaramPower Platform Lead · Reported to me directlyLinkedIn recommendation · March 2026 (opens in a new tab)

03 / EXPERIENCE

A career built on doing.

Each move added another perspective: the software itself, the business problem, the team delivering it and the people depending on it.

2022 — NOW

Home Office

From automation delivery to leading engineering teams.

Hands-on automation became a foundation for setting technical direction, growing teams and taking responsibility for the quality and sustainability of delivery.

Lead EngineerNovember 2023 – present
  • Current remit: provide engineering leadership across multiple teams, supporting technical direction, quality, workforce planning, recruitment and live-service sustainability.
  • Work with engineering leads, product, delivery, architecture and DevOps to agree priorities, assess technical decisions and plan maintainable delivery.
  • Develop people through recruitment, onboarding, coaching, feedback and progression planning. Bring maintenance and risk priorities into delivery alongside new features.
  • Earlier in this role, grew an engineering capability from two developers to around 20 engineers across three teams. Established shared development standards and brought development, testing and DevOps expertise together.
  • Delivered an Alpha on schedule and led a product into live service. Designed the overall delivery approach, working with specialist engineers on implementation.
  • Created a Microsoft technology community with approximately 200+ members across engineering, architecture and product.
Automation DeveloperJune 2023 – November 2023
  • Held leadership responsibilities within a team of three to four developers delivering business automation.
  • Helped design process flows, resolve complex development problems and coordinate incident work alongside day-to-day delivery.
  • Organised training and supported junior developers, using shared documentation and Agile delivery practices to keep the team connected.
Associate Automation DeveloperJune 2022 – June 2023
  • Developed business automations and took on development-lead responsibilities for an incomplete project.
  • Improved the existing build and guided it through development, testing and release, resulting in more reliable end-to-end operation.
  • Provided Python programming support and career guidance to junior and student developers.
2019 — 2022

Barnsley Council

Understand the need. Simplify the work.

Investigated more than 1,000 applications and consolidated functions into around 150 solutions. Then led the introduction of automation, linking technical delivery with business needs, investment and adoption.

Robotic Process Automation Developer / Acting LeadJune 2020 – June 2022
  • Led the introduction of RPA, developed an automation strategy and established the tools and delivery practices needed to support it.
  • Created process and solution design documents, test plans and release notes, with planning for process-level return-on-investment measurement.
  • Introduced Agile-style delivery and worked with stakeholders through demonstrations, roadmaps and investment discussions.
ICT OfficerFebruary 2019 – June 2020
  • Investigated more than 1,000 applications during a technology refresh and consolidated functions into around 150 software solutions.
  • Gathered requirements, managed a temporary UAT testing team and supported application rollout during a technology refresh.
  • Introduced clearer software-request and review practices, and supported project decisions.
2015 — 2019

HSBC

An apprenticeship in how software really works.

Developed, tested and maintained business software, learning the discipline of documentation, controlled change and supporting what you build.

Software Development EngineerNovember 2015 – February 2019
  • Entered technology through a software development apprenticeship at HSBC.
  • Developed, tested and maintained business software, working with other developers through the development lifecycle.
  • Implemented software changes and produced business and technical documentation.
2014 — 2015

Capita

Start by listening.

Customer support taught me to understand a question, explain information clearly and help someone move forward.

Customer Service AdvisorSeptember 2014 – September 2015
  • Handled customer enquiries, explained information clearly and resolved issues in a public-service contact-centre setting. Built a foundation in listening, communication and working within agreed procedures.

04 / SKILLS & LEARNING

The skills behind the work.

Practical development, technical leadership and continuing learning — with context for how I use each.

People & capability

Multi-team leadership, line management, coaching, mentoring, performance management, recruitment, technical interviewing, onboarding, development planning, workforce planning, delegation and supporting engineering leads.

Strategy & delivery

Technical direction, software design, stakeholder management, product alignment, resource and budget oversight, supplier collaboration, business process design, requirements analysis, Agile and Waterfall delivery, Scrum, Kanban, sprint planning, retrospectives and delivery metrics.

Engineering quality & service

Coding standards, technical elaboration, peer review, test planning, UAT, CI/CD, reusable components, feature flags, release management, technical documentation, maintenance planning, risk prioritisation and major-incident coordination.

HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE

Code & automation

C# · Python · JavaScript · SQL
Azure Functions · Logic Apps · Web APIs
UiPath · Blue Prism · Oracle Integration Cloud

DELIVERY & TECHNICAL DIRECTION

Microsoft platforms

Dynamics 365 · Power Platform · Power Apps
SharePoint · Azure DevOps

CURRENT LEADERSHIP CONTEXT

Modern services

Java · React · AWS · Kubernetes

Technologies in my engineering remit; my contribution is technical leadership and assurance, working with specialist engineers.

AI-ASSISTED PERSONAL & CLIENT WORK

Web, data & 3D

React · Next.js · TypeScript · Supabase
Python · FastAPI · Three.js · MapLibre
Authentication · Resend · JSON

Earlier foundation COBOL / COBOL II · JCL · DB2 · IBM mainframe · CICS · RDz

Everyday collaboration Jira · Confluence · Azure DevOps · Excel · Word

Qualifications & continued learning

Formal learning that complements the experience.

2021

CMI Level 6 Certificate in Management & Leadership

Brighton School of Business and Management

Pass

2021

CMI Level 4 Certificate in Management & Leadership

Brighton School of Business and Management

Pass

2019

ITIL Foundation Level

PeopleCert

Issued October 2019

Earlier education & technical training
Level 3 Extended Diploma in Information Technology
HSBC Apprenticeship · 2015 – 2017 · Pass
Level 3 Extended Diploma in Information Technology
Barnsley College · 2012 – 2014 · Pass
z/OS JCL Workshop Part 1 – Foundation Skills
RSM Technology Solutions Inc. · Issued March 2016
COBOL Programming Part 2 – Advanced Level
RSM Technology Solutions Inc. · Issued February 2016
DB2 for z/OS: Application Programming
RSM Technology Solutions Inc. · Issued January 2016
COBOL Programming Part 1 – Foundation
RSM Technology Solutions Inc. · Issued December 2015

Still learning. Still building.

I’m developing my impact across teams: building lasting engineering capability, helping engineers grow into leadership and keeping technical improvement connected to product outcomes. My own projects are where I explore how AI-assisted development can turn ambitious ideas into useful products.

05 / PRODUCT WORK

I keep my hands in the work.

Outside employment, client products and personal experiments keep me close to real users, technical constraints and the details of making something work. These projects use AI-assisted development.

Live client product

Vault Barbershop

From a business need to a working booking service.

Customer and barber journeys, booking data and email integration, followed by live defect investigation and iteration.

Next.js · React · Supabase

Explore the project Vault Barbershop

Personal product

Paracosm Studio

Make an editable world persist.

Representing 3D world data compactly, saving it consistently and rebuilding it in the browser — where creative tools meet data design.

React · Supabase · JSON

Explore the project Paracosm Studio

Active development

Contour Studio

Turn a real place into something physical.

A local app for geographic data, continuous terrain geometry and tiled print exports. Extending my work into interactive 3D and manufacturing constraints.

Python · TypeScript · Three.js

Explore the project Contour Studio

Also on my workbench

Desktop DisplaysA collaboration bringing together product design, 3D printing, electronics and software as a service.Police Detective GameAn agentic development experiment using a fictional workstation and connected applications to tell a story.Power X TanningA live business website with a distinctive identity and a manageable content editor.

LET’S TALK

Need someone who can connect
the people, the problem
and the engineering?