This document provides a summary of a candidate's skills and experience. They have strong technical skills across both software and hardware, including experience with a wide range of platforms and technologies. They have worked effectively in both individual and leadership roles on various projects in different industries. Their expertise includes areas like networking, virtualization, cloud computing, IoT, and mobile development.

1. Personal Actively self-motivated professional with strong research, design and implementation skills covering a
wide range of software and hardware platforms and technologies. Possessing a forensic approach to
software and systems design contributes to high reliability in the delivered solutions.
Strong interpersonal skills create good working relations with others, especially the customer. Having
substantial technical and engineering experience promotes excellent team lead and project direction
management. Experience of working in many locations both in the UK and abroad.
Possessing such a wide range of technical skills allows for easy integration into existing projects whilst
also providing a jump start for generic ideas.
Having some accountancy skills I act as treasurer for some local charities in preparing and submitting
their annual accounts. People I wish I could have talked with: Albert Einstein, John L Baird, Alan Turing.
Core Skills
current
A rare mixture of software and hardware expertise covering a wide range of computing platforms and
architecture. Daily working with Microsoft and other development environments, modern programming
languages and application design, encompassing the software development lifecycle.
Excellent soft, interpersonal and collaboration skills, with an ability to see just what a solution requires.
The Internet of Things (IoT) and communication devices (M2M) including Message Queuing Telemetry
Transport (MQTT) and subscription of such messages by application layers including MVC ASP.Net.
Speech to Speech using Amazon Web Developer (AWS), and other voice recognition platforms.
All versions of Windows desktop and server to kernel level inclusive of embedded versions.
VMware, Hyper-V and other virtualisation platforms at both the hardware and software levels allows
custom implementation and extensions to be constructed to fit exacting requirements.
Detailed knowledge of fault tolerant systems, clustering and failover, including Network Applications
(Net App), replication technologies, iSCSI based SAN, FCoE, backup and snapshot components.
An excellent understanding of the supporting technologies including networking (both protocols and
hardware), firewalls, security and authentication (Active Directory), as well as good knowledge of the
service support processes for the enterprise.
Product
Experience
Programming Language Assembler, C, C++, C#, VB#, Java, JavaScript, Python, Forth,
All versions of dot Net, Mono etc.
Historic : Cobol, Fortran, Basic, PL9, RTL2
Platforms Intel: X86, AMD64, 805x series of microcontrollers, SOC
ARM. STM etc.
RISC: including Microchip PIC, Atmel 8 and 32 bit devices
Programming Tools Visual Studio 6 to 15, Android Studio, Eclipse
SVN and Git, MPLAB, ATMEL Studio
Operating Systems Windows 3.11 to 10 including embedded products,
Windows Server 2000 to 2016
Android API levels 2.3 to current
Windows Phone 8
Linux workstation and server – many versions
Net Apps v5 to 8 etc.
Custom mobile network solutions.
Ability to modify and build open software solutions from source.
Virtualisation Platforms VMware and Hyper-V at both a hardware and software API levels.
Including many Linux based variants,
Single and multi-tenanted implementations
Workstation 6 to 12 and Oracle Virtual Box
Sarah Helen Thomas
Axbridge, Somerset
mob:+44 7867 828838 home:01934 732072 mail:sarah@mymobileoffice.co.uk

2. Networking Detailed understanding of networks protocols down to packet level
analysis with tools like Wire Shark and Microsoft Message Monitor.
API level sockets including SSL, IP v4 and 6.
Proficiency Wide ranging experience in real world scenarios including: Retail, Banking, Automotive, Ticketing,
Rail, Insurance, Construction, Defence, Chemical, Pharmaceutical, Biometric, Audio and Visual,
Mobile devices, Web Services, and general areas of computer based commerce.
Historic Employer: Fujitsu Services Role: Consultant Solutions Architect January 2008 to current
Client: Royal Bank of Scotland 2015 - current
User automation of desktop to cloud services +25,000 clients
Complex customer requirements for users to control multiple independent cloud sessions from different
clients (Citrix, RDP etc.), all required to be securely locked or terminated from a single user key
sequence. The client also requested compound 4 key sequences such as ‘ctrl+alt+del+del’ be handled
to terminate all sessions and return to a start page. Many predefined key combinations needed to be
discarded before passing on to Windows.
The solution was to intercept the key data packet at a driver level and provide a communication path
from the kernel to a user component which actioned the required sequences. These actions could be
compiled to produce a standard application or using a plugin extension to provide C# scripting.
Key Skills: DDK, WDF, KMDF, C++, C# , C# Scripting
Azure and Asp.net MVC – Internet of Things (Scalability) 2016 - current
Research exploring Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) and M2M data into web platforms.
Started life as an Azure accreditation but became focussed on how feasible, and what issues are to be
found when subscribing huge numbers of device to MQTT brokers, and on how broker to broker
bridging can deal with such loads and web services such as MVC may consume such subscriptions.
The project used the following hardware scenarios each requiring a unique data set in order to explore
how abstraction of data within the web hosting could be handled.
1. Electronic name badge with NFC to promote easy exchange of details
2. Blood pulse/oxygen level monitor for local or remote monitoring
3. Simple particulates and air quality analyser over GPRS
Each of the above could require differing service provisions i.e. local to local, local to remote etc.
Currently a new MQTT broker has been written for the .net platform using asynchronous sockets as
used in Microsoft SignalR real time extensions, and provisioned to ease the subscriptions from an MVC
model website, whilst fully complying with the MQTT 3.11 specifications.
Results from test performed are very encouraging and will be developed as time allows.
Key Skills: IoT, MQTT, SignalR, ASP.Net, MVC, Azure, Arduino, GPRS, ESP8266, Android.
Client: Royal Bank of Scotland 2014 - 2015
A project with a substantial commercial value was deemed to be failing in its ability to deliver the
required hardware and software for acceptance testing by the rapidly approaching agreed date.
When asked to help, it quickly became apparent that a distinct change in direction was required in
order for this project to deliver on time. The role of technical lead was undertaken and changes
implemented giving each team member a defined role. A structure was also needed to build the thin
client device correctly and install software at the correct point in (Configuration Passes) before imaging.
A further requirement was a custom keyboard filter to reject specific key sequences, this requirement
had somehow been confused with key mappings which was an incorrect assumption. A filter driver
was created to comply with the agreed minimum specs, and finally the build and filter came together
and was delivered before the final date.
The above sounds quite simple but in practise was very difficult to achieve due to the really short time
frame available, and some issues from strong minded individuals. The project however was completed
and delivered by the agreed date, and the company finally was awarded the contract.
Key Skills: Team Leadership, Collaboration, Project Structure, Windows Deployment, Win DDK

3. Client: Home Retail Group (Argos) 2014
Project to allow eBay participants to collect their items from Argos stores.
The project team initially assumed that the inbuilt Android browser could be used as the client for the
eBay system. However, as the requirements became clearer and live testing was about to start, it was
realised that the project would not work as envisaged.
Given the minimal information available it was apparent that something far more specific was required.
After speaking with the US eBay team it was clear that a custom application was needed.
Timescales were really tight as there was only two weeks available to code and test the application
before it would be shown at the opening of the new Argos digital store. Further pressures were due to
the contractual obligations Argos would be under if the company missed these dates.
An Android application was coded creating a secure custom web client that could correctly participate
with the eBay servers. The application also handled the specific hardware of the Motorola device.
A secured build of Android 4.1 was also created for easy deployment to the 1700 devices.
Despite some late changes requested by the customer all obligations were complied with, and the
system is still in daily use in the Argos and Sainsbury’s popup shops.
The system has worked without fault or modification for well over two years.
Key Skills: Communication, Extracting Customer Requirements, Android Programing.
Client:Vaillant Group Service 2010-12
Custom Windows Tablet to support field service personnel.
Customer required a very specific configuration which had to be Windows based due to the bespoke
software needed. The project had to comply with the following requirements:
 Restricted desktop allowing access to group software
 Provision for documents library to be available both on and offline with automatic update of
changes
 Automated popup of on screen keyboard when user taps a text based input field.
 Transparent access to both Wi-Fi and GPRS networks
 Provision for local file spoofing to ease issues with intermittent GPRS
 Company news delivered to the desktop (RSS).
A virtualised infrastructure (VMware) running Server 2008 with IIS 7 and WebDAV, was required to
host the services that the clients needed in order to work correctly. This server also hosted the Windows
Software Update Service, providing the required software updates to all clients.
A custom software solution for both server and client was written around Microsoft Sync frameworks
to provide the automated WebDAV document store to the client.
A custom desktop was constructed around Microsoft’s open source release of the ‘Metro’ desktop. The
code was extensively changed to provide a robust shell. Applets to support the document sync, RSS
and Networks were created. Finally simple tools such as desktop icon to provide task switching for the
running applications.
The popup keyboard was handled by interception of the low level roles call-backs functionality within
windows, which is triggered when the user taps a text input field. Launching the onscreen keyboard
proved to be a bit more of a challenge!
The customer was happy with the results and the system has run with little change until the tablets
have become end of life in September this year. Had a robust replacement device been available the
customer would have continued with the service.
Key Skills: Client Collaboration, Many aspects of Windows hardware and software design.
Footnote The above is just a glimpse of some of the projects I have created, please see the supporting
documentation for more information and customer comments and feedback on the work performed for
them.