Currently scaling high-throughput SaaS systems @ Bubble

Elliot Redhead

Backend-leaning full-stack developer building platforms at scale. Well-versed in API design, data modelling and performance optimization.

backendai / mcpfrontendcloud & infra
Elliot Redhead
01 — Where I've worked

Experience

Bubble®

September 2024 — Present
  • Delivery of Django backend solutions (data modeling, API design, and business logic integration) for a market-leading Project Portfolio Management (PPM) platform, serving thousands of daily users and managing high-volume event processing.
  • Lead Architect for a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, expanding platform extensibility and enabling seamless AI-native integrations for enterprise customers that want to explore new LLM capabilities.
  • Design, implementation, and maintenance of scalable, customizable, and auditable PPM solutions for a diverse, cross-industry client base, ensuring data integrity and enabling informed, data-driven decisions.
  • Optimization of critical database queries and application logic, resulting in significant improvements in overall system responsiveness and user experience, reducing existing processing times from minutes to seconds.
  • Directing the technical overhaul of the primary data export utility, standardizing output using openpyxl and expanding functionality to give users powerful, adaptable tools for data analysis and management.
  • Leading the design and delivery of a comprehensive event lifecycle tracing mechanism, ensuring the historical auditability and integrity of event changes within the system for data governance and compliance reporting.
  • Translation of abstract customer needs and product requirements into actionable technical plans, successfully delivering robust product solutions.
  • Led technical onboarding for other engineers into new project areas, easing transition and accelerating team productivity.
  • Proactive driving of team process improvements (e.g. for sprint ceremonies, feature scoping, testing standards) to ensure consistent, high-quality, collaborative delivery.

Piclo

March 2023 — September 2024
  • Built end-to-end functionality for a SaaS green energy marketplace, focusing on power flexibility delivery to international grids using Django APIs for robust backend services and Vue.js for dynamic frontend components.
  • Architected and integrated scalable cloud solutions leveraging core AWS services (e.g. Lambda, S3, and CloudWatch) to ensure process efficiency and high data interaction throughput across the platform.
  • Drove feature development planning by efficiently decomposing Epics into actionable components, which involved defining technical opportunities, establishing dependencies, formulating comprehensive QA strategies, and prioritizing team workload.
  • Cultivated cross-team visibility of product changes by regularly conducting functionality demonstrations to stakeholders, ensuring alignment and clear communication throughout the development cycle.
  • Provided critical engineering support for customer service requests, which often required expert Django data querying, production code interpretation, and clear communication of complex technical findings to non-technical teams.

Ito World

June 2021 — March 2023
  • Development of core SaaS public transport data products using a Django REST Framework backend and Ariadne (GraphQL), operating within a Linux environment and containerized Docker microservices.
  • Developed and launched high-impact features for major clients including the Department for Transport, Apple, and Google, focusing on backend architecture and complex interfacing with PostgreSQL databases and PostGIS.
  • Reinforced product stability and quality by strictly applying Test-Driven Development (TDD) and leveraging Pytest for comprehensive testing and continuous integration.
  • Drove architectural strategy and design scoping for key features, delivering highly scalable solutions and leading optimization efforts on API endpoints and complex SQL queries with a clear performance focus.
  • Fostered cross-functional collaboration by coordinating the planning and execution of features that spanned multiple teams, ensuring seamless integration and delivery.
  • Enhanced organizational knowledge and onboarding by creating thorough technical documentation (supported by OpenAPI/Swagger schema), making product insights and tooling accessible to wider company audiences.

Eden Ecommerce Ltd (Eden.co.uk)

June 2020 — May 2021
  • Bootstrapping and delivery of a scalable greenfield video conferencing system using WebSockets to handle concurrent events, built on a modern stack including React, Node, and Express.
  • Leveraged AWS services (e.g. Chime, EC2, DynamoDB) with Jest automated testing to ensure the reliability and cloud scalability of the video conferencing platform.
  • Contributed to feature delivery and maintenance updates for the legacy e-commerce PHP codebase, utilizing proficiency with SQL and phpMyAdmin for database management and executing SEO optimizations.
  • Learned and championed modern Agile workflows, including using KANBAN in JIRA, implementing strict Git/GitLab version control, and working within a CI/CD pipeline in a Linux/Docker environment.
02 — What I work with

Skills

Languages & frameworks

PythonDjangoDRFTypeScriptReactVueGraphQL

Cloud & infrastructure

AWS LambdaS3CloudWatchEC2DockerPostgreSQLPostGIS

AI & protocols

LLMsMCPPydantic

Practice & tooling

TDDPytestJestOpenAPIGitJira/KanbanCI/CD
03 — Background

Education

Code Institute

Diploma in Software Development, Full Stack Web Development

The University of Hull

Bachelor's degree, Chemistry

Latest certifications

  • Building Dynamic Websites using AWS Lambdas
  • Introduction to Conversational AI
  • Model Context Protocol (MCP): Hands-On with Agentic AI
  • Getting Started with Go

Let's build something.