The engineer behind the endpoint.
Returns a single engineer object. Fifteen-plus years in production, from self-employed web developer to engineering manager across nine start-ups to backend owner on a platform serving 50,000+ coaches worldwide.
Senior Backend Engineer. Deep PHP, Symfony and Laravel, comfortable across the full stack with TypeScript and Vue.js.
Started shipping for real users in 2009. Never stopped. Scale today: platforms supporting tens of thousands of users worldwide.
AWS Certified Developer - Associate (2024). Currently studying for Solutions Architect - Associate.
Scalable REST APIs, event-driven architecture, WebSockets and real-time systems, cloud-native AWS infrastructure, AI-assisted development workflows.
Engineering manager for nine start-ups; mentor to juniors, students and boot camps for a decade. Comfortable from stand-up to boardroom.
{
"name": "Darren Williams",
"role": "Senior Backend Engineer",
"location": "Caerleon, Newport, UK",
"experience_years": 15,
"aws_certified": true,
"core_stack": [
"PHP", "Symfony", "Laravel",
"TypeScript", "AWS", "Docker"
],
"remote": true,
"available": true
}
Returns 15+ years of shipped work.
An ordered collection, newest first. Expand any object to inspect the full payload, responsibilities, outcomes and stack.
[0]
PHP Backend Engineer
Global football education platform supporting 50,000+ coaches across 2,000+ clubs worldwide. Backend ownership within a polyglot, Symfony-based LMS with a TypeScript frontend.
- Built and maintained a real-time notification and messaging system including WebSocket integration for live updates across the platform
- Designed a flexible "content rails" system enabling hierarchical grouping and nesting of activities, powering personalised learning paths
- Implemented multiple scheduled and background processing systems including data-integrity checks, log-monitoring bots and automated Slack alerting
- Led development of key product modules: events/webinars, announcements, translations, time zones, licensing and shared content libraries
- Helped drive the adoption of an AI-assisted development workflow (Claude Code, shared MCP knowledge base and structured documentation practices)
[1]
Senior Full-Stack Software Engineer
Geospatial SaaS start-up from the Alacrity Foundation. Sole senior engineer establishing the entire technical foundation for a scalable platform used by clients across the UK and internationally.
- Architected a high-performance web application using Laravel, Vue.js and Python, integrated with Google APIs and Uber H3 for optimised spatial data processing
- Implemented and managed cloud infrastructure on AWS (Elastic Beanstalk, EC2, S3, Glue, Lambda, RDS, Route 53, IAM, SES)
- Designed and executed a sophisticated CI/CD pipeline, streamlining deployments and enhancing code quality
- Formulated and enforced application security protocols including a 10-point security audit
- Mentored junior developers and National Software Academy (Cardiff University) students
[2]
Software Engineering Manager
Managed and supported software development across nine technology start-ups from the Alacrity Foundation, spanning web and mobile platforms across diverse languages and frameworks.
- Reviewed early-stage proofs of concept and defined strategic support plans to assist start-up scaling
- Contributed to application development, refactors and updates, predominantly in Laravel, with a focus on security, performance and scalability
- Utilised AWS technologies for robust, scalable cloud infrastructure across all projects
- Provided technical advice during stand-ups and board meetings, ensuring alignment with project goals
- Mentored Alacrity students during boot camps in Laravel, UX and accessibility
[3]
Tech Lead
Graduate technology incubator. Led engineering on early-stage products while mentoring the next cohort of software engineers.
- Intensive Entrepreneurial Training & Software Development: Engaged in a rigorous graduate training programme focused on building technical solutions, learning modern software frameworks, and developing high-performance applications from scratch.
- Collaborative Prototyping & Technical Upskilling: Worked alongside multidisciplinary peers to design, build, and evaluate technical proofs of concept, rapidly expanding proficiency in software engineering and web technologies.
- Applied Business & Technical Foundations: Focused on bridging the gap between theoretical computing knowledge and commercial software delivery, establishing the foundational skills required to lead tech start-ups and enterprise-grade platforms.
[4]
Web Developer (Self-employed)
Founded and ran an independent web development practice, the origin of this domain, delivering sites and applications for local businesses and organisations.
- Self-Directed Client Acquisition & Business Management: Actively sourced, secured, and managed freelance contracts independently, driving all aspects of business development, client communication, and project delivery for small companies and sports organisations.
- Web Solution Development: Designed and built bespoke web solutions, integrating custom web design and functional platforms tailored to the specific operational needs of diverse commercial clients and clubs.
- Print & Graphic Design Services: Provided comprehensive creative services encompassing both digital and print media, including graphic design, promotional assets, and branding materials to enhance client visibility.
Query the stack.
Filter by category, like any well-designed collection endpoint. Full-stack range, backend depth.
Laravel packages, published.
Production-ready packages on Packagist, built to solve real problems encountered in the field.
laravel-ai-headroom
Token counting, context limits and cost guards for the Laravel AI SDK. Counts the whole agent request before it is sent and blocks anything over the context window or your budget.
laravel-ai-headroom-ledger
Stores and queries per-request AI token usage and cost from Headroom, so you can see what every agent call really cost.
filament-headroom
A Filament dashboard for AI token usage, cost and context limits, powered by Headroom.
laravel-auth-audit
Authorisation coverage reporting for Laravel. Statically scans routes, controllers and Policies to find unprotected endpoints and IDOR risks, with a CI threshold and a self-contained HTML report.
laravel-env-audit
Static analysis for Laravel that finds env() calls outside config/, .env.example drift and secrets committed to the example file, with an isolation score, HTML report and CI fail-on gate.
Open source, built to teach.
Practical reference repos helping junior engineers level up, the same mentoring I've done for a decade, in code form.
cuddio
A local-only Go CLI that hides secrets and personal data in logs, .env files and SQL dumps before you paste them into AI, then puts the real values back into the answer. Column-aware redaction for MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite, with a test proving it never touches the network.
PHPlaravel-jev-hotdog
A Laravel 13 and Livewire playground that tells you whether a photo is a hot dog, using Jev's preview image input: a yes/no verdict and a bounding box in one request. Runs in fake mode straight after cloning.
PHPlaravel-docs-rag-playground
A Laravel 13 playground that answers questions about the Laravel docs using retrieval-augmented generation, built on PostgreSQL with pgvector, hybrid search and grounded, cited answers. Includes structure-aware chunking, incremental re-indexing and an evaluation set that measures retrieval quality.
PHPlaravel-jev-exam-marking
A working Laravel 13 example of marking exams with Jev, TypeSafe's decision model. Plain PHP turns Jev's typed answers into marks, and anything it's unsure about goes to a human marker.
PHPlaravel-mcp-invoicing-playground
A production-shaped Laravel 13 invoicing app whose whole feature surface is also reachable over MCP, with a parity test proving every UI capability has an equally-policed MCP tool.
PHPlaravel-ai-quiz-app
A Laravel 12 quiz app built with Livewire, Alpine.js and Filament. Pulls questions from the Open Trivia Database and writes a personalised AI performance summary after each quiz.
Credentials, verified.
Formal qualifications and certifications, including a live verification link, because claims should be checkable.
BSc (Hons) Digital Media, First Class
University of the West of England, Bristol
- Dean's Award for Academic Excellence (2013 & 2014)
- Best Creative Technology Project (2015)
- Peer-Assisted Learning Leader, mentoring students (2013–15)
AWS Certified Developer, Associate
Amazon Web Services
- Currently studying for AWS Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03)
Release history.
Major versions of a career in continuous delivery.
Available for new opportunities
Open to Senior Backend Engineer, Senior Software Engineer, Lead Engineer and Platform Engineer roles, remote or hybrid.
Cuddio released
Released cuddio, an open source Go CLI that hides secrets and personal data in logs and SQL dumps before they are pasted into AI tools.
Headroom suite and Over The Terraces shipped
Published laravel-ai-headroom, laravel-ai-headroom-ledger and filament-headroom: token counting, cost tracking and a Filament dashboard for the Laravel AI SDK. Launched Over The Terraces, an interactive map of football stadiums.
Laravel packages shipped to Packagist
Published laravel-auth-audit and laravel-env-audit: two production-ready open source packages.
Backend at global scale: Coaches' Voice
Real-time systems, content architecture and AI-assisted workflows for 50,000+ coaches across 2,000+ clubs.
AWS Certified Developer – Associate
Cloud credentials formalised; Solutions Architect – Associate in progress.
Sole senior engineer: Streetwave
Built a geospatial SaaS platform's entire technical foundation, from architecture to CI/CD to security.
Engineering Manager: Wesley Clover
Five years steering development across nine start-ups; mentoring engineers who now ship all over the industry.
First Class degree, then Tech Lead
BSc (Hons) Digital Media, First Class with two Dean's Awards, straight into leading engineering at the Alacrity Foundation.
Phoenix1331 founded
Initial release: self-employed web developer. Everything since has been backwards-compatible growth.
Open a connection.
Available immediately for Senior Backend Engineer, Senior Software Engineer, Lead Engineer and Platform Engineer opportunities. Based in Caerleon, Newport, UK, open to remote and hybrid roles.
{
"role": "Senior Backend Engineer",
"company": "Your team here",
"stack": [
"PHP", "Symfony", "Laravel", "AWS"
],
"remote_friendly": true,
"message": "Let's talk."
}