Devware
James Rogers

James Rogers

Principal Software EngineerTechnical LeadFull-Stack & Platform Engineering

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Principal Software Engineer with 15+ years delivering enterprise web platforms, eCommerce systems, SaaS products and modernisation programmes, with recent focus on AI-assisted development workflows, coding-agent tooling and modern full-stack product engineering.

  • Next.js
  • React
  • TypeScript
  • Node.js
  • GraphQL
  • Docker
  • PostgreSQL
  • Elasticsearch

Available for UK remote contract and consultancy engagements.

Get In Touch

Available for contract, consultancy and technical leadership roles.

Selected clients and brands

Trusted across travel, commerce and enterprise platforms.

Delivered modernisation, migration and platform engineering work for established brands and specialist businesses.

  • Travelopia logo
  • Le Boat logo
  • Exodus Travels logo
  • Quark Expeditions logo
  • Croydon Fireplaces logo
  • Boschung Möbel logo
  • ORRO Bikes logo
  • HellermannTyton logo

What I do

Engineering leadership for modern web platforms.

Hands-on software engineering, architecture and delivery support across product, platform and migration work.

  • Modern Web Platforms

    Next.js, React, TypeScript, GraphQL and cloud-native frontend architecture.

  • Commerce, Search & Booking Flows

    Checkout, product catalogues, Stripe, Elasticsearch, Drupal Commerce and search optimisation.

  • Platform Modernisation

    Legacy Drupal and Laravel migrations, phased rewrites and API-driven architecture.

  • AI-Assisted Development

    LLM integrations, workflow automation, conversational UX and coding-agent workflows.

  • Engineering Tooling

    Open source tooling, internal platforms, observability, project scaffolding and developer productivity systems.

  • Technical Leadership

    Architecture, mentoring, stakeholder communication, team coordination and delivery leadership.

Featured projects

Selected project experience.

A focused selection of AI, platform, eCommerce and modernisation work.

  • Aurai

    AI-assisted productivity platform combining conversational task management, voice interaction and real-time workflows within a modern full-stack architecture.

    • Conversational task workflows
    • Voice-enabled interaction
    • Real-time GraphQL updates
    • AI-assisted planning

  • LeBoat

    Modernised a complex travel booking flow through migration from Drupal 7 to Next.js, working alongside internal engineering teams to improve maintainability, testing and operational visibility.

    • Drupal 7 → Next.js booking flow
    • Cross-team delivery
    • Automated regression testing
    • Improved booking traceability

  • HellermannTyton

    Architecture review and platform assessment across enterprise eBusiness systems, documenting ownership, operational responsibilities and future migration opportunities.

    • Architecture review
    • Service mapping
    • Operational ownership
    • Migration planning

  • Croydon Fireplaces

    Full-stack Drupal modernisation with Next.js-powered product search, custom commerce logic and payment/shipping integrations.

    • Drupal 7 -> 10 migration
    • Next.js search experience
    • Custom commerce workflows
    • Zone-based shipping logic
    • Elasticsearch catalogue

Engineering tooling

Engineering tooling

Alongside client delivery, I build tooling and workflows that make software development more repeatable, observable and AI-assisted.

  • PRS

    Open Source

    Project scaffolding and repeatable development workflow tooling designed for modern coding-agent assisted delivery.

    • Agent-friendly architecture
    • Provider-agnostic design
    • Reusable project patterns
    • Coding-agent workflow support
    View on GitHub

  • DSM

    Internal Tooling

    Monitoring and operational tooling focused on deployment confidence, observability and platform support.

    • Grafana integration
    • Operational visibility
    • Deployment monitoring
    • Platform support workflows
    • Engineering productivity tooling

Key technologies

Technology stack.

Modern full-stack engineering across frontend, backend, cloud, testing and platform work.

Frontend
Next.js, React, TypeScript, JavaScript, Tailwind CSS
Backend
Node.js, GraphQL, REST APIs, Express
Data
PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, Elasticsearch
Cloud & Platform
Docker, GitHub Actions, DigitalOcean, AWS, Observability, CI/CD
Testing
Vitest, Cypress, Jest, Ghost Inspector
Platforms
Drupal, Laravel

Career timeline

Professional experience.

15+ years across consultancy, product delivery, platform modernisation and technical leadership.

  1. Devware

    Director / Principal Software Engineer

    2018 - Present

    Founded and lead Devware, delivering software engineering, architecture, platform modernisation and technical consultancy across travel, manufacturing, eCommerce and SaaS sectors.

    • Led distributed development teams supporting enterprise web platforms and business-critical systems.
    • Delivered platform modernisation programmes, architecture reviews and full-stack application development across multiple sectors.
    • Directed Drupal-to-Next.js modernisation programmes, platform migrations and full-stack application development.
    • Designed and operated containerised delivery platforms, CI/CD pipelines and observability tooling.
    • Built AI-assisted development workflows and reusable engineering tooling to improve delivery speed, consistency and developer productivity.

  2. Orbit Services

    Lead Developer

    2018

    Delivered a commercial prototype within six weeks for an industry event.

  3. TUI Travel

    Software Developer

    2016 - 2018

    Worked across travel booking platforms, reservation integrations and performance improvements.

  4. iSOS

    Software Developer

    2012 - 2016

    Delivered bespoke commercial websites and web applications.

  5. Xenzatech

    Founder / Developer

    2010 - 2012

    Founded a small software consultancy and contributed to Drupal Core Security Advisory SA-CORE-2012-002.

Education

University of Brighton

DipHE Software Engineering

2005 - 2007

Contract and consultancy

Need senior engineering support for a complex platform?

Available for contract, consultancy and technical leadership engagements.

Get In TouchDownload CV