Curriculum Vitae
My CV is designed to be printed.
Key Skills
- Software engineering and system design
- Programming language and runtime development
- Full-stack web application development
- Problem solving and analytical thinking
- Technical leadership and communication
- Research, planning and coordination
Digital Skills
Awards
My company and I were entered into the awards by my clients after giving me good feedback. I had no idea I had been nominated until about a month prior.
The award was given to one of thousands of companies and developers.
The highest award given to any undergraduate at Heriot-Watt University
An award given to the most deserving student in a 4th year Computer Science programme
An award given to the most deserving student in a 2nd year Computer Science programme
An award given students with a 70% or above average in a 1st year Computer Science programme
- Merit Award received in Computer Science course
- One of two awards given for the best project in the class of 20+
- Received for programming section and team leadership
Education
Research Project Focus: "Improving education through Digital Means"
Dissertation Focus: "ClickIt: A web-based application to aid the learning of web development in an educational environment"
Final Award: BSc with Honours of the First Class
Passes for both the Computer Science and the Physics and Engineering courses.
Achieved:
- 4× Highers (BBBC)
- 1× Advanced Higher (C)
Whilst at Ross High School I also did in-class support, I taught lessons to S1 Computing pupils, I was the Technical Manager in our Young Enterprise group and did paired reading
References
.elcschool.org.uk mdonnelly@musselburghgrammarschool.
elcschool.org.uk
t.berg@hw.ac.uk http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~greg/
http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~greg/ +44 131 451 3422
Mr Jamie Balfour
Curriculum Vitae
Summary
Software engineer with a First Class Honours degree in Computer Science from Heriot-Watt University, specialising in programming languages, runtime environments, full-stack web systems, and platform architecture. Experience spans software development, system design, infrastructure, and technical leadership, with a particular interest in how complex systems are structured, executed, and maintained.
Alongside commercial and independent software development, JB Digital Services (formerly Jambour Digital Ltd.) has provided extensive experience designing, developing, deploying, and maintaining custom software platforms, client websites, and web-based systems. This includes full-stack development, server administration, CMS architecture, and high-performance web application design.
Work combines deep technical understanding with practical implementation, including interpreter and transpiler design, developer tooling, MVC application architecture, and long-term platform development. Professional experience also includes Computing education and technical leadership roles, involving the development of digital systems and tools used within educational environments.
Industrial Experience
- I have developed all websites hosted by Jambour Digital
- The idea of my own company was built on my talent for developing websites freelance
- Company focuses on web development, graphics, and consultancy and I do all areas of development
- Developed websites for car salvage companies
- Created XML phonebook system for Grandstream SIP phones using PHP and database
- Developed database-driven server monitoring application using PHP
- Re-developed websites hosted by DH Systems
- Left job to start my own company
- Worked at Maglabs in a fast-paced environment
- Generated reports on database data and fixed bugs
- Added small features to PHP-based web application service
- Honed skills in PHP, MySQL, and shell scripting
- Learned React.js and Symfony during employment
- Freelance web development involved creating websites on demand
- Utilised modern technologies such as PHP7, HTML5, and CSS3
- Transitioned from freelance work to laying the foundations for my limited company in February 2017
Teaching Experience
- Taught Computing
- Taught Computing
- Started and led the Digital Literacy for Staff course to improve staff digital skills
- Managed the Positive Behaviour Praise Card and the Hot Chocolate Friday systems
- Developed digital tools:
- Interactive slideshow engine
- Embedded online polling platform
- Online tracking and monitoring system
- Extended DragonDocs Engine for interactive worksheets
- Developed the school's internal reporting system, a data extractor to put data in the correct format for the exam board, and a positive praise system using C#
- Developed an AI marking program
- Taught Computing and Digital Literacy
- School named Scotland's First Centre for Digital Excellence
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Developed digital tools:
- Slideshow engine with engaging features
- Interactive worksheets for pupils
- Lead the school's digital programme as the Digital Leader in the school
- Setup the Digital Champions programme to empower young people
- Taught Computing and Digital Literacy
- Became newly qualified teacher in August 2019 after PGDE
- Successfully completed 'Scotland's Mental Health First Aid' course (SMHFA)
- Developed a prototype online reporting system
Academic Experience
- Second-time lab assistant well-prepared for duties
- Took up two courses; the Praxis course that involved assisting with writing tips, IT help, and student professional development and the Web Programming course allowed application of web programming knowledge
- Spent two hours per week in this role
- Considered pursuing a PhD to extend academic achievements
- Accepted offer and recognized as 'outstanding candidate'
- Research focused on concerns of carers of children with autism regarding online safety
- Left PhD program in February 2017 due to financial constraints related to purchasing own house at the time
- Assisted first-year Computer Science students in the Web Design and Databases course
- Assessed students' work and provided feedback
- Contributions to course deemed valuable by lecturer and students
- Provided assistance to students and the lecturer with fresh knowledge
- Utilised HTML, CSS, PHP, and MySQL for course requirements
Voluntary & Other Work
- I ran the Code Club at the local library offering kids under 16 an opportunity to learn to code
- Volunteered on Saturday mornings from 10 am to about 11:30 am
- I received lots of good feedback about how helpful I was and that the kids were loving the hour of code they got every Saturday
I was a key member of our Young Enterprise Scotland team in charge of the IT side of the products as well as being one of the front members of the sales team. Our team managed to sell the majority of our products that were for sale and were one of the more liked teams by the public.
Projects
In October 2015 I began to work on my BSc Honours year project. As part of this, I developed an application to aid new web developers with web development called ClickIt. The main purpose of this was to help school children and new web developers learn HTML using a drag-and-drop system.
BlackRabbit Script (2011–2015)
Designed and developed a custom scripting language and execution engine in C#, built from first principles. The system included a mathematical expression parser, a logical evaluation engine, Python, PHP and Lua transpilers, and a compilation layer targeting C#, enabling flexible and extensible script execution.
Re-architected the engine in 2015 to improve performance and scalability, this time in Java, delivering a robust core within a short development cycle. The platform was designed for reuse by other developers, with early adoption by peers who created applications using the language.
As part of my own website development and moving away from using third party plugins, I decided to invent my own plugins that can easily be reused. I call this group of plugins my Web Independently Styled Project (WISP) and it consists of a slideshow, responsive navigation bar, PHP comment system, a content management system and much more.
DASH is a custom MVC-based content management platform developed and maintained from the ground up using PHP and MySQL. Originally created in 2014 and fully re-architected in 2017, the system is designed to integrate seamlessly with custom websites while remaining flexible, performant, and easy to manage. DASH powers both my own web platforms and client websites, providing dynamic content management, reusable components, and a streamlined publishing workflow. The platform continues to evolve through ongoing development and feature expansion.
My personal website is one of my biggest achievements. In April 2010 I had an idea that it would be good to share what I know with the world. Because of this, I decided to open a website dedicated to both professional work and my personal life. My website went through a major refurbishment in June 2013. My website is built with my skills in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP and MySQL.
My SED command generator page is the most popular in any search engine.
I took up a programming hobby due to my interest. I have developed products such as an imaging/graphics application, a web browser and an easy-to-use programming language. Nowadays, I develop several large personal projects, but I also help others by writing programs to automate things for them.
