Full Stack / Forward Deployed EngineerFounding-team / product engineering roles

Craig Farrell

Product-minded engineer who likes to build things and see them used.

Building customer-facing software at JustGiving since 2021. Full-stack React, TypeScript and C#/.NET delivery, practical AI products, and the judgement to take an idea into real use.

Earlier, I ran Redwood Telemarketing as director and sales manager, managed SDR and sales teams at Click Travel, and owned client campaigns at Oaktree TM. That experience shapes how I understand customer problems, communicate clearly, and coordinate delivery.

View CVGet in touch
Based
Birmingham, UK
Role
Full Stack / FDE
Company
JustGiving
Since
2021
01 / EVIDENCE

Pick a tape.

Every project is on the shelf as a short demo or a slideshow of screenshots. Hover for the details, click to put it in the telly, then open the case study for the why and the how.

View as
Shelf
Current lens

FDE

Prioritises customer-facing systems, agent operations, full-stack delivery, and work that made it past the tidy-demo stage. The shelf is sorted by fit for this lens.

agentstypescriptfullstack
Demo
Slideshow
Demo
Slideshow
Pick a tapeHover the shelf, click to play
MAIN POWER
PDCCSF-2026
VIDEO PLAY
HQ · VHS · 2 HEAD PLAYBACK
--:--
▶
POWER
csf·64
EJECT
Nothing in the deck

Pick a tape

Top pick for this lens: Halesowen Day Nursery.

02 / ASK

crAIg · a CLI for my CV

A toy of the Mercury control-centre, scoped to me. Slash commands or plain English. Try /projects or just ask “what’s your testing approach?”

crAIg · ~/cv
crAIga TUI for asking my CV things.
welcome: type /info for how this works, /help for all commands, or just ask a question.
crAIg ›

Questions and answers are shared with Craig via Telegram so he can review responses and follow up. Please don't include sensitive personal information.

⎇ craig/cv ⚙ opencode ◐ light3 lines · ↑↓ history
03 / STACK

Tools of the trade

A tower of tech, built from the foundation up: primary at the base (years deep, daily for years), dabble at the top (real projects, still learning).

Bricks outlined in ember match the lens above. Tap one to see where it’s been used and what shipped with it.

Dabble
Comfy
Daily
Primary
04 / CAREER

From customer problems to software

Scroll to draw. Sage = pre-JG, ember = JustGiving.

Earlier – Jan 2021
Commercial background
Redwood director · Click Travel sales manager · Oaktree accounts
2021
School of Code · Birmingham
UK software-development bootcamp · Jan–May 2021
2021
Software Engineer · JustGiving (Blackbaud)
First production role in payments / fundraising
2022
Domain mobility, campaigns + first reviewer year
GraphQL · Razor · ASP.NET MVC · TypeScript begins
2023
Frontend expansion + greenfield service work
Angular / SKY UX · data-retention service · first full personal SPA
2024
Breadth year, modernisation + framework work
Node 20 · Serverless V3→V4 · canary deploys · security cadence
2025
SME work + AI tooling patterns
Claims Service/API · IAM migration design · cross-team AI tooling
2026
Production cutover work and service ownership
Identity-service EKS migration support · hosted Cockpit · Train Mate
Pre-JG · School of Code + earlier JustGiving · junior to senior-scope work

Known growth areas

Still building toward

  • Testing-framework public ownership is light: individual fixes routinely, no headline "introduced X to Y" story
  • Kubernetes / EKS: 2026 is the first hands-on year
  • Cross-org OSS contribution: mostly employer + personal repos; addressing via public Claude plugin repos and Cloudflare Workers public tools
  • Formal AI-tooling credential: DataCamp Associate AI Engineer track in progress
05 / EXPERIENCE

Work, traits, code

Where I’ve been, how I think, what I ship.

Work history

Jan
May 2021
School of Code
UK software-development bootcamp, Birmingham. Team projects, modern web foundations, pair-programming, Git, React, JavaScript, and delivery habits.
May 2021
present
JustGiving (Blackbaud)
Software Engineer, senior-scope full-stack work
At JustGiving since 2021, working across Claims Service and API, IAM migration, Campaign Pages, AWS to Azure Message Bridge, Fitness and Timelines, User Anonymisation, testing, review, and production support. Work includes domain SME ownership, event-driven integration, staged migration planning, DLQ triage, Grafana checks, and delivery coordination across affected teams.
Associate Software Developer (May 2021–Jul 2023)→Software Developer, Staff (Jul 2023–present)→Claims Service/API SME→Service ownership
Jul 2018
Jan 2021
Click Travel
Inside Sales Manager (Jul 2019–Jan 2021); Business Development (Jul 2018–Jan 2021)
Managed SDR and sales teams, secured national SME-to-Key Account business, and coordinated bid, implementation and account-management teams around customer goals.
Nov 2012
Jan 2015
Redwood Telemarketing
Managing Director
Ran a technology-focused telemarketing business as director and sales manager.
Oct 2009
Nov 2012
Oaktree TM
Account Manager
Owned client campaigns and communication, supported telemarketers daily, and briefed and trained teams on client propositions.

Strengths & soft spots

Strengths

Systems thinking across fundraising, identity, messaging, and operational tools
Comfortable in discovery and stakeholder conversations
Testing habits: local validation, integration tests, Given/When/Then structure, and follow-through after release
Self-directed learning through shipping, notes, check-ins, and real projects rather than passive reading
AI tooling craft for workflows, plugins, agent orchestration, and patterns other engineers can use
Solo end-to-end shipping discipline across client sites, SaaS tools, agent systems, and game work

Working on

Deep .NET delivery experience, but still growing deeper framework-level C# internals
Mobile native depth is early: currently building with Flutter/Flame after Unity exploration; no production iOS work yet
Kubernetes / EKS is newer than serverless and Terraform experience
06 / SAY HI

Get in touch

Always up for a good conversation.

Let’s talk.

AI-agent work, platform engineering, mentoring, or just a good football debate. All welcome.

Emailcraig2812@gmail.com
GitHub@craig2812
LinkedInin/craigfarrell
BasedBirmingham, UK

Outside the terminal

AI agents + agent runtime architectureGame dev (Flutter/Flame, earlier Unity exploration)Family life with three childrenBike ridesPlaying and watching footballGamingLong-running side projects
Family life with three children comes first. Around that I make time for bike rides, playing and watching football, gaming, and side projects that usually start small before getting ideas above their station.