Steve Lacey Software Engineer
About
Hey I’m Steve, a Software Engineer with 20 years of experience writing Python, PHP, and Ruby. I specialize in building web apps using frameworks like Laravel, Django, React, and Vue.js.
I work remotely with teams to build appropriate, elegant and reliable solutions to complex problems, as an engineer, tech lead or fractional CTO, and have done it on the road since I left the UK in 2016. Right now I'm in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Here you'll find the projects I've built, the investments I've made, and where I've traveled. If you’re interested in working with me check out my resume and send me a message.
Skills
Projects
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Scorbit Platform Lead 2024 – 2025
Scorbit connects pinball machines of any age to the cloud, unlocking more fun, engagement and revenue. I lead the backend development of their web application and APIs.
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Law School Transparency Technical Lead 2020 – 2024
Law School Transparency helps prelaw students make strategic choices about where to attend law school. I lead the Product & Engineering team and consult on various strategies at LSAC.
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Gun.io Senior Software Engineer 2021 – 2023
Gun.io helps world-class engineering teams hire the world’s most sought-after freelance engineers at a moment’s notice. I worked on the web app, and on the platform.
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Open Up Music Technical Lead 2017 – Present
Open Up Music supports schools to create orchestras that are accessible to young disabled people. I built the Open Orchestras Laravel app, and the Django API that powers The Clarion.
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Universal Music Senior Software Engineer 2017 – 2018
Universal Music Group is the world's leading music company. I worked with them to build out an internal web app using tech like Django, Elasticsearch, Vue and Kubernetes.
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Hanzo Platform Lead 2014 – 2016
Hanzo specialize in cutting edge web archiving technology. I built their web app and API, and implemented new crawling strategies, playback methods, change analysis and diff tools.
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Simpleweb Senior Software Engineer 2013 – 2016
I worked with some great people at Simpleweb, specializing in building SaaS products for startups, including Contactzilla, Rusic, SurveyWizard and working with Hanzo Archives.
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Enjin Cloud Platform Lead 2019 – 2020
Enjin build a suite of blockchain products that enable game developers to easily create, manage, distribute, and integrate blockchain assets. I rebuilt their GraphQL API, PHPUnit test suite and Vue.js frontend.
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Tapmydata Senior Software Engineer 2018 – 2019
Tap makes it simple to see what personal data organisations hold about you, and then act on it. I built out their web app, api and end-to-end encryption using tech like Sodium, Stellar, Laravel and Vue.
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Coworkations Founder 2017
Coworkations is a database of the best remote working retreats for digital nomads. We index, review and rank travel while working groups like Hacker Paradise, Remote Year and Unsettled.
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Zilly Senior Software Engineer 2017
Zilly helps property owners manage rentals from anywhere. I worked on various reporting features, refactoring and implemented Stripe-style versioning on their Rails-based API.
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CloudPeeps Senior Software Engineer 2016
CloudPeeps is a community, marketplace and platform that empowers freelancers and businesses to do their best work. I worked various sprints on their Rails app – including implementing messaging, package search and combining their user models.
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PHPSW Organizer 2013 – 2015
In 2013 I took over the PHP South West UK user group in Bristol, organizing monthly talk nights and growing it over 2 years to become one of the most regularly attended in the country.
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Rails Girls Coach 2014
Rails Girls is a global, non-profit volunteer community, whose aim is to give tools and a community for women to understand technology and to build their ideas.
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Wired Media Senior Developer 2010 – 2013
As technical lead I headed up various strategies including re-envisaging the company's ecommerce offerings with a Symfony2-based solution and recruiting and training junior developers. I built Easier, Signworld, Fleur of England and BBI Solutions.
Investments
- Chips AMD, NVDA, TSM 35%
- Index XLKQ, XLKS 23%
- Frontier PLTR, SPCX, TSLA 19%
- Big tech AMZN, GOOGL, MSFT 18%
- Crypto BTC 3%
- Cash GBP 1%
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- 67%
- In the top five holdings
- 72%
- In individual companies
- 35%
- In chipmakers
- 71%
- Tax-sheltered
Travels
- Asia Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam 7 years
- Europe Croatia, Czechia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Turkey 1 year
- South America Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru 1 year
- Africa Kenya, Morocco, South Africa, Tanzania 3 months
- North America Mexico, United States 1 month
- Middle East Egypt, United Arab Emirates 2 weeks
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- 95%
- Chasing summer
- 79%
- In the tropics
- 66%
- In Southeast Asia
- 52%
- In month-long stays