Christopher Waller

Alongside other I.T. responsibilities, I currently oversee and implement all the engineering at Distant Journeys. I joined the business in April 2024 and immediately hit the ground running in reworking the technology at the business.

Some of my achievements already include:

• Led, designed, architected and developed the new Distant Journeys website. This included:
  • Wireframing in Figma, working with an external agency to validate these, and the Managing Director during the design phase
  • Creating a composable and extendable stack
  • Implementing and updating security across the tech stack
  • Introducing automated pipelines
  • Building and testing the backend and front end of the site
  • And so much more
• Built several micro services and sites tailored to the complex businesses needs. For example, the alternative itineraries.
• Created an API for the business, enabling growth in the future
• Revolutionised the way the business manages their content and uses it across multiple channels. This includes leading and the implementation of core systems including a new CMS, a Digital Asset Management system, Reservations System and a variety of other systems. This created not only a single source of truth, but also an improved workflow across the business saving so much time updating so many channels and keeping it all consistent.
• Created several internal tools for streamlining work in the business
• Built an InDesign plugin that connects together the CMS & DAM system that the Studio team use to create several brochures across the year
• Contributed to the development of the branding refresh
• Assisted in the production of the businesses first live webinar, showcasing a new product for Kenya.
• Worked alongside several teams across the business during a digital transformation to bring in new technologies and connect them together. This includes the introduction of a new CRM and Reservations System alongside others.
• I oversaw the companies IT refresh, including hardware and software. Bringing in tooling such as Intune & Autopilot, ensuring & reviewing secuity and validating this by implementing the relevant training.
• Maintained and also updated their existing website to work with both their current outdated technology, and the new technology, to make the process of transferring across to our new systems so much easier.

Awards:

• Innovation of the year – 2024
• Innovation of the year – 2025

My last position at THG was Engineering Manager. In this role, I was responsible for managing the core platform team that were delivering THG's 2nd generation platform.

In this role, I was the stakeholder for the delivery roadmap and I also implemented new processes and workflows to reduce friction for delivery across the business.

As an Engineering Lead, I was responsible for assisting with the delivery and maintenance of the Ingenuity platform working as part of a team. This role not only included hands on development in 3 platforms, but also included the management of several developers across different squad teams due to restructuring. Whilst working as a lead, I also completed an in-house training course on leadership and management to develop my skills.

I also co-designed, co-architected and managed the delivery of a new platform for the business, getting hands on working with technologies such as Astro, Tailwind, Cloudflare and Vue, Whilst also integrating into CMS services such as Hygraph to deliver a bespoke and flexible platform, known as THG Altitude. This also included the development of a bespoke Account section that is currently being used on sites such as Coggles, Allsole and Biossance.

Whilst in this role, I also contributed to several automation tools that were designed to make efficiencies to the core developer workflow on the Ingenuity platform.

After being made redundant from Shearings Holidays due to the pandemic, I then progressed onto working as a Software Engineer at THG.

As a software engineer for THG, I had experience working with a variety of technologies, including Sass, JavaScript, and newly to my skill set, Java. I have used technology used by the company to create scalable and maintainable e-commerce sites for their bespoke platform known as THG Ingenuity, that powers all of THG’s brands and partner platforms.

This involved collaboration across several delivery teams including UX, Product and PM’s on the development and creation of such sites as the Coca Cola DTC site, Nintendo, Balmonds, Omoroviczca, Sixpad, Homebase, Comic Relief and Gillette to name a few, also including their own sites such as MyProtein, Lookfantastic, Cult Beauty and others.

During this time, I created wireframes, fully designed and coded many of the main websites used by the “Specialist Leisure Group” including Shearings, Bay Hotels, Sporting Breaks, Wallace Arnold Travel, the SLG corporate website and also the booking engine for the Shearings and Bay brands. I worked closely with the backend developers to produce the websites powered by the Sitefinity CMS working in a C#/.net environment with an AWS architecture. I have a comprehensive knowledge of HTML, CSS, Sass, Grunt, jQuery and have an understanding of C# but more so PHP. I am also very familiar with the Adobe creative suite specifically Adobe XD, Photoshop, InDesign, After Effects, Premiere and Media Encoder.

Alongside the development and designing of the websites, I was also heavily involved in the integration and management of Tag Manager, Google Analytics and Search Console for each of the websites.

I have used a variety of CMSs ranging from Sitefinity, which powered most of our corporate websites, to OctoberCMS, which uses Laravel, to allow us, after creating a plugin, to easily manage the creation of our marketing emails.

As a senior member of the digital team, I managed a small web content team and had an active role in improving the site from an aesthetic perspective.

During this time, I assisted the Head of Digital in migrating our website from one CMS to another and liaised with the development team on the requirements for creating the new website. I also performed numerous design tasks whilst in this role, such as marketing emails, GDN banners and more.

Whilst managing a team of three, I introduced and organised a workflow using Freshdesk and introduced processes that facilitated the management and upkeep of the website requests. I liaised with our sponsorship company to create digital advertisement banners that were shown at sporting venues and events to promote the Sporting Breaks brand, a sub-business of SLG.

I also assisted the team with technical support including computer issues, social media platforms and the email marketing system.

I was responsible for updating the website and uploading holiday content. I also used my skills from my university degree to produce marketing videos and photographs for the company to promote both holidays and the business itself.

I have created several different websites for various clients, including small businesses. I understand their requirements and create high-resolution mockups, to result in a fully built website. From E-commerce to informative websites, I have then been able to build my past clients their websites using modern technologies and an integration to a CMS.

As part of my service, I also set up hosting, DNS and optimise their website’s SEO.

I worked at Currys as a part-time sales, warehouse and merchandising operative. I was particularly recognised for my knowledge and enthusiasm for computer and photography equipment and in particular Apple products.

My role involved ensuring the website remained current with new holiday content and maintaining landing pages. I received praise and recognition for producing a short marketing video for use on the website, email and social media platforms to explain how an interchange works.