Lathan Britz's Resume (Last updated June 23rd 2008)

I'm looking for a position as a Web Developer within a company that has identified the advantages of a Open Source Content Management System (Drupal).

Teams that encourage the individual to work on task based deliverables, using standard test driven development techniques as a means toward the overall project goals are a huge plus.

I offer a 'new school' work ethic that supports a commitment to my responsibilities and a passion for development and the basic standards compliant principles.

I bring with me a solid foundation, with experience in designing and developing functional applications using the Drupal content management system framework and related HTML technologies. This experience extends from web based enterprise applications down to small lightweight solutions.

Instrumental in successfully delivering a high-risk project, which had previously been considered a failure. This was achieved by picking up unfamiliar technologies within a limited timeframe, redesigning fundamental aspects of the system, prioritising and resolving defects and ensuring the customer received a fully functional and stable product.

Tech lead assuming technical accountability for the development and delivery of an analytical charting system used by research analysts.
Involved in the design, development and implementation in a research distribution system.
Extremely adaptable becoming productive in unfamiliar languages within a very short period, providing skills that would be difficult to source under normal circumstances.
Involved in requirements gathering, research and the development of proof of concepts for new projects that require the use of unfamiliar technologies.

Pivotal in successfully delivering a J2EE Third party funds administration system. Focusing on guarantee PDF generation and delivery via EJB's. Timely delivery of the project earned me a four month position in Amsterdam at Clear2Pay.

Additional role with a focus on front-end usability and multi-language support within the New Business Online system.

New Business Online, a cross border payment system currently being deployed throughout Africa. It is the largest active program of work within Standard Bank. During the first faze of this project I worked on customisation of the Clear2Pay product in the J2EE layer in Amsterdam and later on swing screen development back at the bank. My current role within this project is a mixture between front-end and mid-tier development, this has worked to my benefit allowing better end to end integration of the product.

Provide technical advice and support to team members and co-workers. Monitor industry trends and standards and provide advice to superiors based thereon.

Essential in gathering a hands-on inside-out knowledge of the Clear2Pay BPH product (Bank Processing Hub is a Amsterdam product which was written using J2EE technologies) to allow front-end customisation back in South Africa. Thus I was successfully able to provide training and assistance when the customised product was introduced to other employees.

Spent four months receiving training on the custom framework in the Netherlands at the Amsterdam office.

Provide technical specialist skills to better marketing success of websites through search engine optimisation.

Ensure that industry standards and methodologies are applied in the design and development of websites.

Code analysis and conversions to achieve standards compliance.

Provide advice and interpretation in relation to statistical information and website management, thus achieving targets set by customers.

My work on http://www.tickyboximages.co.za gives a clean artistic yet functional perspective for the South African media industry to source images, from young talented local photographers.

Responsibilities included teaching, mentoring and assisting students with database design and development skills. Additionally, the role required significant research into the information science industry with the intention of advising and guiding students on real world IT situations and scenarios.

Other responsibilities included the development and maintenance of the Department of Information Technology website. I was chosen to represent the department on an academic content management system course, where we acquired the relevant knowledge and skills to provide rich media to students, automated marking systems and publication of articles and the latest news.

Designed and developed a multimedia application for sharing academic research presented at the information science conference with other universities.

- High personal integrity, and an effective team member always making a positive contribution.
- Provides effective feedback to help others achieve their full potential.
- Ensure that best practises are followed ensuring systems are developed using technologies that are widely accepted and supported in the industry.
- Actively involved in the development, support and maintenance of several community websites always providing flexible approaches to meet their different needs.
- Flexible approach in ensuring the shared goals of the business, immediate team and customers are delivered as required, while maintaining the highest level of quality.
- Perform extensive research in personal capacity on the latest technologies and trends in the market.
- Completing BSc IT degree.

My daily responsibilities and experiences include working with
- Java 1.4, 5 and 6
- J2EE
- Swing

Development Environments
- Eclipse/JBuilder/Netbeans/SunOne/Gel
- Ant/Maven/Ivy
- JUnit
- SVN/CVS
- Coda/CSSEdit
- Mac OS X/Linux (Ubuntu) /Windows

Web Specific Technologies
- Drupal CMS and PHP
- HTML/XHTML/XML
- CSS
- jQuery/Javascript
- JSP/Struts
- Tomcat/JBoss/IBM Websphere/Apache webserver

Databases
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL

Image Design Environments
- Adobe Illustrator/Adobe Photoshop/Pixlemator

Other
- shell-scripts/bash-scripts
- UML
- Log4J
- Xdoclet

Referencers on request. Calling from out side South Africa: 0027741022147, Calling within South Africa: 0741022147.