Defence: Applications & Secure Systems

Four contracts, each delivering software into a secure, regulated environment. The technology varied a lot, from embedded C++ to web technology to a modern Windows desktop application, but the job itself was much the same each time. The environment was tightly controlled, the requirements were detailed (and still changed along the way), and the interface was the part people would be using every day once the engineering was done.

Before this came eight years in the same industry as a full-time employee, building an in-house modelling and simulation capability. That work has its own page.

Embedded Human-Computer Interaction

2016 - 2019

The first contract was electronic architecture software for a crewed land platform, focused on human-computer interaction: the parts of the system an operator actually sees and uses. Embedded work comes with its own rules. The hardware is fixed, so the processing power and memory are too, and a screen bolted into a vehicle is a very different thing from a screen on a desk.

Work included:

• Delivery of HCI-focused electronic architecture software for a crewed land platform.
• Development across more than one variant of the platform, including one built for training.
• Interface design and implementation within embedded, resource-constrained environments.
• Balancing ease of use for the operator against the fixed limits of the platform.

Technologies and tools used included:

• C and C++ (Green Hills)
• Microsoft Productivity Tools
• In-house Tooling and Libraries
• Subversion Source Control

Cryptographic Key Management

2020 - 2021

Next came a Windows client for a cryptographic key management and distribution system, working in the client's in-house software team as a front-end specialist. It was a highly regulated environment, where correctness, security and traceability all had to be proven. It was written in C# on .NET Framework, with WPF for the interface.

Work included:

• Front-end design and implementation for a Windows-based cryptographic key management and distribution client.
• Turning customer requirements and security-driven use cases into a robust, easy-to-use interface.
• Connecting the interface cleanly to the services behind it.
• Delivering under regulatory rules where correctness and traceability mattered as much as features.

Technologies and tools used included:

• C# and .NET Framework 4.x
• WPF, for the Windows desktop interface
• In-house Tooling and Libraries

Shared Front-End and Core Technology

2021 - 2022

This one was different from the others, because the job was to design and build shared web technology rather than a finished application. The team was creating a next-generation planning capability as a family of client-facing applications, and this work was on the front-end and core technology they were all built on.

That changes the job quite a bit. A feature in one application only has to suit that application. A component in a shared core has to suit every application that will ever use it, including ones nobody has written yet. The work used modern web technologies, delivered through a CI pipeline, with a focus on good performance and code that's easy to maintain.

Work included:

• Contribution to shared front-end and core technology used across multiple client-facing applications.
• Feature delivery in modern web technologies within a CI-driven environment.
• Balancing performance, maintainability and usability across a codebase with several consumers.

Technologies and tools used included:

• HTML, CSS, JavaScript and TypeScript
• Aurelia (framework for building SPAs)
• npm-based tooling, delivered into a CI-driven pipeline
• Git and Bitbucket
• Jira and Confluence
• Agile and SAFe environment

Technical Ownership of a Planning and Control Application

2022 - 2025

The last contract was a big one: full technical ownership of a next-generation planning, control and deployment application, built for the modern Windows desktop in a secure environment. Ownership meant all of it, from evaluating and choosing the UI framework, to designing the system architecture around that choice, to building it end to end.

The application was heavy on UI by nature, and it had to stay responsive. It followed Microsoft's Fluent design principles and was built on WinUI 3 and the Windows App SDK for Windows 11. That was a deliberately up-to-date choice, in a field that doesn't always get one.

The technical specifications were detailed, the regulatory and security rules were strict, and the requirements changed throughout, as they tend to over three years. In practice, much of technical ownership is keeping the architecture steady while the requirements around it change.

Work included:

• Full technical ownership of a UI-heavy planning, control and deployment application.
• UI framework evaluation and selection, and the system architecture that followed from it.
• End-to-end implementation through to production-ready software, on a modern Windows desktop stack.
• Turning complex operational workflows into a clear, fast interface that follows Fluent design principles.
• Delivery against detailed technical specifications and evolving requirements, under strict regulatory and security constraints.

Technologies and tools used included:

• C# and .NET 6+
• Microsoft Visual Studio
• WinUI 3 and the Windows App SDK, targeting Windows 11
• Microsoft Fluent UI design principles
• Multithreaded and asynchronous application development

This was contract work, carried out through Code Concise for client organisations, not as an employee. The clients aren't named here by choice, not because of any obligation, and nothing on this page is a statement on their behalf or an endorsement from them.

These contracts also appear on the career timeline.