Hi there! I'm Sam.

Work Experience

Senior Software Engineer - Sainsbury’s Bank January 2021 - Present

• Lead developer for the Sainsbury’s Bank iOS app
• Responsible for collaborating with stakeholders to deliver the product roadmap
• Engaged in championing app accessibility and platform conventions to help create a great experience for all the bank’s customers
• Providing mentorship and guidance to other developers and team members

Specialist Software Engineer - BT September 2019 - January 2021

• Development lead and scrum master for the Plusnet Mobile app
• Developer and maintainer for in-house stub data solution
• User experience designer / consultant for a number of apps
• User experience champion and apostle of platform conventions
• Internal iOS guru

Senior Software Engineer - BT September 2015 - September 2019

• Lead the iOS development for the My BT app
• Lead the development of a number of internal apps
• Worked with E2E designers to create component designs for numerous pieces of critical app functionality
• Crafted the user experience for a number of internal apps

Graduate Software Engineer - BT September 2013 - September 2015

• Developed core functionality for a number of internal mobile apps
• Lead the development of a small number of internal mobile apps
• Championed focus on user experience for internal apps
• Worked as part of a small, self-organising team to deliver stakeholder requirements

Research Intern - University Of St Andrews May 2012 - July 2012

• Developed key part of an open-source framework for social network research
• Wrote efficient, robust Python modules to interact with Facebook’s Graph API
• Created first experiment using framework
• Performed initial analysis of results

IT Representative - St Salvator's Hall April 2010 - May 2012

• Technical support position (diagnosing network problems, removing viruses, etc.)
• Offered general advice and support to residents
• Managed computer facilities within the building

Publicity Officer - RockSoc // St Andrews April 2010 - May 2012

• Designed eye-catching posters, flyers and other print media for one of the University’s biggest and most financially-successful societies
• Designed and developed the society’s website and its content management system
• Liaised with the Students’ Association and external firms to build relationships
• Attended regular committee meetings and assisted with organising events
• This position required efficiency, long hours and great teamwork skills

Achievements

Additional Qualifications

• 2022 - Accessibility Guru (Digital Accessibility Centre)
• 2022 - Developing For Native Mobile Accessibility (Digital Accessibility Centre)
• 2022 - Advanced Assistive Technologies (Digital Accessibility Centre)
• 2022 - Additional Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) (Digital Accessibility Centre)
• 2022 - Accessible Rich Internet Applications (Digital Accessibility Centre)
• 2022 - HTML Techniques For Accessibility Development (Digital Accessibility Centre)
• 2018 - NN/g UX Certification (Nielsen Norman Group User Experience Design Certification)
• 2014 - NN/g UX Certification (Nielsen Norman Group User Experience Design Certification)

University Awards & Achievements

• 2013 - Class Medal (Internet Computer Science)
• 2012 - Class Medal (Data Communications & Networks)
• 2011 - Class Medal (Advanced Internet Programming)
• 2011 - Deans' List (Distinction for overall achievement in the course of an academic year)
• 2010 - Class Medal (Information Technology)
• 2010 - Alumnus Prize (First Level Computer Science / Information Technology)

Papers

• McNeilly, Sam, Luke Hutton, and Tristan Henderson. "Understanding ethical concerns in social media privacy studies." In Proceedings of the ACM CSCW Workshop on Measuring Networked Social Privacy. 2013.
• Henderson, Tristan, Luke Hutton, and Sam McNeilly. "Ethics and online social network research - developing best practices." In Proceedings of the 26th BCS Conference on Human Computer Interaction. 2012.

Education

University Of St Andrews - BSc Internet Computer Science (First Class) 2009 - 2013

4th Year

Distributed Systems, Computer Security (cryptography, attacks, defences), Multimedia (sound, image and video encoding / compression), Human Computer Interaction, Logic Systems Verification, Video Games (physics, artificial intelligence, networking)

3rd Year

Software Engineering (requirements capture and specification, systems design and modelling, requirements verification and validation, etc.), Data Communications & Networks (protocols, architectures, wireless, mobility), Data Encoding (compression, error detection, encryption), Component Technology, Computational Complexity, Research & Professional Issues In Computing, Databases

1st & 2nd Year

Core and Advanced Computer Science, Core and Advanced Internet Computer Science, Foundations Of Computation, Programming Projects, Advanced Programming Projects

Friends' School Lisburn 2002 - 2009

GCE A Level

Applied ICT (A), Business Studies (A), Geography (B)

GCE AS Level

Applied ICT (A), Business Studies (B), Geography (A), Technology & Design (A)

Key Skills & Abilities

Programming Languages & Technologies

• Swift
• Objective-C
• JavaScript
• PHP
• Python
• Java
• C

Design

• Adobe Photoshop

Operating Systems

• All major desktop platforms
• iOS development
• Linux server configuration and management

Other

• AWS technologies
• Bitrise
• Bitbucket
• GitHub
• Firebase
• Jira / Confluence
• Azure DevOps / VSTS
• Microsoft App Center
• Jenkins
• HTML & CSS / SASS
• Docker
• SQL
• Object-oriented design