News International / News UK

News UK — Computer Programmer (Contract)

News UK — Computer Programmer (Contract)

About the company

News UKNews UK (formerly News International) publishes The Times, The Sun, The Sunday Times, and other titles in the UK. The digital teams build and run websites, apps, puzzles (e.g. HTML5 Crossword and Sudoku), and products like Sun+ Goals, with infrastructure migrated and automated on Amazon Web Services.

At News UK I was initially a Systems Engineer in the Digital Production department, where I helped migrate and automate the deployment of several applications onto Amazon Web Services (AWS)—including HTML5 Crossword and Sudoku puzzles, Sun+ Goals, and the online presence of The Times, The Sun, and The Sunday Times. I then moved into developing an internal AWS toolset for a project analysing the cost of migrating on-premises applications to the AWS cloud, with a focus on Ruby on Rails development.

Role Location Period
Computer Programmer / Systems Engineer London, United Kingdom Jan 2013 – Oct 2014

Key responsibilities and achievements

  • Ruby on Rails — Web development and enhancement of internal tools and the AWS migration cost analysis application.
  • AWS — Designed and deployed scalable, reliable infrastructure for digital products (Times, Sun, Sunday Times, puzzles, Sun+ Goals).
  • Python — Scripting for automation and operational tasks.
  • Configuration management — Puppet and Chef for consistent deployment and configuration.
  • Front-end — JavaScript libraries to improve user interfaces and interactivity.
  • CDN — Worked with Akamai (Luna console) to optimise content delivery and performance.

Migrating and automating deployment of major News UK brands onto AWS, then building an internal toolset to support cloud migration planning across the organisation.

Technologies

Category Technologies
Application Ruby on Rails, JavaScript
AWS CloudFormation, EC2, S3, IAM, Billing
Config & automation Puppet, Chef, Python
CDN Akamai

References

    Posts

    References

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