David Raznick
Stroud, UK

Mobile:  +44 7968 034 106
Email:   kindly@gmail.com

Code and profile links:
    https://github.com/kindly
    https://github.com/OpenDataServices/
    https://github.com/ckan
    https://stackoverflow.com/users/20842/david-raznick


PROFILE

Software developer and data engineer with 20 years of experience working
with data-heavy systems, from hands-on analysis through to designing,
building and running full-stack web applications. Particular strength in
taking over or replacing ad-hoc systems (spreadsheets, legacy databases)
and turning them into reliable, well-designed applications that
non-technical staff enjoy using. Comfortable owning a system end to end:
data modelling, backend, frontend, deployment and ongoing development
driven by user feedback.


EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Global Energy Monitor (GEM)
November 2022 – Present (part time until August 2023, full time since)
Software Developer and Data Engineer
    Designed and built, from scratch, the Django database application that
    GEM's ~80 researchers now use as the home for their research data,
    replacing a large collection of spreadsheets.
    Sole full-stack developer: data model, backend, frontend (Django +
    HTMX), PostgreSQL, deployment (Heroku) and ongoing development.
    Migrated all of GEM's energy-generating project data into the system,
    followed by LNG, steel, and oil & gas extraction trackers — now
    ~150,000 projects and ~200,000 units/phases — with the aim of
    bringing all remaining trackers into the database.
    Continue to develop the application in short feedback cycles with its
    users; feedback from researchers across the organisation has been
    consistently positive.

Open Data Services Cooperative
January 2016 – August 2023
Director / Senior Developer
    Lead developer on a variety of open-data projects, e.g.
        https://grantnav.threesixtygiving.org/ — 360Giving's search
        tool for UK grants data.
    Main developer of flatterer (https://github.com/kindly/flatterer),
    a fast JSON-to-CSV/XLSX/SQLite/Parquet converter with a Rust core
    and Python bindings, 200+ GitHub stars.
    Heavily worked on flatten-tool
    (https://github.com/OpenDataServices/flatten-tool), converting
    between spreadsheets and structured JSON data.
    Designed and developed tools to help data analysts and data
    publishers do their work.
    As a director, helped run the cooperative.
    (Overlapped part time with Global Energy Monitor from November 2022.)

Open Knowledge Foundation
January 2011 – May 2014
Senior Python Developer
    Development lead for CKAN, the open-source open-data publishing
    platform used mainly by governments — responsible for overseeing all
    areas of its development.
    Took ownership of a large existing codebase, assessed it, and steered
    its improvement and roadmap.
    Client facing: translated client needs into development plans.
    Lead developer on data.gov.uk and data.gov.

Amnesty International
April 2006 – January 2011
Data Analyst
    Developed all reporting systems covering supporter (activist/donor)
    activity, and designed and implemented all statistical reports.
    Developed the in-house data processing system for data input.
    Responsible for integrating all internal datasets and for the data
    migration onto a new database system.
    Involved in deciding which technologies the organisation should adopt
    to increase efficiency.

192.com
October 2005 – April 2006
Data Analyst
    Maintained and wrote marketing and management reports; analysed user
    search behaviour and site traffic; advised developers on efficiency
    improvements; produced financial reports for agencies and affiliates.

Buongiorno Vitaminic
August 2004 – October 2005
Data Analyst
    Data mining for CRM campaigns: cleansing and analysing data, finding
    key trends, segmenting the user base and organising campaign
    send-outs. Financial, analytical and ad-hoc reporting across the
    business. Liaised with the development team on system improvements
    and hosted training sessions.


TECHNICAL SKILLS

 * Python — 20 years
    Very advanced; know the language deeply (metaclasses, descriptors,
    etc.) and, more importantly, when not to use such features. Have read
    a great deal of other people's code. Experience with most major web
    frameworks (Django, Flask). Contributed bug fixes and performance
    advice to SQLAlchemy and know its internals well.

 * Django + HTMX
    Current daily stack: build and run a full production application
    solo, covering models, views, templates, admin, and an HTMX-driven
    frontend — a lightweight, maintainable alternative to a heavy
    JavaScript framework.

 * SQL and databases — 20+ years
    Used for building applications and analysing large datasets. Know
    PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite and MSSQL very well, including their
    performance characteristics.

 * JavaScript — 14 years
    Vue and React experience.

 * AI / LLM tooling
    Daily user of AI-assisted development tools. Actively building
    developer tools for LLM-agent workflows: sqlnow
    (https://github.com/kindly/sqlnow), a released local SQL viewer that
    agents launch to show users query results over DuckDB/Postgres/CSV/
    Parquet, and sideview, a visual side channel letting CLI agents
    display rich content in the browser. Prototyped an MCP server at GEM.

 * Rust
    Several published tools and crates: flatterer/libflatterer,
    csvs_convert, jsonref-rs, sqlnow. Async frameworks; comfortable
    with the borrow checker.

 * Search
    Used Solr and Elasticsearch extensively.

 * DevOps
    Good understanding of Linux and deployment options for web
    applications; AWS and GCP experience.


EDUCATION

University of Bristol
    BSc (Hons) Mathematics
A-Levels
    Mathematics A, Chemistry A, Physics B
GCSEs
    9 at A*–C