Jasper van Rijn

Head of Software Design and Engineering

Greater Cardiff Area

About

"On average, large IT projects run 45 percent over budget and 7 percent over time, while delivering 56 percent less value than predicted" - Why? I'm a Software Architect with deep understanding of the need for a holistic approach to the software development life cycle. A DDD practitioner that believes that systems should only be as complex as their owners want and that accidental complexity needs to be removed from the equation in order to achieve complete alignment between systems and its users. A perfectionist that understands how damaging perfectionism can be to the efficient development of good systems. I think critically about ingrained practices in our industry (and business generally) and how it has consistently failed to deliver what it has promised over the last 20 years - better systems quicker. Systems start with a good conversation about a problem and can evolve rapidly into really good systems by simply continuing the conversations. My experience has taught me that Software Architecture is an exercise in addressing stakeholders concerns through effective communication and that a design needs to be allowed to evolve. Developers and Users are the most important people when delivering software, everything else is there to support their learning process. I have managed to stay passionate about IT because the answers are out there and they are often implausibly simple and old. Areas of Interest: Domain Driven Design Agile Psychology of learning / collaboration Event Driven Architecture Service Oriented Architecture Distributed Systems DevOps Problems Solutions

Experience

  • Drax Group (7 yrs 9 mos)
    • Head of Software Design and Engineering
      Aug 2021 - Present · 5 yrs

    • Director of Retail Architecture
      Jul 2019 - Aug 2021 · 2 yrs 2 mos

    • Head of Retail Solutions Architecture
      Nov 2018 - Jul 2019 · 9 mos

  • Opus Energy (25 yrs 4 mos)
    • Head Of Architecture
      Oct 2016 - Present · 9 yrs 10 mos

    • IT Architecture Manager
      Jan 2014 - Present · 12 yrs 7 mos

    • Software developer
      Apr 2001 - Jan 2014 · 12 yrs 10 mos