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danlaffan/README.md

Experienced Ruby on Rails engineer, Dublin
Happiest hands-on

I'm a Ruby on Rails engineer with 13+ years building and re-architecting production SaaS, currently working with Rails 8 and Hotwire.

I came to engineering by an unusual route. Before software I spent two decades in finance and operations leadership — Finance Director, COO, and interim CEO, and I'm a qualified Chartered Accountant (FCA), having trained at EY. This experience is the thing I bring that most engineers don't: I weigh technical decisions against runway, margins, and what the business actually needs, not just what's elegant.

Since moving into software I've founded a company, run engineering as an early-stage CTO, and scaled enterprise SaaS as Deputy CTO at Sonru (acquired by Modern Hire in 2020), where I led a product organisation through a top-to-bottom platform rebuild. I'm happiest hands-on, though — shipping features, designing clean architecture, paying down technical debt, and getting the details right.

I've deepened the security side by recently completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Cybersecurity with Chevron College and the University of Sunderland. I'm currently studying for a Joint Professional Master's Degree in Advanced Digital Technologies for Business. I'm also rebuilding my own site on a Rails 8 starter template I'm developing using a closely-supervised Claude Code workflow.

Stack

  • Ruby on Rails
  • Hotwire / Stimulus
  • PostgreSQL & MySQL
  • RSpec
  • Redis
  • Elasticsearch
  • AWS
  • Fly.io

Where's the code?

All of my projects live in private and client repositories, so my public footprint here is light by choice rather than for lack of output. I'm glad to walk reviewers through code read-only on request. In the meantime, danlaffan.com is the best place to get a sense of what I build.

Elsewhere

Popular repositories Loading

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