Alex Haslehurst

AI Software Engineer

  • alex.haslehurst@gmail.com
  • ax-h.com
  • axle-h
  • ahaslehurst
  • Sheffield, UK
Alex
Hi, I'm Alex, a software developer with over 15 years' experience across many industries, platforms and within government. I have led multiple teams and delivered many full stack projects from design to production. I have a strong background in mathematics, statistics and data science, which has accelerated my career through some really interesting and complex projects. The rise of AI has totally transformed my career. I now build agentic applications and the platforms that run them; chat interfaces, retrieval over large knowledge bases, data exploration and coding tools. It has changed how I build software just as much as what I build, and I work alongside coding agents every day. I enjoy designing simple, scalable solutions to complex problems in an agile team. I like wearing shorts, running and retro gaming. I have over 650 stars on GitHub.

Technologies

I like working with anything that has decent documentation, but I have most experience with:

AI
Claude Code, Amazon Bedrock, OpenAI, MCP, Skills, RAG, Agentic application development, Prompt evaluation
Machine learning
Neural networks, genetic algorithms, linear regression, anomaly detection
Python
FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, Alembic, Google ADK, Posit, Running python in production
JDK
Kotlin, Java, Scala, Clojure, http4k, Ktor, Spring, Hibernate, Gradle, Maven
.NET
C#, .NET Core, .NET Framework, EntityFramework, ASP.NET, VB, WCF, MVC
Node.js
Typescript, Nest.js
UI
React, Next.js, Angular, Vue.js, Android, iOS, legacy browser support, JQuery, GDS (gov.uk)
Cloud
AWS, Lambda, Serverless, SAM, Terraform, RDS, EKS, DynamoDB
Devops
Kubernetes, Rancher, Docker
Database
Postgres, MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle, MongoDB
Big data
Cassandra, Kafka, Spark, Datastax Enterprise

Experience

AI Software Engineer (Contract)

  • Equal Experts
  • SEP 2025 - PRESENT

Agentic AI, MCP, RAG, Python, OpenAI, Bedrock, React

I am currently working on a software engineering contract in an AI Platform Team for HMRC via Equal Experts. I build agentic applications to support business processes; chat interfaces, RAG over very large vector databases, data exploration and coding tools. I also work on the platform underneath them, including an LLM proxy providing request routing, rate limiting and consolidated cost control across multiple departments.

Software Developer (Contract)

  • JUXT
  • FEB 2022 - SEP 2025

Kotlin, Clojure, Java, Kubernetes, Oracle, Solace, OpenShift, Legacy

I was technical lead on a successful migration of a 30 year old legacy system for Citi, moving both middleware and clients onto a modern stack without downtime.

Senior Software Developer

Kotlin, Java, Spring, Node.js, Typescript, Nest.js, AWS, Terraform, Kubernetes, GDS, Oracle

I joined MoJ digital looking to broaden my experience of working with enterprise scale applications having thousands of users with diverse accessibility needs. I assumed technical lead on multiple projects, which were released through alpha, beta and live phases. I have integrated modern, cloud based microservices with legacy monolithic applications and supported a general strategy for modern platform migration. Much of my work is available publicly on GitHub.

Senior Software Developer

Node.js, React, Next.js, AWS, Terraform, Serverless, Rancher, OIDC, MySQL

Inpart provides a digital partnering platform connecting university research with industry R&D. Virtually all technology at Inpart was new to me in a commercial context so I valued my time at Inpart as a challenge and learning experience. I assumed leadership in security, serverless and big data.

Senior Software Developer

.NET, Angular, Vue.js, JQuery, AWS, Terraform, Rancher, Android, iOS

Westfield Health is a not-for-profit provider of contributory health schemes. I joined to help migrate their legacy business processes online, providing technical leadership for a feature team owning multiple microservices. I became the technical owner for security and platform, distributing libraries, processes and training to build conformance across all teams.

Senior Software Developer

Scala, Spark, Cassandra, Kafka, .NET, Angular, JQuery, MongoDB, MS Sql Server, Docker Swarm

At t-mac, I provided technical leadership for a big data focussed team processing IoT time series data at scale, presenting analytics onto customer dashboards and providing automated insights into portfolio performance. I architected the Cassandra, Spark and Kafka platform behind it and used Scala to deploy a mixture of custom and off-the-shelf machine learning algorithms at scale.

Earlier career

  • Alpharooms, Technolog, Experian
  • JUL 2010 - NOV 2015

.NET, Java, Spring, C++, MongoDB, Cassandra, Oracle, AWS, JQuery

I started my career as an analyst at Experian Decision Analytics, where I realised that what little software development I was responsible for was what kept me driven and set me apart from my peers. I moved into development proper at Technolog, an electronics manufacturer working with IoT data, then to Alpharooms, an online travel agent operating at scale on AWS.

Skills

AI

I build agentic applications and the platforms underneath them; tool use and MCP, RAG over large vector stores, progressive disclosure through skills, and evaluation harnesses. I also use coding agents every day, which has changed how I work more than any other tool in my entire career.

Architecture

I am a tech leader, I have designed, led and delivered many successful projects on modern and legacy infrastructure.

Code

I like to diversify my platform experience but no matter the idioms; I build simple solutions to complex problems with a TDD methodology. Working with coding agents has made me lean on that harder than ever; a good test suite is both the brief an agent works to and the proof it got there.

Agile

I prefer the agile approach of minimising project risk by aiming for smaller releases on a frequent, regular cadence. I will build tooling, processes and team culture to achieve this.

Cloud

I have designed and developed cloud native applications at scale. I'm happy to work with any public cloud, infrastructure as code and serverless application framework.

UI

I understand how UX & consistent styling should work on a modern UI. I have worked with massive & complex UIs on top of many frameworks but prefer to keep greenfield work as simple and close to standard web technologies as possible.

Analytics

I have developed machine learning at scale with open source tools. My strong background in statistics means I am equally confident in the development of custom algorithms as I am with dropping in off-the-shelf solutions, and it is what I now lean on to measure whether an AI system actually works.

Big data

I have led projects moving massive databases into modern scalable platforms.

Security

I have experience deploying enterprise single-sign-on across legacy, modern and third party platforms.

Legacy

Most software will eventually become legacy. I have tons of experience maintaining a legacy estate whilst strangling features into modern apps.

Government

I have a high level of government clearance, please contact me for details. I have extensive experience with GDS and gov.uk UI development.

Education

Mathematics (1st Class Hons)

Including self enrolled placement year at Experian Decision Analytics. Received an award for my outstanding achievement and had my final year project, a machine learning piece, exhibited at the university.

alex.haslehurst@gmail.com ax-h.com axle-h ahaslehurst