Chris Collins
Software Engineer, Designer and Photographer
I am a software engineer and designer with over a decade of experience building digital solutions for startups and large corporations alike. My expertise lies in web technologies, including Node.js, PHP/Laravel, Flutter, and React, crafting robust and user-focused applications at scale.
Currently, I lead the development of the STV News website and app, delivering reliable content to millions of users each month. Alongside my primary work, I occasionally take on small side projects through Mistaro.com, helping businesses bring their ideas to life.
Outside of coding, I have a keen interest in photography, cycling—particularly restoring vintage bikes—and mountaineering, often exploring the magic beauty of the Scottish Highlands. I sometimes write about this on my blog.
Testimonials
Chris was hired as Web Designer when he started at Arnold Clark. But due to his keen passion for developing platforms and UI skills, he quickly progressed through the company. Any discussion or action was backed up with user testing and sound theory to reach each objective. Not only is he a highly skilled professional, but also has great communications skills, reliable and an approachable person. Without a doubt, he will be a great asset to any design studio or developer team and I hope that I get a chance to work with him again.
Skills
- Design Tools:
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- Figma
- Sketch
- Development:
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- HTML
- CSS
- Tailwind CSS
- TypeScript
- React
- Node.js
- PHP
- GitHub
- AWS, (S3, Lambda, CloudFront, SES, etc).
- Collaboration:
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- Slack
- Microsoft Teams
- Atlassian Jira
- Design Expertise:
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- UI/UX Design
- Design Systems
- CSS, SCSS, Tailwind
- Accessibility (a11y)
- Responsive Design
- Soft Skills:
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- Strong communication
- Problem-solving
- Attention to detail
- Working in a team
Work experience
2019 - Present
Senior Software Engineer at STV News
STV News is Scotland’s leading news platform, delivering trusted, up-to-date coverage across digital, television, and app platforms.
- Handled a multi-year transition from a bespoke CMS to a scalable WordPress-backed solution.
- Led the migration of the hosting architecture from standard hosting to AWS
- Re-built and designed the STV News app for iOS and Android using Flutter, including creating a fast CDN-delivered API to power it.
- Built many in-house microservices to handle content syndication, analytics and workflows.
- Work within the newsroom, working closely with journalists and editors to provide modern and reliable digital output.
2015 - 2019
UX Engineer / Frontend Developer at Arnold Clark Automobiles Ltd
Arnold Clark is one of the UK’s largest car retailers, offering a modern digital experience alongside its physical showrooms. Through its website, customers can browse thousands of new and used vehicles and book services or MOTs with ease.
- Led the development of Arnold Clark's design system, which is used across all digital products.
- I held a lead role in porting over 1k landing pages to a new CMS and built robust frameworks and tooling to migrate the code over to GitHub and introduced SASS, React and the design system.
- Built a framework for building bespoke marketing email templates, which was used by the marketing team to send out millions of emails a month.
- Frontend lead on the online service booking platform, which allowed customers to book services and MOTs online for the first time, integrating with the existing backend systems.
2011 - 2015
Freelance Web Developer
- Worked alongside Oliur at Ultralinx Themes to develop a number of premium Tumblr themes.
- Built numerous websites for small businesses and individuals, including a number of e-commerce sites.
Education
2011 - 2015
BSc (Hons) Computing (Web Systems Development)
Glasgow Caledonian University