Daniel Linley Say hello

Full stack engineer · Bristol, UK

Scroll

I build software end to end, from the database to the browser, and the cloud it runs on.

Daniel Linley in a puffer jacket and rucksack, standing on the stony shore of a turquoise mountain lake under low cloud

01 · About

Mechanical engineer by degree. Software engineer by trade.

I'm a full stack engineer with 7+ years building and running production web applications. I trained as a mechanical engineer at Swansea University and started writing software for a cloud startup while finishing my MSc. I never looked back.

Today I build CRM software for mortgage brokers and lenders at Finova. Outside work I design, build and operate my own products: a live site of private browser tools available for free, and a private hub of connected apps I use daily.

Away from a screen I'm usually playing squash, climbing, running or hiking.

  • MSc Mechanical Engineering (Merit)Swansea University · 2018 – 2019
  • BEng Mechanical Engineering (2:1)Swansea University · 2015 – 2018

02 · Journey

My timeline.

  1. Study · Swansea University

    Starts a BEng in Mechanical Engineering

  2. Life · Swansea University

    River Captain of the Canoe Club

    Led the club's trips to Scotland and the French Alps.

  3. Study · Swansea University

    BEng Mechanical Engineering (2:1), then an MSc

  4. Study · Swansea University

    MSc Mechanical Engineering (Merit)

  5. Work · Swansea

    Joins Imagicloud as a full stack PHP developer

    Started while finishing my MSc dissertation, and moved into DevOps and on-call.

  6. Work · Imagicloud

    Cashless Guru is booked for a 5,000-person ball

    Our contactless festival platform was set for Swansea University's Summer Ball, until Covid-19 cancelled it.

  7. Work · Bristol

    Joins Finova as a Junior Development Engineer

    CRM software for mortgage brokers and lenders.

  8. Build · Side project

    Starts building my private hub

    One login, one database, a growing set of apps for day-to-day life.

  9. Work · Finova

    Promoted to Engineer

  10. Build · burrowtools.com

    Burrow Tools goes live

    25 private browser tools, serverless on AWS.

03 · Work

Where I've built things.

01

Finova

CRM software for mortgage brokers and lenders

Apr 2022 – Present

  1. EngineerMar 2026 – Present
  2. Junior Development EngineerApr 2022 – Mar 2026
  • Build features end to end across the broker CRM, from Laravel APIs and SQL through to Vue 3 single-page front ends.
  • Modernise the platform by reducing technical debt in the legacy PHP system and building the new Vue 3 SPA that replaces its interface.
  • Helped lead the Zoom integration, one of the platform's most involved: did the preliminary research and documentation, then brought phone calls, contact centre calls and Zoom meetings into the CRM in real time. Recordings and transcripts appear on clients' mortgage and protection products within minutes of a call ending.
  • Built and maintain integrations with mortgage and protection partners, including Zoom, UnderwriteMe, e.Surv, ConveyNext and First2Protect.
  • Work in a distributed four-person squad within a 30-person product team, with sprint delivery and peer code review on every change.
  • PHP
  • Laravel
  • Vue 3
  • SQL
  • REST APIs
  • Zoom APIs
02

Imagicloud

Cloud computing startup, Swansea

Jun 2019 – Feb 2022

  1. Full Stack PHP Developer and DevOps EngineerJun 2019 – Feb 2022
  • Built admin and business management tools from the ground up on a custom PHP MVC framework, for mass-market customers and bespoke clients.
  • Helped build Cashless Guru, a contactless festival and hospitality platform on NFC wristbands: ticketing, top-ups, food ordering, POS and Covid-19 check-ins, integrating Stripe, Square, WordPress, what3words and Google Maps.
  • Replaced a call centre's software entirely: shift and leave management, appointment booking, incident reporting, automated invoicing, document storage on S3 and NFS, and notifications through AWS SNS and SES.
  • Ran production as part of a small team: 24-hour on-call, Terraform, and Docker and Kubernetes on AWS.
  • Built monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana, with Alertmanager alerts to OpsGenie and Slack.
  • PHP
  • MySQL
  • AWS
  • Terraform
  • Docker
  • Kubernetes
  • Grafana

04 · Projects

Things I build for the fun of it.

Live since Nov 2026

Burrow Tools

Free browser tools that run entirely on your device. Nothing you open is ever uploaded.

Visit burrowtools.com
  • TypeScript
  • AWS CDK
  • CloudFront
  • S3
  • Lambda
  • DynamoDB
  • Stripe
The Burrow Tools home page: a searchable grid of colourful tool cards
  1. 01

    Private by construction

    A strict Content Security Policy blocks every network request from a tool page, and automated audits check each page on every build.

  2. 02

    Serverless on AWS

    CloudFront in front of a private S3 bucket, all defined in CDK, with per-path security headers.

  3. 03

    Payments done properly

    Stripe tips through Lambda, with signature-verified, idempotent webhooks and per-IP rate limiting.

  4. 04

    Stats without tracking

    Visit counts built from CloudFront logs, processed exactly once, with no IP addresses stored.

  5. 05

    Built to be reused

    One repository, many sites: each is a small config on a shared CDK stack and build pipeline, so releasing a new static site takes an afternoon. This portfolio is one of them.

  6. 06

    Costs close to nothing

    Budget alarms and a kill switch cap the bill. About 190 automated tests keep it honest.

  • Sign & Fill PDF
  • JSON to CSV
  • QR Code Generator
  • Image Compressor
  • Regex Tester
  • Invoice Generator
  • Markdown Editor
  • Loan & Mortgage Calculator
  • Photo Metadata Remover
  • Time Zone Converter
  • Sign & Fill PDF
  • JSON to CSV
  • QR Code Generator
  • Image Compressor
  • Regex Tester
  • Invoice Generator
  • Markdown Editor
  • Loan & Mortgage Calculator
  • Photo Metadata Remover
  • Time Zone Converter

05 · The Hub

A private platform I live in.

Private by design · no public access

A private platform of connected apps I use every day. One login, one database, each app with its own look. It stays private on a Tailscale Mesh Network. Here are the ideas behind it.

  • Laravel 12 and Vue 3 modular monolith
  • Self-hosted in Docker on a home server
  • AI assistants on the Claude API, over Telegram
  • Web push and Telegram notifications
  • 1,300+ PHPUnit tests and a Playwright suite
  • Money

    Lumina

    Years of bank history from three accounts in one place: deduplicated imports, merchants and categories learned automatically, live Monzo transactions, budgets and projections.

    In daily use
  • Body

    Health

    Weight, food and alcohol tracking with an AI coach that can see my training data, and charts it can only draw from real numbers.

    In daily use
  • Training

    Vantage

    An AI running coach over my Strava history: training load, pace trends, personal bests and race predictions.

    In daily use
  • Movement

    MicroBurst

    Short workouts nudged to me through the working day, with demo clips, a timed player and streaks.

    In daily use
  • Music

    Listen Lens

    Spotify listening insight: top tracks, artists and a genre map built from my own buckets.

    In daily use
  • Time

    Google

    Calendar sync, so the assistants can read and create events and my runs land in my calendar.

    In daily use
  • Product

    Burrow stats

    Visits and tips for burrowtools.com, read straight from its AWS tables.

    In daily use

06 · Toolkit

Languages
PHP · JavaScript · TypeScript · SQL · Bash · HTML · CSS
Back end
Laravel · REST APIs · Node.js · MySQL / MariaDB · DynamoDB · Redis · Queues and jobs · Webhooks · OAuth
Front end
Vue 3 · Inertia.js · Tailwind CSS · Chart.js · Canvas
Cloud and DevOps
AWS Lambda · CloudFront · S3 · API Gateway · SQS / SNS / SES · AWS CDK · Terraform · Docker · Kubernetes · Nginx · Grafana
Practice
PHPUnit · Playwright · Code review · Agile · AI-assisted development

07 · Off the clock

Rivers, walls and hills.

When I'm not building something, I'm usually outside, and preferably near water.

  • A kayaker in a blue boat punching through a big, foaming rapid between grey rock walls

    Kayaking French Alps

    White water

    River and surf kayaking, often at Cardiff International White Water. As River Captain of Swansea University Canoe Club I led the club's trips to Scotland and the French Alps, and trained new paddlers at pool sessions twice a week.

    • River Captain, Swansea University Canoe Club
    • British Canoeing Level 1 coach
    • White Water Safety and Rescue
  • Four friends on a rocky summit beside a cairn, mountain ridges and big clouds behind them

    Hiking

    Long days on foot

    Long walks that end with a view or a tent: mountain summits, trails in Madeira, and wild camping on Dartmoor and in Canada.

  • A silhouette photographing the sun rising over a sea of cloud

    Hiking Above the clouds, Madeira

    Up for sunrise

    Some views are worth the early alarm.

  • Climbing up a sculpted boulder in a forest, reaching for the next hold

    Climbing

    Bouldering

    Regular sessions at the local wall, and bouldering outside whenever I get the chance.

  • Also

    Running and squash

    Running for the head space, squash for the competition. My runs feed straight into the training app in my hub.

  • Drinking from a water bottle with a climbing rope over one shoulder on a forest trail
  • A dozen kayakers in bright boats playing below a river weir on a sunny day
  • Two friends in helmets and harnesses posing on a sunny via ferrata rock face
  • Five friends with rucksacks at a viewpoint above a deep green valley
  • Launching a blue kayak off a weir with both thumbs up
  • A big group from the canoe club on a wooden viewing platform above an Alpine valley
  • A kayaker in red dropping over the lip of a big peaty waterfall
  • Six friends in waterproofs on a wooden jetty in front of a glacial lake
  • Two friends grinning as they squeeze through a gap between giant boulders
  • A canoe polo team in red bibs lined up in their boats, grinning, one waving from behind
  • Walking barefoot below a gritstone edge, draped in a full rack of climbing gear
  • Two kayakers in blue boats running a rapid on a fast, grey glacial river
  • In the sea in an orange buoyancy aid, feet in a wakeboard, waiting for the boat to pull
  • Six friends sitting on top of a huge boulder among pine trees, two waving
  • A big club group standing their colourful kayaks on end in front of Highland mountains
  • Looking down at a climber reaching for the top of a lichen-covered rock
  • A chairlift selfie with friends in ski goggles and helmets
  • Jumping off a rock ledge beside a thundering waterfall while the group watches
  • Friends stacked in a human pyramid on top of a concrete pillar against a blue sky
  • Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award
  • Piano Grade 5

08 · Contact

Let's build something.

danlinley3@gmail.com LinkedIn