Hi, I’m John.

Engineer turned technology director. Sixteen years across the stack, from frontend to cloud, and now running the whole technology function at Rapha, the premium cycling apparel brand: engineering, cloud and DevOps, QA, business analysis, product, ERP and business systems, end-user IT, security, vendor management and the technology budget. I sit on the leadership side of the business, so I make the technical argument in commercial terms: cost, forecast and return are part of the case, not an appendix to it.

The remit is broad for the title, which means I prioritise hard and I am comfortable saying "good enough" is the right answer when it is. I still write and deploy production code. Leading from inside the detail is how I understand the business well enough to support it properly.

### Director of Technology, Rapha (May 2025 to present)

Lead the whole technology function: engineering, cloud, product, ERP, security, IT, vendors and budget.

- Led the move to a composable, headless commerce platform, my strongest single area, and designed the event-driven architecture that sits behind it. - Lead a multi-year programme to roll AI out across the business, built on Google Cloud. Multiple agents and workflows in production, internal and customer-facing, including fully autonomous workflows, without compromising the brand experience. - Rolled AI into developer experience too: agent skills, tooling and new ways of working for the engineering team. - Built the data platform the business now runs its reporting on. - Own the technology budget and the vendor relationships, and make the trade-offs explicit so the business can choose with its eyes open. - Own the technology roadmap, planned twelve months out and sequenced against budget and capacity, with the trade-offs made explicit. - Still write and deploy production code and run releases. I lead from inside the detail, not above it.

### Head of Engineering, Rapha (Aug 2024 to May 2025)

- Led the engineering function and set the technical strategy behind the company's growth. - Owned the technical bar for senior hiring. - Acted as the bridge between engineering and leadership, turning technical detail into commercial decisions.

### Principal Engineer, Rapha (Dec 2021 to Aug 2024)

- Defined the roadmaps and architectural plans, and led the move from traditional architectures towards microservices and micro frontends. - Standardised coding practice across frontend and backend on full-stack TypeScript, React, Next.js and Node.js. - Shipped scalable serverless solutions across cloud environments while staying hands-on in code and troubleshooting. - Led a multi-disciplinary team across DevOps, QA, frontend and cloud operations.

### Lead Frontend Engineer, Rapha (Aug 2019 to Dec 2021)

- Decomposed the monolithic frontend into micro frontends, improving scalability and maintainability. - Built an internal design system and introduced Storybook, keeping UI development consistent across teams. - Migrated the CMS and DAM out of the monolith to headless systems, enabling content sharing across platforms and improving asset delivery speeds by up to 80%. - Defined frontend coding standards and best practice, and mentored frontend and cloud engineers.

### Senior Frontend Engineer, Rapha (Nov 2018 to Aug 2019)

Joined Rapha as a senior frontend freelancer in April 2018 to deliver the new platform, went permanent in November 2018, and moved from there into lead and leadership roles.

Before Rapha I was freelance and agency-side across a wide client base: automotive, financial services, consumer goods, entertainment and publishing. That range is where the breadth comes from, and why I would rather make a pragmatic call than gold-plate.

### Freelance Senior Developer, JJKilpatrick Ltd (Jan 2017 to Nov 2018)

Senior frontend contractor through my own company, across agencies and brands.

- Senior frontend at Digitas UK (Jul 2017 to Apr 2018), building online car configurators for Audi and SEAT: the experience of configuring and visualising a custom vehicle. - Senior frontend delivery for Oxygn Consulting in early 2017. - The Rapha contract from April 2018, which became the permanent role above.

### Senior Developer, Fathom London (Nov 2015 to Jan 2017)

Built and launched production financial applications for fintechs and established institutions.

- Engineered a mobile trading platform for commodity and forex trading for Goldman Sachs. - Built a risk management platform for Access Fintech, used by banks and buy-side firms to monitor the trade lifecycle and prioritise risk. - Developed an internal platform for Commerzbank to manage and update client terms.

### Senior Creative Technologist, AnalogFolk (Aug 2014 to Oct 2015)

Led development of web applications and hardware prototypes for AkzoNobel and Lucozade.

- Built the software and hardware prototypes for Dulux MixLab, an in-store paint mixing and colour-picking device. - Consolidated 14 AkzoNobel brand and service sites into a single optimised platform. - Built Dulux Paint Expert, Amazing Space Paint and Dulux Kids' Rooms: interactive tools for choosing, visualising and co-designing room decoration.

### Creative Technologist, Harkable (Sep 2013 to Aug 2014)

Built digital campaigns for Nike Foundation, Paramount Pictures, IGN, Warner Music and Penguin Books.

### Creative Technologist, AnalogFolk (May 2010 to Aug 2013)

Early-career creative technology work: interactive web and prototype builds for agency clients.

BSc (Hons) Creative Music and Sound Production, Leeds Beckett University, 2005 to 2008. BTEC Information Technology, Yorkshire Coast College, 2003 to 2005.

I would rather tell you a gap than defend a claim later. I do applied AI and agent work, not data science or ML modelling. My background is not very large traditional enterprise IT. And where I am strong as a leader rather than as a day-to-day operator, such as ERP, mobile and end-user IT, I will say so.

Direct and concise, warm rather than slick. I would rather be told something is a bad idea than be agreed with. I value evidence over assertion, candour over polish, and a decision people actually adopt over one that only looks good on paper. I am happy to say "I do not know" and to name a gap.

Email me at me@jjkilpatrick.ai. It is the right channel for roles, questions and anything that needs a real answer from me. I am also on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnjameskilpatrick/.