I’m DC.
COULLWORKS is my practice. I am a solutions expert and systems architect based in the UK, eighteen years in, fifteen of those in ecommerce. Self taught, still learning, and happiest with a hard problem and a deadline. Here is the actual story. No polish, no buzzwords.
Computer forensics
Magento, from zero
AI before ChatGPT
Sixteen sectors
Off the clock
Off the clock
The actual story
How I got here
- 2010 · Forensics
Then, computer forensics.
I studied digital forensics and network intrusion detection, from Java down to manual hex-level work. My dissertation in 2010 was a secure Linux distribution built from scratch, with shell-fingerprint scanning and facial recognition to log in. I still use those manual techniques to hunt down malicious code injections in ecommerce stores.
- Placement · Systems
Thrown in at the deep end.
Forensics was a gated field then, so I went into schools as a systems technician on placement. The staff meant to train me were let go, and I ended up running the school's IT for a year: auto-marking software for the language teachers, asset and audit systems, the lot.
- Three months · Magento
Magento in three months, from zero.
A small agency moved me from PHP and WordPress builds straight into DevOps and full ecommerce builds. I learned on the job and passed the Magento 1 certification first time, in three months, because the business needed it.
- Agencies · AI and rescues
Agencies, AI and a few rescues.
A multi-brand agency for the Magento 2 launch, then more agencies, large and small. I was building bespoke AI models before ChatGPT, when you trained your own and wrote your own loops. An interim CTO stint. Then twelve months on a failing two-year project, which I rebuilt myself in under four months once it was clear a rescue would not cut it.
- Now · Sixteen sectors
Sixteen sectors, one job.
Fashion, health and prescriptions, SaaS, dropshipping, machinery, education, solar. B2B, B2C and B2B2C. Different stores, the same job every time: find the problem, fix it, ship it clean.
How my mind worksI see the whole system at once, and where it will break.Read the paragraph it came fromThe paragraph, in full
My mind doesn't switch off. It is always running, three ideas deep before you have finished the sentence. ADHD. It is not a disclaimer, it is half of why I am good at this.
Off the clock: family, the outdoors, and a paintbrush that keeps a fast mind still for an hour.
DC · COULLWORKS
In numbers
One person, most of a career in ecommerce
- Years in the trade
- 18
- Sectors worked in
- 16
- Years in ecommerce
- 15
- Languages: PHP, Python, JS, TS
- 4
I’m DC.
One senior person across the audit, the build, the integration and the call about what to do next.
- Years
- 18
- Sectors
- 16
- Based
- UK