Josh Hawkes
Full Stack Developer • IT Support
I am a web developer with more than 10 years of experience building, improving, and supporting web applications. I co-founded and developed a learning platform that grew to more than 300 schools, giving me direct experience of taking a product from early development through to day-to-day support at scale.
My background is mainly in Laravel, PHP, JavaScript, MySQL, and AWS, but a large part of my work has also been hands-on application support. I have spent years helping schools and staff with live issues, investigating bugs, resolving account and content problems, supporting releases, and keeping systems running for hundreds of users. I am comfortable working independently, speaking directly with customers, and turning recurring support issues into practical improvements.
Skills & Tools
PHP
Laravel
JavaScript
HTML5
CSS3
REST APIs
AWS
EC2
S3
Lambda
RDS
DynamoDB
Docker
Git
WordPress
Shopify
Zapier
Experience
- Co-founded and developed an online learning platform used by more than 300 schools.
- Built and maintained the main Laravel application, internal tools, REST APIs, and supporting AWS infrastructure.
- Worked on video and media delivery using S3, Lambda, and related AWS services.
- Integrated services such as WordPress, Shopify, and Zapier to support sales, content, and onboarding workflows.
- Handled releases, production fixes, customer support, and ongoing improvements to the platform.
- Provided day-to-day support to more than 300 schools, troubleshooting live issues and resolving platform, content, and account problems.
- Worked directly with users to answer questions, investigate bugs, and turn recurring support requests into product improvements and fixes.
- Built features for user management, classes, reporting, and content administration used daily by schools and staff.
- Improved development and releases with Docker-based local environments and a smoother deployment process.
- Developed and maintained web applications used for stock control, ordering, and day-to-day business operations.
- Built features in PHP and Laravel and supported existing systems used by staff and customers.
- Investigated issues reported by users, fixed faults in live systems, and provided reliable day-to-day application support for business-critical tools.
- Helped move systems onto AWS and improved deployment and hosting processes.
- Worked with MySQL, Amazon RDS, and DynamoDB to support both relational and NoSQL workloads.
- Used Git and Docker to make development and releases more reliable.
- Supported internal teams by resolving system issues, maintaining business-critical applications, and helping keep operations running smoothly.
- Developed a Shopify dropshipping site with a custom template focused on selling artefacts online.
- Built automated processes to reduce manual admin and help the site run with minimal day-to-day input.
- Set up workflows for sending purchase orders and invoices automatically as part of the order process.
- Supported reconciliation and finance-related workflows through Xero integration, reducing manual processing.
- Worked on a platform for producing Home Information Packs using Classic ASP.
- Helped develop white-label solutions for different customers and business needs.
- Spoke directly with customers, providing help and support and resolving day-to-day issues.
- Contributed to ongoing improvements to the platform based on user feedback and client requirements.