Frantisek Malina

I build software that survives. For the last twenty years I've been helping organisations rescue ageing systems, untangle complicated data and deliver software that remains fast, maintainable and pleasant to work on long after the original developers have moved on. Most of my work has been in Python, Django and PostgreSQL, ranging from government and healthcare to finance, energy trading and semantic knowledge systems.

Along the way I've also founded products of my own, designed taxonomies, optimised search, built developer tooling and spent countless hours improving performance instead of adding unnecessary complexity.

Independent Software Engineer at Independent (2021-01 – Present)

Working with organisations that need experienced engineering rather than large teams. Recent work has centred around Python applications, information architecture and data-heavy web systems, alongside continued development of my own software projects.

• Continued development of the Unilexicon taxonomy platform.
• Created tools around medicines, semantic data and controlled vocabularies.
• Built Blocl, a structured local information platform.
• Produced specialist consultancy for Python applications, software upgrades and technical audits.

Software Engineer at CF Partners (2019-01 – 2021-12)

Joined to modernise a mature financial trading platform while keeping business-critical services running. The work covered everything from Python migration and database optimisation to Linux administration and mentoring.

• Migrated production services from Python 2 to Python 3.
• Refactored ETL pipelines and introduced modern engineering practices.
• Improved PostgreSQL performance and reliability.
• Migrated repositories from Mercurial to Git.
• Upgraded Linux servers from Ubuntu 14.04 to 20.04 LTS.
• Developed internal scheduling and operational tooling.
• Mentored developers and helped establish consistent engineering practices.
• Later developed software managing battery storage assets and National Grid balancing operations.

Software Engineer at GLG (2018-01 – 2019-12)

Joined GLG to improve how knowledge was represented across the organisation. The work combined python, UX, data analysis, focusing on helping staff find the right expertise for clients by reducing duplicate and inconsistent data.

• Designed a tool for cleaning a large council member dataset.
• Advised on GDPR, information quality and searchability.

Lead Python Backend Developer at Tictrac (2017-01 – 2018-12)

Developed backend services for the Sport Relief 2018 mobile application, processing nationwide activity data while supporting hundreds of thousands of participants.

• Designed scalable REST APIs in Django.
• Implemented distributed task processing using Celery and RabbitMQ.
• Supported independently developed iOS, Android and web applications.
• Worked with Docker-based AWS deployments.

Lead Full Stack Developer at CommScope (2017-01 – 2017-12)

Developed a bespoke project management and resource planning system while coaching developers in Python and software engineering practices.

• Designed and implemented the application from concept to production.
• Mentored the internal development team.
• Delivered responsive interfaces and Django backend services.

Technical Lead at Barclays (2016-01 – 2017-12)

Worked within Barclays engineering teams to automate software delivery, improve development workflows and modernise internal engineering tools.

• Automated adoption of Git, Jenkins, JIRA and Confluence.
• Developed internal Django applications and REST services.
• Resolved accessibility, security and performance issues.
• Coached developers and acted as technical lead for small engineering teams.

Co-founder & Technical Director at Flatmate Rooms (2011-01 – 2016-12)

Built Flatmate Rooms from the ground up into a nationwide room rental platform serving more than half a million registered users. This remains the project that shaped most of my engineering philosophy: write clean code, understand your users and automate everything that should not require human effort.

• Designed the complete software architecture.
• Developed the Python/Django platform from scratch.
• Designed databases, deployment, APIs and payment integrations.
• Implemented search, mapping and geospatial features.
• Introduced automated testing and continuous deployment.
• Led technical direction while working directly with customers.

Information Architect at Department for Education (2010-01 – 2011-12)

Designed and developed software for creating, managing and applying controlled vocabularies across large government datasets. This work became the foundation of what later evolved into Unilexicon.

• Developed browser-based taxonomy management software.
• Built semantic tagging tools and browser extensions.
• Worked with education and NHS datasets.
• Designed APIs around SKOS, XML and linked-data standards.
• Bridged information architecture and hands-on software engineering.