A Lead Software Engineer, Analyst and Architect. I provide contract PHP and JavaScript based services to companies and agencies around the UK through Pegasus Commerce.
Since 2009 I have been working with various organisations and their software development teams in various capacities to define, design and build software solutions to enhancing their business.
I’ve always had a passion for engineering. In my early days, it was Mechanics following my dad's footsteps and Electronics. Then I fell in love with Software Engineering. I went to Uni and got a BSc (1st) and have been hooked ever since.
I also have a passion for business and put myself through an MBA. I’ve worked for small startups and some large ones including Missguided.
The majority of work I do is as a Full Stack Developer / Engineer. I have experience developing solutions primarily in an Agile manner built with PHP (Magento, Symfony), JavaScript (Native, Knockout, jQuery, React, Node), CSS (less, sass), HTML using MySQL, Redis, Varnish, Elastic Search, Browser Cache on AWS, GCP using Nginx or Apache on Linux and using GIT for version control, Jenkins, Buddy, PHPUnit, Behat, PHPSpec and so on for testing, CI & CD, written and consumed Micro Services, REST and SOAP APIs.
I have worked with the SOA Solution Architects and Magento Teams to designing low coupling, highly flexible Magento modules and integrations for PIM data, WMS (orders, refunds, customer data) and 3rd parties designing Micro Services (Lambda, SNS, SQS), SOAP and REST APIs.
With a passion for driving code quality and best practices using tools and techniques such as peer reviews, continuous improvement, php-cs, php-md, codacy, cslint ...
Experience managing and mentoring developers in a friendly, approachable manner and leading the team and engineering efforts by example, for instance on projects, midnight deploys, managing technical debt, following best practices, bug fixes, continuous improvement and so on. I have worked through the discovery phases to define requirements, working these requirements into tickets in tools like Jira with acceptance criteria and design and taking these through deployment and beyond.
I have worked with the various stakeholders to understand the business issues and requirements and define, triage, specify solutions and working with the stakeholders to iron out with any further questions and clarifications that arise during the projects life cycle.
I provide Support and Maintenance services so you can focus on your business rather than your E-commerce Infrastructure.
Full time, ad-hoc, retained and freelance services available and built around your businesses requirements with competitive rates based on the service and level you required.
The majority of my work is done remotely using tools like Slack & Skype for daily communication with onsite travel periodically for initial kickoff, key meetings and so on. This is open to negotiations on a project by project basis.
Backend & Frontend Development
Project Management using Agile Scrum
Business Analyst
API Design, Integration & Development
Microservices Design, Development & Integration
Software Quality Management
Deployment Engineering
Maintenance & Support
Multi-store Module Development
Magento 2 Migrations
TDD / BDD
Caching with Redis, Varnish & Memcached
AWS / GCP
As a Senior Software Engineer at Missguided I had the pleasure of working a large and small projects. One of the most notable is working with a the Business and 3rd parties to integrate SAP FMS into Magento for product, inventory and order management. All of this was done through Pegasus Commerce
Unleash Enterprises is a B2B business established out of a passion and desire to make a difference in organisations. A line well used in the world of the consultant, but for us, there is a real belief that organisations are just waiting for that spark to ignite a real optimisation and productivity revolution.
I provided objectsource with Magento Development, Quality Management and Support services for a wide range of their Magento 1 and Magento 2 clients including goatfashion.com, slurp.co.uk, icewear.is and finecheese.co.uk to name a few.
While working at Missguided, another site I worked on was Mennace; A Missguided venture into menswear!
I love Kayaking and Canoeing. South Coast Canoes are a great local company who sell and advise everything to do with Kayaking and Canoeing. Through Pegasus I created an affordable Magento 2 site for them and provide support and maintenance.
As the Magento lead at Brightstar I’ve been the lead on numerous projects large and small from ‘Phoneshop By Sainsbury’s’ to smaller ‘Gift With Purchase’ sites such as O2 Gifts and all through Pegasus Commerce.
Through Pegasus Commerce I help provide Magento Development and Support for DSM and their clients
Through Pegasus Commerce I provided Magento Development and Support for a large client of there’s; Jo Loves
Through Pegasus Commerce I worked with Brightstar and Sainsbury’s to provide E-commerce consulting, Magento Development and Support for the “Phone Shop By Sainsbury’s” e-commerce store.
I had the pleasure of working with Montgomery as Lead Magento Developer during their re-design. All of this was done through Pegasus Commerce
The above is a non-exhaustive list of the some the clients and projects I have had the pleasure to work on. From large e-commerce sites that push the boundaries of what can be done with Magento, to smaller but no less critical Magento installations and even some ventures I am proud to be a part of.
I have known Phil for a number of years and he is a real pleasure to work with. Not only does he have excellent understanding and knowledge of Magento and it’s associated technology stack, he is also one of the most professional developers I have ever worked with. At Missguided, he has been instrumental in delivering a number of key projects under pretty challenging timescales. He does an exceptional job on the projects he is assigned to, and is a great co-worker.
Phil is quite possibly the strongest developer I have worked with in my career so far. The quality of his work and the attention to detail is second to none. I could honestly count the number of times a Phil Elson pull request has been sent back for re-work. Phil has delivered very high quality work no matter what project he has worked on, not least the product import/creation side of our SAP integration, which he pretty much single handedly delivered. Phil is the perfect example of a contractor that you would want to hire; someone who is an ultimate professional, who can pick up the ball and run with it, who will always deliver high quality work and someone who your permanent team will learn from, rather than the other way around. I hope to work with Phil again in the future.
Philip really impressed me with his ability and knowledge not just with Magento but as a software engineer. He knows his stuff and it shows in his work. It was a pleasure to work alongside Phil and I hope I get the chance in future too.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Pegasus Commerce, especially Phil since July 2014 and he is a respected member of our IT team. From the start Phil has supported our Magento stores and has always been available to investigate any issues, fix any problem and answer any questions we send his way.
I've worked closely with Phil for a year now and I can safely say that he is a gem of the digital industry. He has a wealth of experience working with clients of all sizes and always goes the extra mile to ensure that any solution delivered exceeds their expectations. He always delivers neat solutions consisting of clean, maintainable and modular code which will lead to reduced development costs and happier developers in the future. Technical accolades aside, he is a great guy to work with and will be an integral part of any team he is part of. If you're building an all-star team of engineers, Phil would be a perfect addition!
Phil and his company Pegasus Commerce designed, built and maintained our ED-Venture e-commerce store from beginning to end and they also managed our customer support. I would highly recommend them.
07731479744
West Moors, Ferndown, Dorset
