Profile

I work across the whole path a change takes: the code, the review, the build, the deploy and the dashboard someone looks at when it goes wrong. Most of my contracts start with one of those being slow or fragile, and end with all of them written down.

Alongside client work I test AI tools, agents and self-hosted software on my own hardware and write up what they cost, what licence they carry and where they fall short. Those reviews are the best sample of how I think and write.

Sample text: the experience entries below describe kinds of work, not named clients or dates, until Lance’s own CV is supplied.

Skills and tools

Application code

  • TypeScript, front end and back end
  • Node.js services and APIs
  • Python for data jobs and tooling
  • PostgreSQL design and tuning

Delivery and infrastructure

  • Docker images and Compose
  • Kubernetes clusters and Helm
  • CI/CD on GitHub Actions
  • Ansible for servers outside a cluster

Operations

  • Grafana dashboards and alerts
  • AWS accounts and cost reviews

AI tooling

  • Self-hosted models with Ollama
  • Agent pipelines and model cost tracking

Experience summary

  1. Contract, ongoing

    Full-stack and DevOps contractor

    Web applications in TypeScript and Python, delivery pipelines, Kubernetes platforms and cloud cost work, for teams that need one person across all of it.

  2. Contract work

    Platform and pipeline rebuilds

    Moving slow or hand-run deploys to CI with tested rollbacks, container images and infrastructure written as code.

  3. Contract work

    AI tools brought in-house

    Choosing, hosting and measuring models and agents where data has to stay inside the company, with the running cost set out before the build.

  4. Ongoing

    Writer, lancekeay.com

    Hands-on reviews of AI tools and self-hosted software, and a monthly report comparing AI model token prices.