Lauren Richards

Senior Software Engineer · Manchester, UK

Senior Software Engineer

Manchester, UK

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Profile

Senior Software Engineer with 13+ years of experience, currently building production AI infrastructure on AWS for an InsurTech company, now live with the first broker on CDL’s AI Inside Accelerator programme.

I build across the stack, from Python and AWS serverless services for AI agents to TypeScript, React and Next.js front ends, where my expertise runs deepest. AI tooling is a core part of how I build, and I direct, validate and own the output.

A background as a designer and design lead means I still give UI and UX feedback as part of the workflow, and I ship interfaces that are accessible and true to the design.

13+ YEARS · AWS CERTIFIED · DESIGN + ENGINEERING

Experience

CDL Software: Senior Software Engineer

Apr 2022 — Present · InsurTech · Stockport, UK · Hybrid

Core engineer on a nine-person team building a greenfield AI Agent API on AWS, taken from inception to Beta in ten months and now live with one insurer, whose customers make 24/7 policy changes through a conversational chat. I build the API with the team and, as a senior engineer, lead on technical decisions. I also own the front end of our agent test harness and its CI/CD pipeline. Earlier I worked on CDL’s company-wide React/TypeScript UI Kit.

NBrown Group: Lead Developer & Designer

Nov 2020 — Apr 2022 · Manchester, UK · Remote

Progressed from Senior Frontend Developer to Lead in eight months, managing a team of four and mentoring designers. Owned design critique across Simply Be and Jacamo while staying hands-on with build.

Rivendell Europe: Senior Web Developer & Designer

Dec 2015 — Nov 2020 · Manchester, UK · Onsite + Remote

Full-cycle design and development for NBrown Group’s brands, averaging 4–5 web builds and 4–6 email campaigns a week. Built a modular email code library that cut build times by 75%.

NBrown Group: Email Developer & Designer

Apr 2013 — Dec 2015 · Manchester, UK · Onsite

Designed and built responsive email campaigns tested across mail clients with Litmus, producing one to two revenue-driving campaigns daily. Mentored new starters as the team grew.

Skills & Education

Languages: TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Node.js
Frontend: React, Next.js, Storybook, CSS / Sass, UX, WCAG
Mobile: React Native, Expo, Expo Router, Zustand
Backend / Cloud: AWS, Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, Bedrock, Terraform, Docker
AI / LLM: Bedrock AgentCore, MCP servers, RAG, Guardrails, Claude API
Design / Motion: Figma, Photoshop, After Effects, Design systems
Practices: TDD, CI/CD, OpenAPI, Microservices, Event-driven architecture
Education: BA (Hons) Digital Media Production · Sheffield Hallam · 2:1 · 2012
Certification: AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Personal Projects

refluxly (React Native · Privacy-first)

A privacy-first GERD and reflux symptom tracker, built with Expo and a local-only SQLite database. No account, and nothing leaves the device unless you export it yourself.

Stack: Expo · React Native · Drizzle ORM · TypeScript
Status: In development · Solo design & build

pocket-ghost (Expo · Claude · Streaming AI)

Conjures a ghost story for wherever you’re standing, grounded in real local history pulled from Wikipedia. Hold the button and the story streams in live.

Stack: Expo · Claude API · Server-sent events · Upstash Redis
Status: In development · Shared design, solo build

nocturnal-nights (Expo · Habit-building)

A gamified way to put your phone down at night. Lock yourself out from a bedtime you set, and a nocturnal creature companion rewards you the longer you stay off.

Stack: Expo · React Native · Zustand · AsyncStorage
Status: In development · Shared design, solo build

Links

GitHub · LinkedIn