Hey ... I'm Charlie Tarr
I’m a CTO & Senior Ruby On Rails Developer with 10+ years experience of building and scaling web applications.
I love working in cross-functional teams, to solve real world problems using technology.
Amongst other career highlights, I’ve had the privilege of working with some amazing people, as part of my contributions to:
- Breathe | HR software
- Pobble | A platform, which helps to inspire young writers
- Stacked | A property investment platform
- Empowered Wealth | A wealth management platform
Feel free to check out my blog, if you'd like to follow my thinking on tech leadership, business transformations and whatever else is on my mind.
Likewise, please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or X
Technology profile
As a Senior Ruby On Rails Developer, I strive to write code and ship features, which deliver real value to paying customers, in a way that is well-considered, keeps things as simple as possible and by virtue of great design choices, stands the test of time when it comes to changing requirements and maintainability.
In doing so, I adhere to 5 guiding principles, which have served me well during my career.
These can be summarised as:
- Prioritise customer experience
- Work from first principles
- Compress complexity
- Embrace test driven development
- Make great design choices
If you would like to learn more about me and the way I approach my work, you’re welcome to watch this 3 minute video, in which I introduce myself and showcase a feature that I built using Ruby on Rails.
When it comes to building, scaling and maintaining web applications, I have drawn great inspiration from:
- Practical Object-Oriented Design In Ruby | Which explores the best way of future-proofing your code and applications, by making great design choices
- Domain-Driven Rails | Which provide helpful tips for organising enterprise-level rails apps, by leveraging powerful techniques such as bounded contexts and event-driven design
- Patterns of Application Development Using AI | Which explores the best ways of leveraging AI to boost productivity when developing web applications
On the subject of AI, I’m currently writing a series of articles to clarify and share my thoughts with the Ruby community.
So far, I have written the following pieces:
Leadership profile
I believe the best results are produced by cross-functional teams working together, in a spirit of collaboration and open-mindedness, to understand and solve real world problems.
In an environment where everyone feels safe to speak their mind, share ideas and challenge prevailing wisdom, I have found that powerful breakthroughs and innovations tend to emerge very naturally.
Whenever I’m tasked with leading teams, this is the type of culture that I strive to create and nurture.
On the subject of leadership, culture and approach to work, I’ve drawn great inspiration from:
- The Culture Code | Which explores the power of flat hierarchies, psychological safety and self-organising teams
- Rework | Which explores the power of remote work, asynchronous communication and the power of writing when it comes to sharpening ideas
- Shape Up | Which explores the best way of organising work and teams, in order to regularly deliver significant value to paying customers
By way of a real-world example, I recently led a major technological transformation at a group of companies, which is responsible for administering approximately 750 pension schemes.
With £250M+ of assets under administration, 1,000+ clients and 30+ members of staff, it was always going to be a big challenge. When you also consider that almost everything was being done via email and phone calls, with 30+ disparate systems being used behind the scenes, the challenge went to a whole new level of complexity.
To provide an insight into my leadership style, I wrote an article about my experience.
Experience
For more information about my experience, please check out my LinkedIn profile
Let's connect
Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or X
My email address is [email protected]