Public profile
Experience
Startup engineering leader and founding engineer building product systems, operational workflows, and AI-native delivery models.
Career highlights
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Johnny Butler - Startup engineering leader and founding engineer building product systems, operational workflows, and AI-native delivery models.
Startup engineering leader with 20+ years of experience turning ambiguity, operational complexity, and ambitious product ideas into scalable software systems. I work across product, engineering, delivery, and operations, shaping what should be built, how it should work in practice, and how to deliver it in a way that is fast, safe, and verifiable. My background spans architecture, integrations, operational workflows, reliability, and hands-on technical leadership, with recent focus on AI-assisted delivery, agent-ready systems, and Software Dark Factory-style execution.
Top summary points
- Head of Engineering (hands-on) - startups & scale-ups - Ruby on Rails
- End-to-end ownership: architecture -> delivery -> on-call -> stewardship
- Location: Sunderland, UK
Selected experience
Founder / Founding Engineer at Explore My Profile
2026-03 to present
- Building Explore My Profile end-to-end across concept, UX, onboarding, profile rendering, Notion-driven content workflows, public delivery, and the integrations needed to make the system practical and usable
- The product doubles as a proving ground for AI-assisted, agent-friendly, evidence-driven delivery and agent-ready product contracts
First Engineer -> Head of Engineering (hands-on) / Tech Lead at Materials Market
2021-11 to present
- Joined as the first technical hire and helped transition the business from agency dependence to an in-house engineering function
- Built and evolved core commercial and operational systems across pricing, checkout, fulfilment, invoicing, and post-order operations while leading architecture, delivery, reliability, integrations, and operational tooling
Tech Lead, Ruby on Rails at Kudocs
2020-09 to 2021-11
- Led development of a LegalTech SaaS platform, owning delivery across product features, integrations, and operational maintenance while improving engineering standards and release discipline
Tech Lead, Ruby on Rails at Happity
2018-02 to 2020-09
- Led development of an e-commerce Rails platform spanning subscriptions, customer journeys, and complex back-office workflows, improving reliability, security, and integration maturity across a high-usage product
Tech Lead, Ruby on Rails at Clixifix
2013-01 to 2017-09
- Led a small team building a SaaS platform for defect and repair management in construction, owning delivery across design, testing, deployment, support, and maintenance