Public profile

Experience

Startup Engineering Leader | Founding Engineer | Product Systems & AI-Native Delivery

Career highlights

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Johnny Butler - Startup Engineering Leader | Founding Engineer | Product Systems & AI-Native Delivery

Startup engineering leader and founding-engineer type with 20+ years of experience turning ambitious ideas, messy operational reality, and business complexity into scalable software systems. I work at the intersection of product, engineering, delivery, and operations: shaping what should be built, why it matters, how it should work in practice, and how to get it delivered in a way that is fast, safe, and verifiable. My background spans product shaping, architecture, operational workflows, integrations, reliability, and technical leadership. More recently, I have focused on AI-native software delivery, using modern workflows, playbooks, and agent-style approaches to increase speed, preserve context, and improve execution without compromising quality.

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

2026-03-01 to present

Building Explore My Profile, a product that turns static professional profiles into richer, more inspectable experiences for both people and AI agents
I own the product end to end across concept, UX, onboarding, profile rendering, Notion-driven content workflows, public delivery, and supporting integrations

First Engineer -> Head of Engineering (hands-on) / Tech Lead at Materials Market

2021-11-01 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 the platform across pricing, checkout, fulfilment, invoicing, and post-order operations, while leading across architecture, delivery, reliability, integrations, and operational tooling

Tech Lead, Ruby on Rails at Kudocs

2020-09-01 to 2021-11-01

Led development of a LegalTech SaaS platform, owning delivery across product features, integrations, and operational maintenance
Built and maintained internal APIs and third-party integrations while improving release discipline and engineering standards

Tech Lead, Ruby on Rails at Happity

2018-02-01 to 2020-09-01

Led development of an e-commerce Rails platform spanning subscriptions, customer journeys, and complex back-office workflows
Improved reliability, security, and integration maturity across a high-usage product

Ruby on Rails Developer (Contract) at CNS Group

2016-05-01 to 2018-05-01

Built a Rails benchmarking application for the cyber security industry with an on-prem deployment model using Ubuntu, Nginx, Puma, and Postgres
Implemented secure deployment and controlled release processes using GitLab CI and Capistrano

Tech Lead, Ruby on Rails at Clixifix

2013-01-01 to 2017-09-01

Led a small team building a SaaS platform for defect and repair management in construction
Owned end-to-end delivery across design, testing, deployment, support, and maintenance while helping scale operational throughput and customer communications

Ruby on Rails Developer (Contract) at Beef

2012-10-01 to 2012-12-01

Delivered Ruby on Rails development work on a focused contract engagement

Full Stack Ruby on Rails at Savantis Tech Ltd

2011-10-01 to 2018-02-01

Worked across full-stack Rails delivery for client and product work, building and maintaining web applications during a long period of hands-on consulting and delivery

Software Developer, Ruby on Rails at Savantis Ltd

2005-11-01 to 2011-10-01

Built experience across Ruby on Rails software delivery over multiple years, contributing to web application development and consultancy-led product work

IP Security Engineer (Placement) at O2 Ireland

2005-06-01 to 2005-10-01

Worked on IP security during an industry placement, gaining early operational and infrastructure-focused engineering experience

Applications Developer (Placement) at Procter & Gamble

2003-07-01 to 2004-09-01

Worked as an applications developer during a placement, contributing to software development in a large enterprise environment