Sparkgeo
Tom Christian is an experienced software developer and consultant who has worked in various roles throughout their career. Tom currently holds the position of Senior Software Developer and Team Lead at Sparkgeo, where they lead a development team and has successfully delivered projects in the Earth Observation, vehicle manufacturing, and non-profit sectors. Their focus at Sparkgeo is mainly on backend implementation, including data modelling, APIs, data pipelines, and devops, with frontend work as required.
Prior to joining Sparkgeo, Tom worked at Tantalus for five years as a Senior Software Developer and Team Lead. During their time there, they led the development of Insight, the administration interface for Tantalus' automated metering infrastructure known as TUNet. Tom personally migrated a significant amount of code to Angular 6 from AngularJS, ensuring test coverage and addressing design flaws in the original implementation.
Before their time at Tantalus, Tom worked as a Software and Geospatial Consultant at their own company, Tom Christian Consulting. Tom primarily contracted to Tantalus Systems Corp. and eventually secured a permanent position with the company.
Tom's career began at Forte Consulting Ltd., where they served as a Software and Geospatial Consultant. In this role, they represented the company's expertise in JavaScript and web services and delivered software for various clients in the form of ArcGIS Add-ins, asset risk registries, and WMS benchmarking tools.
Early in their career, Tom worked as a Technical Consultant at Informed Solutions. Tom used their skills in ASP.NET and JQuery to develop software and also performed the role of a Business Analyst. Many of the projects they worked on in this role were funded by central government and widely publicized.
Tom Christian completed their secondary education at Meadowhead Comprehensive School in Sheffield from 1994 to 1999, earning their GCSEs. From 2001 to 2003, they attended Sheffield College, Norton Centre, where they pursued 'A' Levels in Geography, English Language, and Psychology. Tom then furthered their education at the University of Southampton from 2003 to 2006, obtaining their Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography. Lastly, Tom pursued a Master of Science degree in Geographical Information Science from The University of Edinburgh from 2006 to 2007.
Sparkgeo
Our partners rely on us to make sense of geospatial data and maps. We provide analytics, insights, and development support to our partners. Our services are concentrated in three key areas:Geospatial AnalyticsThe Earth is always changing. Knowing how affords your company a strategic advantage. We use many data sources (including satellites,drones, and the crowd) to assemble data. We then build live geospatial analytic products. These deliver insights into the world that surrounds your business. Our clients appreciate how we make this complex information consumable and applicable.ConsultingEven organizations with geospatial expertise benefit from outside counsel. As such, some engage us as off-site partners, to supplement their existing team. Our people have extensive geospatial knowledge, and can use it to help you navigate your unique challenges. We pride ourselves on listening to our clients, and collaborating with them. In doing so, we’re able to create and identify true obstacles—and craft plans for solving those problems.Software DevelopmentTech companies—especially those in the Valley—struggle to grow their development teams. This can prevent them from acting on opportunities. (There aren’t many geospatial developers available for hire.) In these situations, we can help you scale your development team, with proven geospatial developers. Companies, governments and non-profits alike rely on us to both augment teams, and for complete software builds.