Mode A
No AI
Written entirely by hand. Nearly 20 years of doing it the long way means your policy never costs you delivery.
> Regulated, classified or strict-policy environments
Contract engagements
A senior contractor who ships on week one.
Nearly 20 years across agency and central government delivery. Available on a contract basis, remote or hybrid, inside or outside IR35. No agency margin between you and the engineer.
At a glance
- Experience
- Nearly 20 years, agency and central government
- Basis
- Contract or fixed-scope project
- IR35
- Inside or outside considered
- Location
- UK, remote or hybrid
- Level
- Senior / principal engineer
- AI use
- Your policy: none, assisted or agentic
- Ways of working
- GDS Service Standard, Scrum & Kanban
- Notice
- Typically 1–2 weeks to start
Next contract start: October 2026
IR35 & engagement
Straight answers on status.
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Outside IR35
My preference: defined deliverables, my own equipment, a right of substitution and no line management of my time. Contracts are reviewed before signing.
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Inside IR35
Taken on the right role, via umbrella or PAYE, at a rate that reflects it. I won't pretend an inside role is outside, it protects both of us.
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Determinations
Send your Status Determination Statement (SDS), or your reasoning if you haven't issued one yet, with the role. Clear status up front means no renegotiation three weeks in.
I am not a tax adviser and I don't argue with a determination. Send me the role and your IR35 determination and I'll tell you plainly whether I'll take it.
Your AI policy
Your rules on AI. I work within them.
Some teams want every advantage AI offers. Others can't use it at all. After nearly 20 years of hand-writing production code, either is fine by me.
Mode B
AI-assisted
Approved tools only, such as Copilot or an internal model, used within your guidance and data rules.
> Teams with an approved-tools list
Mode C
Agentic
Supervised agents handle tests, migrations and mechanical refactors. You get more merged work per day, and every change is reviewed before it merges.
> Teams that want maximum throughput
The mode is agreed in writing before I start. No client code or data goes into any tool you haven't approved.
Public sector & agile delivery
Fluent in GDS. At home in agile teams.
Years spent delivering in central government. I don't need an induction to how government delivers.
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GDS Service Standard
At home in services built to the Service Standard and Technology Code of Practice, and in preparing for service assessments.
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Delivery phases
Discovery, alpha, beta and live: I know what each phase needs to prove and what evidence assessors look for.
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Design System & accessibility
Building with the GOV.UK Design System and Frontend, progressive enhancement, and WCAG 2.2 AA as the minimum standard.
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Multidisciplinary teams
Working alongside user researchers, designers, delivery managers and product owners, and contributing to open code where the team does.
Agile, day to day
I fit into your ceremonies. I don't replace them.
- Scrum and Kanban: sprint planning, stand-ups, reviews and retros
- Refining stories with product owners and estimating honestly
- Show-and-tells aimed at stakeholders, not only at engineers
- Trunk-based development, CI/CD and small, frequent releases
What you get
One contractor, an agency's throughput.
01
Productive from the first sprint
I read the codebase, get it running locally and ship something small in the first week, usually a fix your team has been deferring.
02
Works to your AI policy
Agentic, AI-assisted or entirely hand-written. Your organisation sets the rules and I work within them, with the same quality either way.
03
Security and accessibility as standard
Threat-modelled, WCAG 2.2 AA-aware and auditable from the first commit, so compliance doesn't turn into a panic just before launch.
04
I leave it maintainable
Documented decisions, tested code and a handover your permanent team can actually own when the contract ends.
Fit
Good fit, bad fit.
Good fit
- A senior gap on a team that already ships and needs throughput.
- A product that must go live to a date, with real users behind it.
- A codebase that has outgrown the people who started it.
- An agency needing senior overflow under its own client relationship.
Not a fit
- Roles that are really about managing a team rather than building.
- Five-day-a-week on-site at a fixed desk.
- Roles where the work is defined by hours rather than outcomes.
- Senior roles priced at junior rates.
Enquiry
Send the role.
Rate, duration, location expectation and IR35 position. I'll come back within one working day with a yes, a no, or the one question that decides it.
simon@ainley.digital
Sole trader (Ltd company in progress) · UK · remote or hybrid