AD Andrew Drake CTO / Senior Developer
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▍ About

Three decades of design, code and stubborn pragmatism.

I'm Andrew — a freelance CTO and senior software engineer based at the intersection of strategy and shipped code. I've been doing this work since 1997, and the through-line has always been the same: align technology investment with business goals, then make it real.

How I work

Highly skilled and experienced in managing mid- to large-scale technology projects — but never above writing the code myself. I move between strategy and implementation as the work demands.

What I'm strong at

Breadth across software design and development, e-commerce, fintech, SaaS, APIs, founding-team support, operating tech businesses and digital marketing — so I can talk to engineers, founders and finance with equal fluency.

My comfort zone

Anywhere I can be creative in developing strategy and solutions that line up with investment budgets and business goals. The harder the constraints, the more interesting the problem.

Sectors

Where the work has taken me.

Different industries, same fundamentals — clarity of thought, well-chosen tools, and code you can live with.

  • Banking
  • Finance
  • Health
  • Art
  • Music
  • Fashion
  • Education
  • Retail
  • E-commerce
  • SaaS
  • Fintech
  • APIs
  • Security
  • Compliance

Principles

What I bring to every engagement.

Budget-aware engineering

Technical choices framed in terms of business cost, lifetime value and team capacity — not novelty.

Boring where it matters

Battle-tested tools for the load-bearing parts; novelty reserved for places it earns its keep.

Honest reporting

Plain-language status, risks and trade-offs. No magic, no theatre.

Test the load-bearing code

Pragmatic, not dogmatic. Tests where they pay back — and they almost always do.

Hire and grow people

Engineering teams are built; not bought. I help do both.

Ship it

A working v1 in production teaches you more than a perfect v3 on a branch.

Since 1997

Let's talk about your project.

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