Alex Wines, Lead Developer at Wattle

Our Employee Spotlight is Alex Wines, one of our Lead Developers. He's our tech-whiz and an everyday hero who keeps the techy cogs in the Umbraco CMS component of our MemEx platform turning and your digital experience running smoothly.

Hello Alex!

With 7 solid years at Wattle, and a deep-seated passion for the tech world, Alex is a pivotal force behind our Membership Experience Platform - MemEx. His role as Lead Developer helps shape the MemEx platforms Umbraco CMS website and .NET Web App member portal components, and ensures an optimum member experience. Alex's journey is not a typical one. Starting with a deep-seated interest in computers and coding, he transformed his curiosity into expertise, teaching himself, and joining Wattle as an Apprentice. Today, as a Full-Stack Lead Developer, Alex's technical influence extends across the company and he can boast some major creds including Umbraco Certified Master, Microsoft Technology Associate, and all round Microsoft .NET stack superstar capabilities.

• Tell us about yourself and your role?

Absolutely, I'm Alex Wines. I've been at Wattle for 7 years and currently I'm a Lead Developer. My responsibilities are diverse. They extend beyond typical software development tasks and encompass everything from defining technical systems architecture and providing development build estimates, to aligning our technology to business objectives and providing strategic IT strategy consulting to our membership clients. I enjoy the variety, and having the opportunity to be the technical voice within the team, it allows me to engage with all aspects of our work, including DevOps and infrastructure.

• What's your background and experience?

Before joining Wattle, I was working in retail at Ikea. However, I was deeply interested in computers and coding, so I decided to teach myself how to code. Following that, I joined Wattle as an Apprentice. Wattle then took me on full-time, recognising the quality of my output. Since then, I've grown professionally and am now a Lead Developer.

• What do you love most about your role at Wattle?

What I most appreciate about my role at Wattle is the sheer diversity of tasks I work on. I'm not confined to software development. I also get to engage in IT strategy, requirements definition, design work, Azure infrastructure, and more. This has enabled me to gain a wealth of experience in all the technologies we use at Wattle.

• How has your personal life intersected with your professional life?

We do a great job of fostering warm and upbeat company culture. This has allowed my interests and work life to intersect harmoniously. The company's social events are an excellent example: we come together as colleagues and a community.

• What do you see as the top challenges in the membership sector?

New member onboarding Member retention Centralising and understanding member data Demonstrating member value

• In your role, how can you help meet these challenges?

We are making member onboarding and retention more accessible and centralised, and refining where and how a member secures value from their membership. We're also empowering membership organisations with the data they need to improve member interactions and make better business decisions.

• What's on the horizon from a MemEx perspective that will help our membership clients up their game?

We're currently focusing on MemEx productisation and roadmap development to enhance the platform, particularly around our SaaS member portal which is central to improving the member experience and roadmap. We aim to continuously expand the MemEx platform so all our clients can reap the benefits on an ongoing basis. On top of that, we're planning to leverage big data analytics to help our clients gain deeper member insights and understand their behaviour and what drives it.

• And finally, when you're not working at Wattle, what do you get up to in your spare time?

I enjoy hiking and driving to different places in my spare time – it's a great way to detach from the computer. I've also dabbled in bouldering.