Christian Brown

I lead a user experience engineering team within the Shipping dept., managing 10-12 full-stack engineers from the UK, Canada, Germany, and contractors from Cyprus. My team build, extend and ensure the uptime of the shipping purchase journeys on the web, handling over 30m purchases per month, representing ~US$400m/year in revenue, moving ~US$8b in merchandise.

Key contributions:

• Team leadership: I’ve built a high-impact team where trust and autonomy drive performance. I set clear goals, run regular 1:1s, provide actionable feedback, and support growth.
• Technical leadership: I set the technical direction, balancing delivery commitments with long-term architectural health. I guide the team in building scalable, testable, and maintainable systems that avoid introducing technical debt and reduce overall operational risk. Under my leadership, the team reduced production outages by 75%+ and significantly decreased customer-reported defects.
• Delivery & cross-functional collaboration: I work closely with product managers, engineering leadership, and business stakeholders on prioritisation, six-month capacity planning, and delivery timelines.
• Hiring & onboarding: I contribute to hiring across the Shipping department. For my team, I created a structured onboarding programme, recognised by HR as outstanding, that helps new joiners feel part of the team and contribute to production code from day one.

Tech stack: TypeScript/JavaScript (React, Node.js, Playwright), Java, Kotlin, Oracle, Kubernetes, CI/CD with Jenkins.

I led the Video Engineering team with four back‑end engineers from the US, the UK, and contractors from Brazil. My team built a new SaaS video encoding and playback API platform to support up to two billion play sessions per year.

We handled video-on-demand (VOD) encoding with Bitmovin, AWS Elemental for live video, dynamic packaging & CDN with Fastly, playback with Video.js, captioning with Rev, analytics with Mux, and built custom solutions for digital asset management, ads integration, and content distribution. We migrated popular US media brands like CNET, ZDNet, GameSpot, GiantBomb, TV Guide on to our platform.

Tech stack: TypeScript/JavaScript (React, Node.js, Express) and Go/Golang, Postgres (Amazon RDS) for relational data, CMS integrations in PHP (Symfony, WordPress), and CI/CD with CircleCI on infrastructure in both AWS and GCP managed with Terraform.

As Lead Software Engineer, I played a key role in the transition of systems from ViacomCBS to Red Ventures, contributing at both technical and organisational levels.

I was the lead back-end engineer and architect for a video-on-demand (VOD) platform supporting up to one billion video play sessions annually, accommodating the extended needs after the acquisition. By eliminating an external content management vendor, I delivered ~US$430k in cost savings in the first year and ~US$275k annually thereafter.

I was also a core member of the migration working group, collaborating closely with product leadership on vendor evaluations, defining transition milestones aligned with the Transition Services Agreement (TSA), ensuring engineering deliverables remained on schedule, and coordinating expectations across stakeholders from both organisations.

Tech stack: PHP (Symfony), Go/Golang, MySQL, Redis, Memcached, GCP, Bitmovin, TypeScript/JavaScript (Video.js), Fastly, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Jenkins.

I led a distributed team of four direct reports across the US and the UK, reporting to the VP of Engineering.

I was one of three engineering leaders responsible for the CMS, APIs, and core technology stack powering 10+ CBS web properties, including CBS News, CBS Sports, and CNET, collectively serving ~190 million unique visitors per month.

I established my team as the subject-matter experts for all video-on-demand (VOD) workflows, including transcoding, ingestion, digital asset management, captioning and transcription, publishing, and distribution across internal platforms and third-party vendors. I designed an alternative to a per-play vendor solution, saving ~US$500K annually.

Tech stack: PHP (Symfony), Go/Golang, Python, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Memcached, GCP, AWS, MPX/CVP, TypeScript/JavaScript, Material Design, Fastly, Akamai, Vagrant, Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins.

I was a tech lead in the international CMS team. We maintained the CMS UI and API stack that powered the company’s web properties in local markets.

We built a new responsive CMS UX for the combined global version of ZDNet in just two months. Following that success, we merged with the US, forming a global team responsible for building a single CMS to power all US and international websites - spanning news, sport, tech, gaming, and food verticals.

During a six-week assignment in San Francisco, I led one of the most complex integrations - adding new online video functionality to the CMS to support CBS’s broadcast brands.

I was a full-stack web developer, building features for UK editions of CNET and ZDNet. I also supported US teams with GameSpot, TV.com and TechRepublic.

I worked with engineers across countries to develop a framework of libraries that solved common problems like routing, caching, and CDN integration. I delivered training for the framework in the Paris office to French and German teams, and showcased our achievements at an off-site event in Singapore.

I was a software engineer in the Customer Service Tools team within the wider Applications dept., building and maintaining CRM, billing, HR, and B2B ordering systems. My area of focus was bringing the tools I had created in my previous role into the official CRM application. I was awarded ‘Hardest Worker of the Year’ in 2006.

I was a team leader in the billing and technical support contact centre. I coached junior staff, helped customers with escalated technical issues, and logged network-wide faults with the Network Operations Centre.

As a side project, I created a set of web-based tools to help my colleagues, including one that produced the theoretical maximum DSL speed by calculating copper-wire attenuation from raw cable data. These tools ended up being used by all support staff across multiple countries, which led to winning ‘Most Innovative Staff Member’ in 2005 and supported my move to the Applications team.

I oversaw all IT operations, from local desktop and server support to development, hosting and maintenance of METS’s websites, intranet and other web‑based tools.

I provided web development, hosting and domain name management services for small to medium businesses. I developed and supported web-based applications from microsites and intranets to full shopping portals. I worked closely with my clients, supporting them through the stages of concept, design, development, and launch.

I volunteered to support NHS’s COVID-19 vaccination programme (420hrs over 70 six-hour shifts), primarily at the Mass Vaccination Centre at the Science Museum in London. I managed public-facing stewarding, check-in, and booking queries, supporting patients with complex medical, eligibility, and mental health needs. I assisted diverse populations ranging from undocumented migrants to VIPs, including diplomats and public figures. I liaised with museum security and police to handle incidents involving protests, uninvited media, and anti-vaccine activity.