Tom Fox
Graduate software engineer. I build full-stack products and the backend systems underneath them. I studied computing across two universities, and finished my degree with the BCS Prize.
- First Class Honours
- BSc (Hons) Computing Science, University of East Anglia
- The BCS Prize
- Best individual performance by a BSc Computing student
- 86.43%
- Final-year dissertation - the semantic search platform below
- MBCS
- Professional Member, BCS - The Chartered Institute for IT
How I got here
Coding before university
Hi, I'm Tom. I'm from Cambridge, and I started coding in Python because I wanted to make Discord bots, first for myself and then for communities. One bot is now in around 700 servers. Needing somewhere to put data was how I picked up MongoDB and PostgreSQL, and Java came next for game plugins, with Redis for caching. Later I moved to PHP and MySQL, building addons for open-source software and selling premium modules. My wiki module has 350 or so purchases, with customers I supported for years.
Two universities
I studied with the Open University around work shifts, then transferred straight into the final two years at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and skipped first year entirely. University gave me the thing that is hard to pick up alone: building to a deadline with five other people rather than on my own schedule.
What I'm building with now
These days it's mostly React, Next.js, Node and Tailwind on top, with queues, vector stores, embeddings and self-hosted deployments underneath. Learning about embeddings and actually getting them working turned out to be quite different things. Along the way I've run projects on AWS, Oracle's free tier, Hetzner and Vercel, and spun up Pterodactyl, CloudPanel and Coolify to manage them, with a fair few headaches.
Two tracks at once
Study and employment timelines running in parallel, with milestones on each track.
2021
Open University
BSc Computing & IT - distinction in all seven modules, studied around work.
2024
Transferred to UEA
Into the final two years of BSc Computing Science.
2026
First Class Honours
Awarded the School's BCS Prize for the best individual performance by a BSc Computing student.
2023
St John Ambulance
Ambulance crew - twelve-hour shifts supporting a critical care service.
2024
Director's Commendation
Awarded by the National Head of Ambulance Operations.
2025
IAM Masters, Distinction
The highest result available, taken while studying full-time.
A search engine people chose over Google's
An embeddable semantic search platform: one script tag adds meaning-based search to any site. Running in production across three live websites - including the search on this one.
Blind study against Google Programmable Search
36 task attempts · 12 participants · ethics approvedBoth systems behind identical, unlabelled interfaces so that nobody knew which was which.
Tasks resolved
Succeeded on the first query
All twelve of twelve participants preferred mine for relevance and overall quality.
36% of attempts on Google PSE were abandoned without an answer. None on mine.
The full write-up has the dissertation as a PDF download and the source code viewable on GitHub.
From my project supervisor
“What a fun project to ‘supervise’ (it's easy to supervise someone as smart and skilled as Tom). Google had better watch out…”
What I work with
Everything I build with. A good chunk of it is running on this site right now, including the search and the chat agent.
Frontend
Languages
Backend & Databases
Systems & DevOps
AI & Machine Learning
Building with other people
ParkPal
5 people · several monthsParking management platform: bookings, real-time messaging, map routing, Stripe payments and an admin dashboard.
My role: Team leader and full-stack engineer. I built React front ends, Joi-validated Node.js API routes powering them, the real-time chat and the admin panel.
View the projectSkillshare SA
6 people · 2-3 week sprintJob-sharing platform for a South African community: listings, application tracking and email notifications.
My role: Full-stack engineer. We all worked across the stack, and my share included the account management pages front to back: React through to the TypeScript Express routes and Zod validation behind them.
View the projectSoundAdvice
3 people · about 2 monthsModerated music advice forum: post approval, 2FA, encrypted email at rest and a tamper-evident audit log, on four dependencies.
My role: Backend and security engineer. I worked across most of the app, including the tamper-evident audit log and the admin tooling over it, the magic-link sign-in, posts and comments with their approval queue, input validation across the controllers, the NIST-based password rules, and the least-privileged database setup.
View the projectWhat I'm working on
A snapshot as of September 2026.
Applying for graduate roles
Actively lookingThis is where I'm giving most of my time at the moment.
Sites for other people
OngoingOngoing work on a charity's site, plus a few smaller ones for people I know. One of them is an index site I rebuilt, now running my own search engine on hosting I manage.
An immersion-based language-learning app
Early setupGrew out of my languages hobby. Still setting up the early stages, but excited to be able to work on it.
Extending the semantic search platform
In production · Currently private accessThe final-year project didn't stop at the dissertation. It's still running on three live sites, including the search on this one, and I'm still looking to build on it. The public management dashboard for people running their own index is the next piece of work.
Twelve-hour shifts on a critical care service
From early 2023, alongside my degree, I worked as ambulance crew with St John Ambulance in Cambridge, on twelve-hour shifts supporting a critical care service. There is no code in this bit. There is a lot of driving, plenty of night shifts, and a learning experience that you do not get anywhere else.
Director's Commendation, 2024
Awarded by the National Head of Ambulance Operations for exceptional service in recognition of reliability, professionalism and dedication within St John Ambulance.
From a reference
“In our time working together in critical care ambulance, he has consistently gone above and beyond — often stepping in for long hours to support patients and the team.”
Response driving in an ambulance is what got me into advanced driving: when you are responsible for a critically unwell patient you cannot afford to use the vehicle controls too harshly.
What started as professional development for my job turned into the IAM Masters qualification, one of the most challenging driving qualifications in the UK. I passed with distinction, the highest possible result. I found out it was worth it when a tyre blew out at high speed under emergency response conditions, in a five-tonne ambulance carrying a time-critical patient. I proceeded to locate the hard shoulder rather promptly.
Away from the keyboard
Travelling
Volunteering in Paris
Competitively selected to volunteer at a hostel in central Paris - one month there, 30 hours a week, lots of French, and an invitation back.
Interrailing Europe
Set off across Europe after graduating. New cities, long trains, awesome people, yet no fixed plan beyond the next station.
Languages
Developing my français skills and collecting useful phrases for everyday interactions.
Running
Out most days exploring the great outdoors and trying to run just a little further.
All of the above, and all of the code further up, powered by a quantity of coffee I have chosen not to quantify.
Looking for a graduate engineer?
Full-stack or backend, Cambridge or London, remote or relocating.