Phillip Whittlesea-Clark

Software Architect & Dungeon Master

I am currently living in Southampton with my partner (whom I dote on), my 4 cats (whom I tolerate) and 2 dogs (whom I fuss over).

:christmas_tree: I have a passion for going overboard at Christmas (see below) which means November is blocked out to put the decorations up, and January to pull them down.

:vampire: I am a D&D player, and DM. I just finished a 4-year play through of Curse of Strahd (which was only supposed to take a year), so I am taking a bit of a break. Saying that, I am keen to get started on Storm King’s Thunder, just in case that takes another 4 years.

:video_game: If I can find the time, I try to squeeze in some time playing video games. 7 Days 2 Die and Split Fiction are at the top of my roster, but I have played Valheim and ARK: Survival Evolved in the past.

:factory: I hate to admit it, but I have also put a lot of hours into the ever-growing factory that is Factorio1.

:monkey_face: I have been known to replay Monkey Island from time to time. You don’t have to load it from two floppy disks anymore, but it’s still nostalgic.

:cake: When not up a ladder, or in-front of a screen, I am on a quest to bake the perfect banana bread, without a soggy bottom.

:book: My partner is always reminding me that I need to read books more. You can head over to The StoryGraph to see what I am reading at the moment.

:mortar_board: I graduated from the University of Southampton in 2012 and have since worked my way up the ranks to my current role as Lead Architect.

I’m supposed to be defining the technical strategy of the business but I still enjoy being in the thick of it; my excuse being that it keeps me in touch with the needs of the teams. Some days I am writing library code that will be used in a handful of applications, other days I am coaching engineers on good software practice. Occasionally I might be doing my actual job and designing solutions that will have wide-ranging impact on the way the business works. It all depends on what interests me and what’s needed of me on a given day.

I am currently at Cirium in Southampton (which was Snowflake Software Ltd.).

For more information on my skills and job history, see my CV.

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  1. 644.1 hours as of the 20th April 2025 ↩