Jon mentored me as a Junior Software Engineer working on the same team. Jon's in depth knowledge of the wide variety of Languages and platforms we were using for development helped me grow into a well rounded Software Engineer. Jon has a fantastic ability to communicate intricate software paradigms in a manner appropriate to his audience and adapts well to any situation. It was a pleasure working with and alongside Jon over the 5 years I spent with him at General Dynamics.
PA: General Dynamics UK Ltd
Jon was already a member of the BLADE team when I joined and I remember regularly asking him for help in an attempt to "get up to speed" as quickly as possible! I also recall that it was never a problem and he was always more than happy to devote time to help. He was, and is, a very team-oriented worker yet has the skills and self-motivation needed to work productively on his own. In addition to a solid software engineering skill set, Jon has an uncanny ability to think out-of-the-box. At times, this has allowed him to devise novel methods and solutions to software problems that he, or the team, have encountered. Jon regularly demonstrates a high level of competence in his field and shows an adaptability to his work that can only come from years of experience in software engineering. Not afraid to go the extra mile, and always delivering and producing work to a high standard, I have enjoyed working alongside Jon over the years. So much so, I would be more than happy to recommend him.
AE: Code Concise Ltd
I have worked with Jonathan since I joined General Dynamics, joining the team he worked on and working with him for around 6 years now. Jonathan is a highly innovative, lateral thinker who thrives on a challenge. He can mould technologies, ideas, research papers and sheer inspiration to produce novel and adaptable solutions to difficult problems in system design, algorithms, graphics and integration. I have been involved in green and brown field projects from conception to roll-out and his ability to adapt and apply technologies are highly impressive. For example, rendering millions of fully shaded and animated characters on a screen, the creation of a flexible, extensible graphics library for use in cartography (curved and distorted surfaces) and mass processing of data for simulation and modelling to name just a few examples. He is an excellent team member, highly giving of his time, knowledge and mentorship and a valued colleague.
KF: General Dynamics UK Ltd
I recruited Jon into the BLaDE team for Modelling and Simulation at General Dynamics in 2006 and he remained on my team until I left in 2015. During that time Jon was a key member of the team and responsible for the production of many complex and ground-breaking systems: One of his most outstanding achievements during this time was to develop a crowd model that to the best of my knowledge has not been surpassed to date (Nov 2019). The work really was staggering: providing the ability to render over 2 million realistic individuals on consumer level PC hardware. Jon was also pivotal in work on the backend crowd model (that made these individuals behave in a realistic manner) - being one of the three individuals tasked with designing and bringing the simulation to a proof-of-concept stage in six week. When the system was approved and put into production he continued to work on some of the most challenging aspects of it. Jon's skills allow him to understand complex problems quickly and come up with innovative solutions to difficult problems - something that he proved time-and-time again when working on day-to-day tasks or in the high-pressure situation of supporting live exercises. Now that Jon has spread his wings into contract software engineering I know that he will be an asset to his employer - with a strong work ethic and the adaptability that is essential when contracting.
DL: Principal Engineer - Nielsen Media Research