I've been speaking with John Cruz, a Senior Backend Developer currently working at Deloitte, and I have to say he's made a strong impression on me from the outset. With eight years of experience under his belt, John comes across as measured, technically assured, and genuinely engaged in the work he does. He's the kind of candidate who can speak with real depth about what he's built and why it matters, which I always find encouraging at this level.

Throughout his career John has developed a clear specialism in cloud-based automation and backend systems, with a strong grounding in public sector and government digital environments. The achievement that stands out most from our conversations is his work building AI-enabled Azure automation solutions at Deloitte, which delivered a measurable 30% improvement in process efficiency. That's not the sort of figure candidates tend to throw around loosely, and when I pressed him on it he was able to walk me through the approach in a way that gave me real confidence in the claim.

On the technical side, John works primarily across the Microsoft stack, covering Azure, Power Automate, Azure Logic Apps, Power Apps, Azure DevOps, and API integration. He's operating at a senior level and describes his day-to-day as a mix of solution design, hands-on development, and collaborating with stakeholders to translate complex requirements into scalable backend systems. He's not someone who needs close direction, and from what he's told me he's comfortable taking ownership of delivery from early design through to production.

In terms of motivation, John has been open with me about wanting to find a role where he can continue working on meaningful, high-impact digital transformation, ideally in the public sector space where he feels his experience is most directly applicable. He's based in Cardiff and is open to hybrid or fully remote working within the UK, which gives a good degree of flexibility. I wasn't able to confirm his notice period during our initial conversation, so I'd recommend clarifying that early, but I wouldn't let that slow things down. Overall, I think John is a strong fit for this requirement and I'd be happy to put him forward with genuine confidence.