James Aindow · Senior Technical Leader
Programme Delivery & Solutions Architecture
Profile status: Available | Last updated: August 2026 | Version: 3.0
Why this site reads like documentation: Because this is how I handle complex systems. Structure first, then the detail, with every claim tied to something I actually delivered. If you want to see how I would lay out a delivery plan, an architecture review or a platform's technical content, you are looking at it.
Overview
Twenty years in engineering, most of it running the delivery. Two CTO roles, at Folk Digital in the UK and Shero Commerce in the US, with lead developer and senior solutions architect posts before them. I have managed distributed engineering teams of up to 20 and owned platform architecture, DevOps, CI/CD and delivery standards. At both agencies I worked at owner level on the strategic technical calls. The build history is enterprise e-commerce for brands including Wedgwood, Hackett London, Turnbull & Asser, MADE.COM and Pernod Ricard.
Recent contracts sit inside payments and blockchain infrastructure. At Mastercard I have led the documentation and UX content overhaul for MDES Manager, the tokenisation platform behind Apple Pay, Google Pay and digital wallets across the network. That work covers a 379-page user guide consolidated to roughly 200 pages in DITA XML, content across more than 100 product screens, and R&D on a proof of concept AI assistant for the platform. Before Mastercard came Starknet, an Ethereum Layer 2, where I was sole owner of docs.starknet.io and cairo-lang.org through the testnet-to-mainnet transition.
I am now targeting senior delivery and architecture roles in payments and stablecoin infrastructure. Technical Programme Manager, Delivery Lead, Solutions Architect. Contract or permanent.
What makes this profile unusual: I have run the engineering, and I can write it up to publication standard. Most delivery leads hand the explaining to somebody else. I read the architecture, make the call, then produce the document that gets signed off by the people paying for it.
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Key Capabilities
- Programme delivery and team leadership: CTO at two agencies, distributed teams of up to 20, delivery standards and release process owned end to end. Comfortable at owner and board level on the technical decisions that carry commercial risk
- Solutions architecture: Platform architecture, integrations, DevOps and CI/CD across enterprise e-commerce and SaaS. Senior solutions architect at Klevu, working with merchants, agencies and in-house engineering teams
- Payments and tokenisation: Mastercard MDES Manager, the card tokenisation platform used by issuers, processors and payment service providers. Scope, stakeholder management and delivery across a global product team
- Blockchain infrastructure: Sole owner of Starknet's developer documentation estate through mainnet launch, working directly with cryptographers and protocol engineers
- Communication at publication quality: Structured authoring in DITA XML at Mastercard scale, docs-as-code pipelines, UX content, and technical material that holds up in front of banks and regulators
- Available now: Remote, UK based. Contract from £600/day, or permanent for the right role. Payments, stablecoin infrastructure, fintech and developer platforms