Ben Reitz

Lead Software Engineer • Nottingham, UK

About me

👋 Hey, I'm Ben! I'm a full-stack software engineer specialising in building customer-facing web platforms at scale.

I'm a hands-on technical lead at Capital One where I build and optimise the digital web platform used by our customers to manage their finances.

Experience

Capital One

Nottingham, UK

Software Development Engineer IV (Principal)

July 2024 — Present

Principal engineer for customer servicing platforms across web and mobile, serving millions of customers. Part of a 4-person Platform Council providing technical leadership for the company's mobile app rebuild (70+ engineers).

Improved QA environment stability from ~20% to 95% by building a real-time health monitoring and debugging tool. Runs parallel checks across dozens of services with one-click access to logs, correlation IDs, and owning teams. Reduced mean time to resolution by 10x.
Co-architecting a server-driven UI platform for the mobile rebuild. Designed a DSL-based architecture reducing feature lead time from 2 months to 2 weeks. Leading quality engineering strategy and building testing tooling for the new architecture.
Mentor engineers, conduct technical interviews, and drive web platform strategy through the community of practice.

Software Development Engineer III (Senior)

Jan 2022 — July 2024

Tech lead for a team of 10 web engineers owning the customer servicing platform.

Led a complete re-architecture of the platform using React 18, TypeScript and Vite. Built a PoC in my own time, demoed it to stakeholders and secured buy-in for the 6-month project.
Results: 80% less code, 2x faster feature delivery, 95% faster builds. Moved from EC2 to static S3/CloudFront deployment.

Software Development Engineer II (Mid-Level)

Jul 2020 — Jan 2022

Acting tech lead for rebuild of the customer onboarding journey using React and serverless AWS. Replaced a 15-year-old Java system — changes now 80% faster to deliver.
Built a themeable React component library supporting white-label partner branding. Adopted by all 12 web apps across the UK business (see Achievements).

Software Development Engineer I (Graduate)

Sep 2017 — Jul 2020

Joined via the Graduate programme. Built a green-field internal web app for front-line agents to manage customer complaints.

Professional Achievements

Won an enterprise-wide “Best in Tech”award for leading development of the company's web component library.

30+ components with white-label theming, reducing UI build effort by 70%.
Adopted by all 12 web apps; established WCAG AA compliance across web products.

Side Projects

Adventrivia (adventrivia.com) — Annual advent quiz game with daily themed questions, user accounts, and competitive leagues. A few hundred players, grown through word of mouth.