THE
MARKETPLACE
MACHINE.
Product, stock, pricing, orders and fulfilment across 12 channels without turning operations into a fragile collection of spreadsheets.
VIEW CASE STUDY ↗Technology leader with 18+ years translating business needs into working systems — coordinating developers, documenting requirements, managing external partners, and driving process improvements that eliminate operational friction.
Not “results-driven”. Actual operational scale across specialist omnichannel retail & high-SKU inventory networks.
What happened, what I actually did, and why it mattered.
The interesting part wasn't the storefront. It was the machinery underneath: multi-channel inventory reconciliation, ERP integration, automated marketplace repricing, and logistics workflows.
Operating across specialist omnichannel retail & manufacturing operations, we scaled online sales from ~£5,000 to £80,000 per month, contributing to group revenue growth from ~£150,000 to £3.5 million over three years across 12 channels and high daily order volume.
READ THE COMPLETE ARCHITECTURAL BREAKDOWN →Product, stock, pricing, orders and fulfilment across 12 channels without turning operations into a fragile collection of spreadsheets.
VIEW CASE STUDY ↗A production Model Context Protocol (MCP) server giving LLMs verified, tool-assisted access to advertising performance and live operational metrics.
VIEW CASE STUDY ↗Automated multi-system reconciliation, idempotent matching, and error monitoring across legacy ERP and disparate sales channels.
VIEW CASE STUDY ↗Parametric headless 3D product configurator translating custom user designs into automated ERP bills of materials and instant checkout.
VIEW CASE STUDY ↗What executive peers and commercial leaders say.
“Ciaran took an operation drowning in manual spreadsheets and fragmented channels and turned it into an automated machine that handled 1,000+ orders a day seamlessly. He understands the commercial P&L just as deeply as the technical stack.”Managing Director Specialist Retail & Logistics Group
“Ciaran has the rare ability to sit with developers to design idempotent API integrations in the morning, and sit with directors in the afternoon explaining how the architecture drives margin and operational resilience.”Head of Digital Operations Multi-Channel Commercial Systems
18+ years spanning software engineering, systems architecture, and executive technology leadership.
Advising SME and commercial operators on business systems integration, software evaluation, and workflow automation. Designing intelligent data pipelines, scheduled reconciliation, and API connectors that reduce manual effort across operational and commercial platforms.
Directed IT infrastructure, multi-channel commerce systems, and technology operations across specialist manufacturing and online retail operations (in association with Brico Depôt marketplace & retail channels). Led a 6-person multidisciplinary team, synchronised ~21,600 SKU listings across 12 channels, supported up to 1,000 orders/day at peak, and contributed to growing monthly online sales from ~£5,000 to £80,000 within the first year.
Developed web applications, e-commerce platforms, and internal business tools supporting manufacturing and commercial operations. Built custom WooCommerce/WordPress solutions, API integrations with payment gateways and logistics carriers, and resolved mission-critical production defects.
14 years of foundational engineering experience developing web applications, database architectures (MySQL, PostgreSQL), and Linux server administration across diverse business and digital environments.
Most “technology problems” are business problems wearing technical clothes.
When a business has fifteen tools that weren't designed to work together, I work out what the architecture should actually be.
Commerce platforms, marketplaces, product data, fulfilment, payments and automation — treated as one cohesive operating system.
I can sit with developers about APIs and with directors about margin and P&L. The superpower is joining those conversations together.
Agents, MCP, and automation are valuable when they remove operational friction or create leverage — not to check an AI marketing box.
Senior enough to set direction. Technical enough to understand the operational consequences.
Modern engineering depth paired with 18+ years of production experience.
The T-shaped Technologist: Hands-on depth, boardroom perspective.
I've spent 18+ years writing production software, which means I understand how systems fail under load. And I've spent enough years running commercial operations to know that engineering elegance is useless if the economics don't work.
I partner with founders, CEOs, and engineering teams to turn fragmented technology into reliable, scalable commercial infrastructure.
Education: Durham University — BSc (Hons) Computer Science
International Tenure: UK · Spain · Australia · Germany · Norway
Currently working at the intersection of business operations and technology delivery — translating complex requirements into clear specifications, coordinating external developers, and building AI-assisted workflows that reduce manual effort across growing businesses.
Technology, commerce, AI and systems — learned by building them in the real world.
What 18 years in technology taught me about turning an e-commerce operation from roughly £150k to £3.5m — and why growth is rarely just a marketing problem.
Most businesses don't need more connectors. They need agreed business definitions, clear authority, and idempotent workflows.
When the cost of writing code drops toward zero, the constraint shifts from "Can we build it?" to "Should we build it?" and architecture becomes more critical than ever.
Moving beyond conversational chatbots to autonomous commerce: intent-based purchasing, dynamic knowledge graphs, and agent-to-agent transactions.
Why growth creates complexity, how tiny 1% error rates compound into full-time human workarounds, and how to tame the integration graveyard.
48 field notes on the structural shift from static web storefronts to ambient, delegated, and machine-readable commerce.
Particularly interested in roles bridging technology and business operations in growing businesses · Permanent · Full-time · Hybrid / Office · Northern Ireland & UK
hi@ciaranmccabe.online ↗