Josh Ashton

Curriculum vitae

My CV, in full

I’m a lead .NET engineer with 14+ years of delivering enterprise systems in highly regulated environments, from long-lived desktop applications to modern web platforms. I work at the intersection of AI and software engineering, increasingly in Python alongside C#. I use layered and domain-driven design, test-driven development and SOLID principles to build systems that stay maintainable.

I’m equally comfortable in front of C-suite stakeholders, turning complex technical work into a plain-English ROI case. I’ve spent a lot of time travelling worldwide to install, support and demo software and products for customers, and attending conferences to meet them, elicit requirements, gather feedback and build it into product roadmaps.

Hull, UKLead C# .NET Engineer and AI Engineer

Focus

What I do

Three areas I work across, usually at the same time.

.NET engineering

The full .NET stack, from WinForms products to Blazor, ASP.NET and REST APIs. I’ve modernised established codebases, from migrating legacy VB to C# to extending WinForms products with live Blazor dashboards.

C#BlazorASP.NETEF CoreSignalRSQL Server

Cloud and distributed systems

Secure, well-integrated services on Azure: web APIs secured with Microsoft Entra ID, and message-driven integrations on Azure Service Bus. I orchestrate distributed .NET apps with .NET Aspire, package them with Docker and trace them end to end with OpenTelemetry.

AzureService BusEntra ID.NET AspireDockerOpenTelemetry

AI in real products

I’ve led the adoption of Claude Code across a 25-developer team, with a shared skills library that holds AI-generated code to internal engineering standards, and designed a 7-stage agentic delivery pipeline on Azure DevOps that keeps a developer in the loop at every stage. I build RAG systems and MCP servers in C# and Python, traced in production for behaviour, latency and cost.

Claude CodeMCPRAGPythonAgentic workflows

Experience

Where I’ve worked

Newest first. Fourteen years, three companies, C# the whole way through.

  1. 2024 – present Hull

    Founder & Principal Consultant, VINTEL

    VINTEL · Hull, UK

    Independent consultancy: senior .NET and C# development, and AI services from strategy and governance to hands-on delivery. Run alongside full-time employment until 2026.

    • Led a team of 7 C# developers evaluating and rewriting critical government flood defence systems for a US county.
    • Built production LLM solutions for clients: RAG, NLP, document processing, classification and workflow automation, using Claude and Microsoft AI Foundry / Copilot Studio.
    • Built a custom C# RAG system that answers complex questions on food safety legislation, with custom chunking, embeddings, vector and hybrid search, and evaluation suites for accuracy and performance.
    • Designed and built a multi-site C# Blazor web application for a social care provider, so teams in different buildings can enter and read data at the same time.
    • Investigated private and offline LLM deployment with Ollama, for data privacy, security and cost in sensitive environments.
    • Advised SME and enterprise leadership on high-value AI use cases, ROI and delivery from concept to adoption.
  2. 2018 – 2026 8 years Sheffield

    Lead Software Engineer, LabLogic

    LabLogic Systems Ltd · Sheffield, UK

    Enterprise software for PET and SPECT radiopharmacy and regulated laboratory environments. C# throughout.

    • Architect and lead developer of Tracer-QC for around eight years: a test-driven C# WinForms application built with domain-driven design, driving a robotic arm and laboratory instruments over RS-232 serial and vendor SDKs. I took it from a blank sheet to global deployment and regulatory approval, across 12 sites in 5 countries.
    • Engineered real-time acquisition and PLINQ processing of microplate reader data, feeding absorbance and luminescence spectra into the QC calculation engine, with live Blazor dashboards served over a REST API (EF Core code-first, DevExpress, SignalR).
    • Led cross-functional development, QA and support teams, and redesigned the SDLC around agile practice and Azure DevOps to improve traceability and QA integration.
    • Set the team’s code review standards, acted as the technical escalation point, and mentored junior and mid-level developers through structured code review and pair programming.
    • Contributed to the Laura radiochromatography platform.
  3. 2012 – 2018 6 years Scunthorpe

    Software Engineer, Kamarin Computers

    Kamarin Computers Ltd · Scunthorpe, UK

    Where I started professionally, alongside Level 3 and Level 4 software development apprenticeships.

    • Developed enterprise C# .NET WinForms and SQL Server applications for EPOS and financial accounting systems.
    • Played a key role in migrating legacy VB systems to modern C# architectures.

Toolbox

What I work with

Languages and frameworks

  • C# 14
  • .NET 10+
  • .NET Framework
  • Python
  • ASP.NET Core
  • ASP.NET MVC
  • Blazor Server
  • Blazor WebAssembly
  • .NET Aspire
  • WinForms
  • SignalR
  • REST APIs
  • EF Core
  • PLINQ
  • Task Parallel Library
  • SQL Server
  • PostgreSQL
  • DevExpress
  • Delphi
  • JavaScript
  • React
  • CSS

Architecture and delivery

  • Domain-driven design
  • N-tier architecture
  • CQRS
  • Event-driven architecture
  • TDD
  • xUnit
  • MSTest
  • Moq
  • REST API design
  • OpenTelemetry
  • Real-time systems
  • CI/CD
  • Azure DevOps
  • Git
  • GitHub
  • GitLab

AI and automation

  • Claude
  • Claude Code
  • MCP servers
  • Agentic workflows
  • SDLC automation
  • LLM applications
  • Prompt engineering
  • RAG
  • NLP and document ingestion
  • LLMOps
  • Ollama
  • Microsoft AI Foundry
  • Copilot Studio
  • Power Automate

Cloud and platforms

  • Azure App Service
  • Azure SQL
  • Azure Functions
  • Azure Storage
  • Azure Service Bus
  • Microsoft Entra ID
  • AWS EC2
  • AWS S3
  • AWS Lambda
  • Docker
  • .NET Aspire

Credentials

Certifications, education and a publication

  • Claude Certified Architect – FoundationsCCA-F · Anthropic · 2026
  • Azure AI FundamentalsAI-900 · Microsoft · 2026
  • AI Transformation LeaderAB-731 · Microsoft · 2026
Springer book chapter · co-author

“Quality Control Automation Solutions for PET Drug Production”

A chapter in Automated Technologies for the Development and Production of Radiopharmaceuticals (Springer Cham, 2025). Written with Arkadij Elizarov. Pages 377–404.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-84632-8_15

Earlier certifications and education

  • 2025
    Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)Microsoft · Certification
  • 2024
    Data Science: Machine LearningHarvardX · Course
  • 2023
    Introduction to StatisticsLondon School of Economics · Course
  • 2016
    Level 4 Software Development ApprenticeshipQA Ltd · Apprenticeship
  • 2015
    Microsoft Technology Associate in C#Microsoft · Certification
  • 2014
    Level 3 Software Development ApprenticeshipQA Ltd · Apprenticeship

Say hello.

Based in Hull, UK. Email, GitHub and LinkedIn below.

hello@joshuaashton.comEmailjoshuaashtonGitHubin/joshua-ashtonLinkedIn