Sam Burns
Software Engineer at GoCardless
London, England, United Kingdom
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolSam Burns is a London-based software engineer with 11 years of experience building reliable backend systems, specialising in Go, PHP, software architecture, application security and test automation. He has a strong track record across startups and consultancies, recently joining GoCardless after senior roles at Upmind and numerous contractor engagements where he helped deliver production-grade systems. An active open-source contributor, Sam has improved core PHP projects such as phpspec and the Slim framework—focusing on refactors, test coverage and PSR compliance that demonstrate deep familiarity with library internals. He speaks publicly on technical topics from post-quantum computing to simulating quantum computers in Go, blending practical engineering with research-minded curiosity. Colleagues describe him as a pragmatic architect who prioritises code quality, security and automated testing to keep complex systems maintainable.
11 years of coding experience
17 years of employment as a software developer
Computer Science, Computer Science at Durham University
Github Skills (17)
library-design10
application-framework10
psr-1110
app-framework10
refactor10
phpunit10
psr-710
php10
exception-handling10
slim10
web-framework10
refactoring10
unit-testing9
micro-framework9
documentation9
Programming languages (4)
Github contributions (5)
slimphp/Slim
Dec 2015 - Jul 2017
Slim is a PHP micro framework that helps you quickly write simple yet powerful web applications and APIs.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:20 commits, 22 PRs, 27 comments in 1 year 7 months
Contributions summary:Sam primarily contributed to the back-end functionality and internal structure of the Slim framework. Their work focused on exception handling, ensuring compliance with the ContainerInterop/PSR-11 standards. Additionally, the user addressed build issues, refactored code, and improved unit testing for the container class, and core application components. These changes aimed to increase code coverage and improve the overall stability of the framework.
micro-frameworkguzzlephp-frameworkslim-frameworksimple-yet-powerful
phpspec/phpspec
May 2016 - Sep 2018
SpecBDD Framework for PHP
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:35 commits, 50 PRs, 84 comments in 2 years 4 months
Contributions summary:Sam primarily contributed to the PHP library's internal structure and code quality, as evidenced by the numerous minor tidy-ups and refactorings across multiple files. These changes included modifications to class structures, method signatures, and the removal of unnecessary code. They also focused on upgrading documentation and adapting the library for PHPSpec 3 and 4, indicating a deep understanding of the project's evolution and core functionality.
phpphp-frameworkrad
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