William Waites is a senior researcher and engineer with 16+ years building dependable infrastructure at the intersection of typed coordination, distributed systems and trustworthy AI agent networks. Currently directing engineering at Leith Document Company while holding research roles at the University of Edinburgh and University of Southampton, he bridges academic rigour (PhD LFCS, stochastic process algebras, mathematical biology) with hands-on delivery for governments and international organisations. His background ranges from core network architecture and geospatial systems to back-end data platform contributions (including fixes to the widely used CKAN data management system), reflecting a focus on stable, data-centric backends and database interactions. A chartered engineer and serial founder, he pairs deep formal research with decades of practical telecommunication and systems engineering—off-hours he also builds and sails boats, a clue to his penchant for durable, craft-oriented solutions.
16 years of coding experience
23 years of employment as a software developer
PhD, Computer Science, PhD, Computer Science at The University of Edinburgh
B.Sc, Computer Science, B.Sc, Computer Science at The City University of New York
Undergraduate Coursework, Physics and Cognitive Science, Undergraduate Coursework, Physics and Cognitive Science at University of Toronto
CKAN is an open-source DMS (data management system) for powering data hubs and data portals. CKAN makes it easy to publish, share and use data. It powers catalog.data.gov, open.canada.ca/data, data.humdata.org among many other sites.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Contributions:23 commits in 7 months
Contributions summary:William contributed to the CKAN data management system by addressing SQLAlchemy version compatibility issues, making Solr search optional, and fixing 'inferred' sibling relationships. They also worked on adjusting caching behavior within the application's tests and modifying API endpoint logic. These changes suggest a focus on backend code and database interactions to improve stability and performance of the CKAN platform.
Population-wide Testing, Tracing and Isolation Models
Contributions:4 releases, 273 commits, 1 PR in 6 months
benchmarkisolationtestingtracing
Find and Hire Top DevelopersWe’ve analyzed the programming source code of over 60 million software developers on GitHub and scored them by 50,000 skills. Sign-up on Prog,AI to search for software developers.
Request Free Trial
William Waites - Senior Researcher at Leith Document Company