Donald Jennings

Donald Jennings portrait
↓ About Me

About Me

Software Engineer with a focus on innovation and systems programming

Introduction

Hello! I'm Donald, a Software Engineer currently working at Leonardo UK Ltd. I graduated with a 1st Class BSc (Hons) in Computer Science from University of Edinburgh. I am interested in developing innovative and smart solutions to complex technical challenges with my skills spanning a wide range from cloud computing to systems programming

Experience

Software Engineer ✈️

Current

Leonardo UK Ltd

2025 - Present

Lead the design and implementation of mission-critical radar processing software, ensuring high reliability and performance in safety-critical environments.

Accountable for software architecture and design quality, working closely with the system architect to evolve and improve the overall software design.

Act as a technical mentor to graduate apprentices, supporting their development in core computer science concepts and guiding their progress through university and professional goal setting.

Deliver customer-facing demonstrations of operational systems, clearly communicating technical capabilities and system behaviour to stakeholders.

Experienced across the full software development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, architecture, implementation, testing, and release.

Undertaking a part-time Engineering Doctorate (EngD) focused on high-performance computing and heterogeneous runtime design for signal processing workloads.

C++CLinuxQtGitAgileSystem Design

Graduate Software Engineer

Leonardo UK Ltd

2024 - 2025

I contributed to the development of software solutions for defence systems, focusing on modern C++ and adhering to DO-178C compliance standards. I participated in design discussions, code reviews, and collaborated with cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality software products. I held responsibility as scrum master for my team, ensuring effective collaboration and timely delivery of project milestones. I also held responsibility as Product Designer (Junior Architect) for my team, working closely with Solutions Architects to ensure alignment between design and technical implementation.

C++Embedded SystemsTestingTeamwork

Undergraduate Software Engineer

Leonardo UK Ltd

2023 - 2024

Hired as first undergraduate software engineer in the company. Worked alongside the Solution team to develop safety-critical software solutions while balancing a final year of undergraduate studies.

C++Embedded SystemsTeamworkResearch

Software Engineering Intern

Leonardo UK Ltd

2023 - 2023

Completed a summer internship where I led the development of an internal software tool for mechanical engineers. I cleared a backlog of features for the tool and initiated an internal release process.

C++PythonPrototypingResearch

Junior Software Engineer 👨‍🏫

Altra ERC

2021 - 2022

I led development of platform features for an education technology startup across a React frontend, Java backend, and AWS serverless workloads.

ReactNode.jsJavaScriptAWSNoSQLJava

Software Quality Assurance Project Lead 🚆

HYPED

2020 - 2021

As Project Lead of the Software Quality Assurance team for HYPED (University of Edinburgh’s award-winning Hyperloop competition entry), I was responsible for managing weekly operations, technical direction, and strategic alignment of the QA function within a multi-disciplinary engineering team. I led the design and implementation of automated test suites, set up CI/CD pipelines, and developed scalable testing infrastructure across the codebase to ensure robustness, performance, and reliability of mission-critical systems. I authored the team’s software testing strategy and specification documents for international hyperloop competitions, and ensured the QA effort remained aligned with project roadmaps, competition deadlines, and engineering priorities.

C++Test AutomationCI/CDQuality AssuranceTeam Leadership

Education

Doctor of Engineering

Sensing, Processing and AI for Defence and Secuity

University of Edinburgh

2026 - Present

Undertaking part-time research into constrained heterogeneous processing runtimes for signal processing workloads. Working with the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC) to get specialist training in high-performance computing.

Bachelor of Science (Hons)

Computer Science

First Class Honours (79%, 4.0 GPA)

University of Edinburgh

2020 - 2024

Graduated with First Class Honours, specializing in software engineering and system design.

Developed a distributed load-balancing framework for an undergraduate dissertation which was published in the ACM Digital Library.

Recipient of the Edinburgh Award (twice) in recognition of significant professional development and extra-curricular contribution.

Publications

Near-Storage Processing in FaaS environments with Funclets

Alan Nair, Raven Szewczyk, Donald Jennings, Antonio Barbalace

ACM Digital Library (2024)

DOI: 10.1145/3652892.3700755
View Paper

Breaking the monolith: Dynamic multi-tiered load balancing for scalable serverless computing

Donald Jennings

University of Edinburgh Undergraduate Dissertation (2024)

DOI: N/A
View Paper

Skills

Programming Languages

C++CPythonJavaHaskell

Frameworks & Tools

ReactNext.jsNode.jsGitDockerQt

Specializations

Software EngineeringSystem DesignSoftware Architecture

Certifications

MIET (Member of IET)
Certified SAFe 6.0 Scrum Master

Awards

Leonardo Innovation Award

2025

Leonardo UK Ltd

Nominated for company innovation award for releasing software at rapid turnaround whilst maintaining the high quality standards.

Edinburgh Award (Work Experience)

2023

University of Edinburgh

Awarded for completing significant work experience whilst studying as an undergraduate. Awarded for becoming the first undergraduate to be employed as an Engineer at Leonardo UK in Edinburgh whilst studying.

Edinburgh Award (Employ.Ed on Campus)

2022

University of Edinburgh

Awarded for completing an internship with the School of Informatics where I was responsible for delivering the offer holder communication plan for the Class of 2022.

Interests

Emerging Technologies
Open Source Projects
Software Architecture
Continuous Learning