Stuart McMath

Drupal Developer

I am an IT consultant with more than 25 years industry experience within the banking, finance, government, media and leisure sectors. Having spent time with large multi-nationals and small consultancy groups, in addition to a period of freelancing, I have participated in all sizes of projects and encountered many technologies and methods. My focus now is on web development.

I began my Drupal journey more than 16 years ago, with Drupal version 5. An instant fan, I have since worked continuously with Drupal, most recently on migrations from version 10 to 11.

My specialism is on back-end custom module development and maintenance. The latest projects have involved integrations with external companies/systems including Bloomberg, AlphaSense, FactSet and Salesforce and Agentforce Marketing.

All my work adopts best-practice, latest PHP standards and uses all available tools and technologies - such as AI - to maintain the highest quality whilst also improving my efficiency and throughput.

Drupal may not be suited to every project in the world but if you decide it's for you, let me show you how I can help.

Technical Skills

Modern PHP
Object-oriented design, typing, attributes, namespaces and Composer. Drupal 12 will require PHP 8.5, so staying current with the language matters.
SQL and databases
MySQL/MariaDB and PostgreSQL, query performance, and Drupal’s database and Entity Query APIs.
Symfony fundamentals
The Service container, Events and subscribers, Routing, HttpKernel, DependencyInjection, Yaml, the Serializer, and Validators. Understanding these is what separates a Drupal developer from a site configurer.

Entity and Field APIs
The Entity and Field APIs, content modelling, and Typed Data.
The plugin system
The plugin system, including blocks, field formatters and widgets, and now PHP attributes instead of annotations.
Configuration management
Exporting, deploying and syncing config between environments, plus config splits for environment-specific settings.
Services, event subscribers and hooks
Services, event subscribers and hooks, and knowing when to use each. Core is also steadily moving hooks to object-oriented classes.
The render system and caching
The render system and caching: cache tags, contexts and max-age, BigPipe and Dynamic Page Cache. Getting caching wrong is the most common cause of slow or stale Drupal sites.
Migrations
Migrations with the Migrate API. This remains in demand with Drupal 7 now end-of-life and Drupal 10 sites needing to move forward.
Recipes and Drupal CMS
Recipes and Drupal CMS, the newer ways of packaging and starting sites.

Accessibility (WCAG)
Accessibility (WCAG), which is increasingly a legal requirement as well as good practice, especially in public-sector work.
CSS, HTML, JS, HTMX
Modern CSS, accessible HTML and JavaScript, with HTMX now available in core for lighter interactivity.
Headless or decoupled projects
For headless or decoupled projects: JSON:API, REST and GraphQL, and familiarity with a JS framework such as React or Next.js.
Twig theming and Single Directory Components (SDC)
Twig theming and Single Directory Components (SDC), which are now central because Canvas builds pages from SDC components.

CI/CD pipelines
... for example GitLab CI, which Drupal.org itself has adopted.
DDEV, WSL, Docker, Visual Studio Code
Local environments like DDEV, often with Docker underneath. Experience with numerous IDE's but lately specialising on VS Code.
Drush, Composer and Git
... including dependency management and patch handling.
Hosting platforms
... such as Acquia, Pantheon or Platform.sh, along with cron, queues and deployment workflows.
Testing
PHPUnit (unit, kernel and functional tests), PHPStan for static analysis, and Drupal coding standards via PHPCS and TWIGCS.

Drupal’s security practices
Access control, sanitising output, avoiding raw SQL, and following security advisories.
Performance
Performance profiling, caching layers like Redis or Varnish, and CDNs, and the Drupal/Symfony caching features.

Upgrade skills
Tools like Upgrade Status and Drupal Rector, and handling deprecations. These are especially valuable now with the Drupal 10 to 11/12 deadline.
AI familiarity
Drupal’s AI modules for integration with MCPs, content generation, search and automation, and using AI coding assistants responsibly.

Communication
Explaining technical trade-offs to non-technical clients and stakeholders, and writing clear documentation and tickets.
Requirements analysis
Turning business needs into good content models and site architecture. This is often where Drupal projects succeed or fail.
Judgment about “the Drupal way”
Knowing when to use an existing contrib module, when to configure, and when to write custom code, without over-engineering.
Teamwork and code review
Working in Agile teams, giving and receiving constructive feedback.
Problem-solving and debugging
Tracing issues through caching layers, hooks and configuration.
Continuous learning
Drupal changes significantly with each major release, so following release notes and community news matters.
Community engagement
Contributing patches, modules or documentation, and attending camps or DrupalCon. This builds skills and reputation, and many employers value Drupal.org contribution credits.
Time management and estimation
... particularly in agency settings with multiple clients.