Ashley Firth

Work

Octopus Energy (December 2015 - Present)

Global Director of Engineering

Having been at Octopus Energy since its formation in 2015, I built and lead the Global Engineering team - overseeing its growth and development, crafting sites and internal tools, building new products and campaigns, and expanding into other countries.

Our aim is to combat climate change, use technology to build a better standard of energy supplier, and make renewable energy more affordable for everyone. The teams feature Front-end and Back-end web development, Mobile, Design, Product, and Data Visualisation. Over these years, I have learned how to manage across disciplines, timezones, and various team sizes, and discovered my love for it as a job.

In May 2020, Octopus Energy became the 15th UK tech “unicorn” after achieving a valuation of over £1 billion. At the time of writing, Octopus Energy Group is valued at over $9bn.

Stack: React, NextJS, GraphQL, Apollo, Jest, React Testing Library, Styled Components, Vite Storybook

Awards:

🏆 Which? recommended energy supplier 7 years in a row - 2018-2024
🏆 UK's most awarded energy supplier
🏆 Time100's Most Influential Companies
🏆 Glassdoor's Best Places to Work
🏆 FT's Fastest Growing Companies

Around my work, I consult with companies in order to help them improve their approach to accessibility, and with people to help them with management and leadership. If that sounds interesting to you, let's chat.

W3C (January 2024 - Present)

Invited Expert - Accessibility Guidelines Working Group

Around my work at Octopus, I joined the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group at W3C as an invited expert. My role involves helping to build the next version of WCAG, so that it's easier than ever for people across the web to make their websites more accessible.

Writing

Practical Web Accessibility (Second Edition)

The revamped and updated second edition of my first book abotu web accessibility. You'll be guided through a broad range of disabilities and access needs, understand the ways these users typically engage with the web, the barriers they often face, and practical advice on how your websites and content can be compliant, but more than that, inclusive and enjoyable.

It's suitable for anyone regardless of role or experience.

Practical Web Inclusion and Accessibility

My first book, published with Apress in 2020, about web accessibility. It topped the Amazon technology charts.

Accessibility: a web for all

Web Designer Magazine (Issue 272)

A feature for a print magazine talking about designing and developing for general web accessibility, and helping those with specific disabilities.

Personal blog

A more personal space for my writing. Typically includes thoughts on management, accessibility, productivity, and how me, my team, and Octopus Energy handle things.

Speaking

Gartner IT Symposium (Barcelona)

A fireside chat about the future of AI within the workplace, alongside Asana. I spoke about my history at Octopus Energy, our values, and our approach to using AI.

Credit Summit

I spoke at Credit Strategy's 'Credit Summit' as part of a Q&A panel about Digitalising the customer journey and how best to empower vulnerable customers.

Utility Week Live

I spoke and was part of a Q&A panel as part of the ‘Creating inclusive services’ seminar session at Utility Week Live. My talk focused on easy ways for companies to improve the accessibility of their websites with minimal effort, and why that's so important.

Festival of Marketing

My talk was about accessibility on the web and beyond, the challenges we’ve faced at Octopus Energy trying to make a truly inclusive experience for everyone, and why it’s so important that everybody focuses on this in today’s society.

Current focus

Want to know what I'm reading / playing / building / thinking? Check out my Now page

Consulting

Around my work, I consult with companies in order to help them improve their approach to accessibility, and with people to help them with management and leadership. If that sounds interesting to you, let's chat.

Recruiting

My team and I have spent a long time creating brand and region agnostic code, so that we can build and maintain multiple instances of branded energy websites using the same core components.

Octopus have expanded into 15 countries across 5 continents, and I'm looking for passionate Front-end developers to join my team at Octopus Energy. If you're interested, then drop me an email with your CV to ashley[at]octopus[dot]energy

Past work

Tangent Snowball (November 2013 - December 2015)

I worked on digital marketing and CRM projects focusing on creating strong, adaptive sites that can handle high traffic for their clients.

Clients: SAP, The Labour Party, Walkers, Carlsberg.

Fishrod Interactive (June 2012 - November 2013)

I worked at Fishrod Interactive after graduating, on projects abroad and all over the U.K. I helped to create interactive experiences and installations.

Clients: WWE, Sky, Budweiser, Metro

Education

BA (Hons) First class honours, Interactive Media Production

I attended Bournemouth University, graduating in 2012. I was also a peer-assisted learning coordinator, student ambassador, and student radio presenter - receiving the student development award.