Philip Stinson · Independent Consultant
I build businesses and the systems that run them.
Consultant and multidisciplinary engineer — as comfortable setting strategy and running a P&L as writing the code, cutting the sheet metal or laying out the PCB. Twenty-five years across aviation software, product design & manufacturing, industrial automation and full-stack software.
01 — About
Hands-on, end to end
I build things myself — and I run the businesses around them. Over twenty-five years that has meant the commercial side and operations, manufacturing and suppliers, and the engineering across mechanical and CAD design, electronics, PLC and automation, and full-stack software. I'm equally at home in a P&L, a SolidWorks model, or a database.
Eleven years at ShopATM — from first employee to director of the robotic-vending-machine manufacturer — covering commercial strategy, manufacturing partnerships with Jabil and Nespresso / Nestlé, product roadmap, and the operational systems (ERP, ordering, field service) that ran the company day to day. Since then I've worked independently across several companies, including an aviation operations platform I own and develop as a product.
The common thread: I can own a problem end to end — the business case, the design, the build, and the operation. If your problem doesn't fit neatly into one discipline, that's exactly where I'm most useful.
02 — Services
What I do
Consultancy, contract engineering and fractional leadership — engaged by the project, by retainer, or by the day.
Software & web development
Full-stack PHP, Python and .NET. Back-office platforms, customer portals, accounting and payment integrations (Xero, Payrix, Stripe), applied AI integration, and the operational systems businesses actually run on.
Aviation operations software
An operations platform I own and develop for flight schools and Cirrus aircraft-management businesses — owner billing and settlements, maintenance-compliance tracking, and live ADS-B/CirrusIQ telemetry.
Industrial & building automation
Beckhoff TwinCAT and WAGO PLC systems, Codesys / IEC 61131-3, EtherCAT/CANopen and multi-axis motion control — from railway test rigs to whole-house automation and building compliance.
Product design & manufacturing
SolidWorks mechanical and sheet-metal design through design-for-manufacture and new-product introduction to volume production at multinational scale.
Embedded & machine design
Power-supply and motor-driver PCBs, STM32/CANopen and BeagleBone/Codesys controllers, ESP32 devices, and the firmware that drives them.
Operations & fractional leadership
Business strategy, P&L management, supplier and manufacturing management, and operational systems — senior fractional input without the full-time hire.
03 — Selected work
Things I've built
Aviation operations platform
A back-office system I own and develop for flight schools and Cirrus aircraft-management businesses. It runs the back office: owner billing and monthly settlements, accounting integration, vendor accounts payable, and Cirrus maintenance-compliance tracking across the fleet, with live ADS-B and CirrusIQ telemetry feeding it.
Nespresso Ncube
A 3×3×3 m customer-facing automated coffee store holding 2,000 sleeves and dispensing any of 15 products, bagged, in seconds. I delivered its 20-axis motion controller and software in 16 weeks.
Sprinkles Cupcake ATM
I invented the automated 24-hour cupcake machine and am a named inventor on the patents behind it — mechanical design, PCBs, motion-control firmware and the software that runs it.
Railway test & track-control systems
Beckhoff TwinCAT and WAGO PLC systems for railway test rigs and track control, delivered for Alstom and Network Rail.
Robotic vending — first employee to director
Designed and delivered products end to end: SolidWorks mechanical and sheet-metal design, power-supply and motor-driver PCBs, motion-control firmware, 5-axis machine controllers, and the .NET ERP and customer web portals that ran the business — from concept through design-for-manufacture to volume production with partners including Jabil and Nespresso/Nestlé.
And more
Current & recent projects
Self-service rental & smart lockers
An unattended equipment-rental system: touch-screen kiosk, relay-controlled smart lockers, in-person card payments via Stripe Terminal, NFC, digital wallet passes and a web booking portal — PHP backend, .NET 8 kiosk controller.
Flight-data analysis platform
Automated telemetry collection and analysis for Cirrus aircraft: every landing scored across 15 parameters, engine-health trending against POH limits, and a digital logbook with PDF reporting.
BLE hangar occupancy tracking
Aircraft-mounted BLE beacons and ESP32 scanner nodes triangulating live hangar occupancy, with offline queueing, over-the-air updates and a live dashboard. Deployed and running in production.
AirLedger — open maintenance-records format
A draft open exchange standard for general-aviation maintenance records — one data model, canonical JSON for machines and a readable plain-text face for humans, with working conversion and ingest tooling.
USB-C aviation headset tester
A bench tester and flight-sim interface for aviation headsets: driverless USB audio, LEMO connectivity, switched ANR power and zero-latency sidetone. KiCad schematics and 4-layer board layout complete — ready to fabricate.
5-axis retrofit machine controller
A ground-up retrofit for an automated vending machine: one custom STM32 board directly driving five stepper axes — replacing a PLC and five servo drives — with sensorless load detection and a browser-based dev console.
Wireless SD for Garmin avionics
An ESP32-based data-logging and management system for Garmin avionics: safe SD-card arbitration with the host, WiFi and MQTT connectivity, a built-in web interface, automatic log upload and over-the-air updates.
04 — Credentials
Proof, on paper
05 — Engagement
How I work
Straightforward terms, agreed in writing before work starts.
- Scope first. Every engagement starts with a written proposal or statement of work describing deliverables, timescales and fees — so both sides know exactly what's being bought.
- Clear pricing. Work is quoted as a fixed price, a day rate, or a monthly retainer, agreed in advance. Quotes state whether VAT applies. Invoices are issued in GBP (or USD by agreement) with payment terms stated on each invoice.
- Secure payment. Invoices are settled by bank transfer or card. Card payments are processed by regulated third-party payment providers — card details are never stored by me.
- Delivery. Consultancy and engineering services are delivered remotely or on site as agreed in the statement of work, with progress reported against the agreed deliverables.
- Cancellation & refunds. Engagements can be cancelled per the notice terms in the statement of work; fees for work not yet performed are refundable. Full policy in the terms of service.
06 — Contact
Get in touch
Start a conversation
Tell me a little about the problem and I'll come back to you — usually within one working day.
Business details
- Trading as
- Philip Stinson (sole trader)
- Based in
- United Kingdom
- Contact
- Via the enquiry form on this page
- Hours
- Mon–Fri, 09:00–17:30 UK time
Full business address available on request and provided on all quotes and invoices.
What happens next
Open to contract, consulting and fractional-leadership work — UK-based and remote. I reply to every genuine enquiry, usually within one working day.