VAO Software Development is a backend-and-architecture studio. We build production systems on the JVM — correct, secure, and ready to scale — and the React and Angular front-ends that sit on top.
What we do
Ways we help teams ship and operate software that has to hold up under real load.
Production-grade services and APIs on the JVM. Java, Kotlin and Scala — Spring Boot, Spring Cloud and Play Framework — event-driven and microservice architectures built for correctness and uptime, not demos.
From greenfield design to untangling legacy. We make the trade-offs explicit, choose boring technology on purpose, and leave you with systems your team can actually maintain.
Clean, fast React and Angular interfaces wired properly to the backend. Typed end-to-end, accessible, and free of the usual front-end entropy.
Testing treated as design, not an afterthought. TDD and BDD, executable specifications, and the automation that lets you ship with confidence — built by an engineer who started in test.
An independent, senior pair of eyes on your system — by the hour or fixed scope. Architecture and code review, technical due diligence, and a second opinion that pulls no punches. You get written findings and a call to walk through them.
Drop us into your team. Hands-on delivery, mentoring, and CI/CD — with a decade across regulated UK government and investment-banking systems behind every decision.
How we work
No black boxes. You always know where the project stands, what it will cost you in complexity, and why.
We start with your constraints, not our stack. Goals, load, team, deadlines — and the trade-offs you're actually willing to make.
A design you can read on one page. Data model, boundaries, failure modes, and a delivery plan with no surprises.
Tight feedback loops, tested code, and continuous delivery from day one. You see working software early and often.
Observability, runbooks, and documentation. We optimise for the day after we leave, not the day we ship.
Stack
Tools we trust because we've run them in production — not because they trended last week.
About
VAO Software Development LTD is small on purpose. No bench to keep busy, no résumés padded with buzzwords — just senior engineers who have shipped and operated real systems.
We say no to work we can't do well, and we tell you the truth about trade-offs even when it's inconvenient. The result is software your team can own long after we've gone.
Behind the studio is a decade of senior and lead engineering across regulated UK government (HMRC) and investment-banking systems — the kind of environments where correctness, auditability and uptime are not optional.
No bench to keep busy and no juniors learning on your budget. The people who scope the work are the people who build it.
We're strongest where it's hardest: data, concurrency, integrations, and the systems that have to stay up.
Tested, documented, and observable. We measure success by how well things run after we've gone.
Contact
Send a few lines about your project, your stack, and your timeline. You'll hear back from an engineer — not a sales funnel.
[email protected]