Bridging the gap between creative vision and technical constraints with systems thinking and craft.
About James Rigby
Email development isn't just about coding tables.
It's about building systems that scale, debugging rendering quirks across 90+ clients, and writing code that other developers can maintain.
I bring software engineering principles to the email world: version control, component libraries, automated testing, and clean documentation.
Computer Science at Newcastle, QA at FEED, email development at DEPT®, then CRM engineering at Decathlon Digital. Each role came back to the same question: how do you make an email people actually want to open?
- Modular design: Component-based builds
- Quality assurance: Multi-client testing
- Documentation: Clear, maintainable code
- Automation: Streamlined workflows
Selected work
Accessible Email Design. Role: Email Developer.
Setting a new internal benchmark for accessible, Dark Mode-ready email design.
Worked closely with eBay UK's CRM team to deliver high-quality email campaigns across multiple sale categories. The work focused on Dark Mode-optimised styling, AAA-grade accessibility, and scalable design standards for eBay's motoring hub.
- Dark Mode styling declared explicitly rather than left to each client to guess
- Held to AAA, not AA: real text over images, semantic structure, contrast checked in both renderings
- Became the reference build for eBay's motoring hub
Built with: Mobile-First HTML, NodeJS, Litmus, JSON.
CRM Campaign Engineering. Role: Email Developer.
Scalable internal CRM campaigns across diverse business units.
Delivered CRM campaigns across multiple Uber business lines, including Rides, Eats, Freight, and Uber One. This employee-focused email was built mobile-first in Uber's in-house Bloc tooling, within a Go-based environment, and engineered to support GANGA: the Gmail app on Android with a non-Gmail account.
- Built in Uber's in-house Bloc tooling and engineered to support GANGA (Gmail on Android with non-Gmail accounts)
- Dark Mode compliant by design, without targeting it: one build that holds up in either scheme
- Mobile-first, on templating robust enough to carry one message across Rides, Eats, Freight and Uber One
Built with: Bloc, GoLang, Mobile-First HTML, AWS, Figma.
Data-Driven Personalisation. Role: Email Development Engineer.
Data-driven personalisation that turned context into customer conversion.
As part of Decathlon Digital's Conversion squad, I delivered personalised email content driven by user location, weather conditions, and sporting interests. The Weather Sports campaign transformed real-time data into relevant, product-led messaging.
- Location, live weather and declared sporting interest all resolve at send time
- AMPscript and SSJS branching against SFMC Data Extensions
- Version-controlled in Git, so a campaign is reviewed like software rather than edited in place
Built with: SFMC, SSJS, AMPScript, Git, Data Extensions.