Digital leader · SEO strategist · hands-on builder
I'm Alex Player, a London-based digital leader, SEO strategist and hands-on product builder.
I connect strategy, search, content, design and technology to turn ambitious ideas into useful products, visible platforms and governed AI systems.The career map / scroll to travel
This is the route through the portfolio. Each stop changed the place, the problem and the scale of the work. The skills stayed in the inventory and travelled to the next chapter.
I founded Egghead Designs and started solving the whole digital problem: proposition, design, WordPress, ecommerce, search, analytics and the fiddly launch details.
At RIA Novosti I became Head of English Video Content and a news reader. Global stories arrived fast; the English-language operation had to make them accurate, understandable and live.
The next chapter moved from broadcast workflows to touch-first publishing. At the Daily Mirror I helped launch the iPad application and shape a national newsroom for a new kind of audience journey.
Work across Haymarket, Emoji Games and The Forest of Memories added content operations, social distribution, audience feedback and the governance needed to keep platforms useful.
That experiment became part of a bigger habit: test emerging technology early, translate it for real people and keep the human responsible. Prompt Muse turned that habit into a learning platform and YouTube channel.
I created the complete digital presence for World Engineering Day, delivered in cooperation with UNESCO and WFEO: identity, experience, content system, search foundations and continuous delivery.
NexDirectory took the full route from a real operational problem to a coded WordPress product, a Chrome scanner, paying users and a sale. Strategy and execution became one accountable job.
As Head of Digital Development and Managing Director of SJH Studios, I lead roadmaps across search, experience, platforms, film and governed AI systems while staying close enough to the work to ship it.
Selected work / 01 - 06
Flagship global platform / created end to end
World Engineering Day - in cooperation with UNESCO and WFEO - needed more than a campaign page. I created the complete online presence: identity, experience, content system, search foundations and a useful place for a global audience to act.
More screens / fewer claims
Real screens from agency, trades, beauty and home-improvement work - designed to be useful first, distinctive second and measurable throughout.
Earlier chapters / proper headlines
Two career moments that explain the operating style: make complex stories clear, build for a huge audience and deliver when “later” is not an option.
As Head of English Video Content and a news reader, I led the English-language video operation for the Russian state news agency. The job joined editorial judgment, production systems and live delivery.
As Digital App Editor and Senior Content Manager, helped turn a high-volume national newsroom into a touch-first Daily Mirror product - launching the iPad application and shaping its app, web and audience-facing publishing.
Founder-built product / WordPress + Chrome
Not a concept deck: a working product, a public launch, a commercial offer and a companion browser extension.
NexDirectory connects discovery, maps, calendars, submissions, moderation and monetisation in one self-hosted system. The same engine can power events, local businesses, job boards and marketplaces.
Saw directory and event teams stitching together search, submissions, maps and payments across unrelated plugins.
Two AI-agent stories / problem → action → outcome
No chatbot theatre. Follow each story from the messy human problem, through the work the agent performs, to the point where Alex takes control.
Case study 01 / Job-search automation
Alex starts with hundreds of scattered vacancies. The agent finds the live, relevant ones, builds an evidence-backed application - and stops before the final decision.
Hours lost across job boards, duplicate listings, expired roles and repetitive tailoring.
Searches live sources, reopens vacancies, extracts the facts, scores fit and prepares a tailored application pack.
Alex reviews the fit, owns identity and consent, handles CAPTCHAs and makes the final submission decision.
A ranked shortlist and honest application pack, ready for Alex to review and submit.
CASE-STUDY COMPANIONThis robot can search, compare and prepare. It cannot pretend to be Alex.
Read left to right, or select any scene.
Search employer sites, recruiters and the wider web for fresh roles that match location, seniority and working-pattern constraints.
Case study 02 / Commercial automation
The agent looks for companies with a provable digital problem, scopes the smallest useful fix and prepares one specific proposal. A person controls every promise, payment and send.
Generic lead lists, cold outreach and activity metrics with no connection to useful work.
Finds demand signals, researches the company, checks commercial history, scopes a useful intervention and drafts a specific proposal.
A person approves external messages, financial commitments, publishing, payment status and final client delivery.
One evidenced opportunity, a sensible fixed scope and a proposal worth reviewing.
CASE-STUDY COMPANIONThis robot can research and draft. It cannot make a promise, spend money or press send.
Read left to right, or select any scene.
Inspect public demand, replies, broken customer journeys, unfinished sites and other high-intent signals.
Career story / four connected chapters
My career moved from fast newsrooms to digital products, founder-level delivery and governed AI. Read the four chapters first. The Pac-Man version is there as an optional side quest.
Why Alex's range matters / one brief, no handoff
Most projects pass between specialists and lose a little intent at every handoff. I work like a one-person relay: changing mode, but carrying the same problem all the way from evidence to a shipped result.
I start with audience behaviour, search demand and the commercial goal. That keeps the project attached to a real problem instead of an internal assumption.
For 15+ years I've worked across search, web development, content, analytics and audience journeys. That range is useful because the interesting problems rarely stay in one department.
I lead digital development for a creative media group, serve as Managing Director of SJH Studios, co-founded an AI learning platform - and still enjoy solving the fiddly problem myself.
FUN FACT / THE INTERVIEW THAT REACHED LEGAL
I built bloomberginterview.com as a one-off candidate presentation. The intention was earnest. The domain name was - how shall we put this - extremely confident.
I wanted to present my thinking as a working digital experience rather than another slide deck. The intent was a one-off, non-commercial candidate presentation.
PUBLIC CASE RECORD ↗The tools are fast now. A first draft, ten variations, working code - volume stopped being the hard part.
Exploration, momentum and getting something real in front of people quickly.
Knowing what is good, what is true and what should never ship.
How ideas become outcomes
The tools make more paths possible. I keep the decisions connected from the first question to the live result - and into the next improvement.
Find the useful problem and open up the option space.
Join strategy, content, experience and technical choices.
Get a real version live without losing the original intent.
Measure, learn and turn the win into a repeatable system.
Hidden systems lab / move the light
No decorative controls. Just move the flashlight across the scene, catch the rogue signal and expose the evidence, memory and human approval beneath the surface.
The visible interface is only the surface. Signals, approval and memory are running underneath.
Things I build, test and keep learning from.
On camera / Prompt News
Long before “AI workflow” became a standard line in a bio, I was publishing practical, working experiments for a growing audience.
I connected ChatGPT to an Amazon Echo and published the complete build before voice agents were a product category. My description at the time said it best: “World first… possibly.”
155K views later ↗
PLAY ↗01 / LATEST13:54 · Agentic web workflows
PLAY ↗02 / WORLD FIRST? · 155K23:40 · A very early voice-agent build
PLAY ↗03 / 124K VIEWS5:12 · Connected AI tutorial
What I bring to a project
Explore each capability and see how it contributes to one useful digital result.
Audience needs, commercial goals, search opportunity and technical reality - shaped into one roadmap people can actually act on.
Interactive career map / drag a chapter
These are not abstract capability labels. Each draggable proof connects a real Alex Player project to the judgement, craft and outcome behind it.
I led English-language video at RIA Novosti, then helped launch the Daily Mirror iPad app. Fast newsrooms taught me to make complex decisions legible and ship on deadline.
When disciplines separate, good intent gets diluted. Keep the thinking and making close, and every decision carries further.
A clear four-part rhythm that keeps decisions visible and momentum real.
Questions, evidence and a shared definition of the useful problem.
→Real journeys and interactions early enough to change without drama.
→Content, code, search and quality moving toward one launch.
→Measurement, iteration and reusable systems for the next thing.
↗Senior digital, web, SEO and product-shaped challenges where strategy and execution need to stay connected.
Yes. I can lead the roadmap, speak with senior stakeholders and still get into the CMS, analytics, front end or automation when that moves the work forward.
As an accelerator for research, exploration, quality checks and repeatable workflows - with human review and clear responsibility.
No. Publishing, film, AI, games, ecommerce, local services and media have all taught me different ways to solve audience problems.
Surbiton / London area, working comfortably with local, remote and international teams.