About
Engineering on a human scale
Zeth Ltd is an independent software engineering company based in the United Kingdom, run by its two co-founders, Zeth and Jutta.
The company
Zeth Ltd provides contract engineering to technical teams and bespoke application development to organisations that want something built. It also supports open-source software, including the Holder project.
We are not an agency, and we do not pretend to be one. Keeping the company small means direct communication, clear responsibility and software built by someone who expects to be accountable for it for years to come.
Zeth
Zeth is the chief engineer of Zeth Ltd, and does the engineering on client and contract work. Zeth’s work spans Python and backend systems on one side, and native mobile and desktop software on the other. He has an undergraduate degree from Essex, and an undergraduate and masters degree from Birmingham. Zeth enjoys new projects, rescuing old legacy systems, meeting new people and learning how different industries work.
Professional background
More than twenty years of building software. Zeth spent the first part of that career at a UK university, leading the development of research software for digital editions of medieval manuscripts and teaching Python to students. Since then the work has been commercial, most recently as a senior contractor: machine-learning pricing tools for a large international retailer, payments software for an industry-leading insurer, fleet-management applications and a real-time auction system. There is more detail on the contract engineering page.
Open source and community
Zeth’s open-source work is on GitHub at github.com/zeth, and Holder’s repositories are under HolderTeam.
- Elected a Fellow of the Python Software Foundation in 2010, for contributions to the Python community.
- Founded Python West Midlands in 2006, and co-founded PyCon UK, the UK’s Python conference, in 2007, serving as vice-chair for seven years and chair for two. Organiser of EuroPython from 2008 to 2010. Was once a longtime Lugmaster of Birmingham Linux User Group.
- Contributions to open-source projects including Python itself, the EU-funded CollateX text-collation project, and inputs, a cross-platform Python library for USB devices.
- Still a regular at conferences: including DjangoCon Europe 2025 in Dublin and its sprints, where Zeth closed a Django bug.
Jutta
Jutta is the company secretary of Zeth Ltd, keeping the company’s affairs in good order.
She brings a practical, people-first perspective from her experience in IT support: she knows what happens when real people meet real software, and what it takes to help them. She holds a BA (Hons) in History from the University of Essex, and brings a historian’s eye for detail and for getting the record right.
Working together
Recruiters and engineering managers: see contract engineering. A current CV is available on request. Have an idea for an app? See application development, or simply get in touch.