I am a senior engineering leader in Melbourne. As Head of Engineering at nimbus Cloud I lead the software development, quality engineering and CloudOps functions, and I own the technology strategy, the delivery roadmap and the operational risk that comes with running a platform customers depend on every day.
The remit is broader than any one discipline. It covers software development and quality engineering, cloud architecture and infrastructure as code, security operations including our SOC 2 and ISO 27001 programs, endpoint and identity management built on Intune, and vendor negotiation. Most recently I designed and built our AI capability for the software development lifecycle, which is my own work rather than a vendor product we switched on.
I came up through quality, which is unusual for someone in this seat and is the single biggest influence on how I lead. I started as a QA analyst in 2011 testing ERP and point of sale systems, moved into test management, then into DevOps and platform engineering, and then into leadership. Fifteen years of watching software fail in every way it can fail teaches you that quality, security and reliability are not phases you add at the end. They are properties you design in, or you do not get them at all.
I have also spent most of that time on one platform. I ran QA and then DevOps for the business when it traded as Ploytech, left for two years at MYOB, and came back after the restructure into nimbus Cloud to lead the whole engineering function. Roughly eight years on the same system, seen from three different altitudes, which is a rare thing to be able to say and it shows up in every architecture decision I make.
That background is also why I care so much about feedback loops. Every good engineering organisation I have worked in was really just a machine for shortening the distance between an idea and honest signal about whether it worked. Most of my best work has been widening that machine: automating the manual, making the invisible measurable, and giving teams the paved road and the authority to ship without asking permission.
I hold a Master of Information Technology from Swinburne University of Technology and a Bachelor of Computer Application from Bhavnagar University. Outside work you will find me tinkering with home automation, reading more about distributed systems than is strictly healthy, and mentoring engineers making the same jump from doing to leading.
Career
Head of Engineering, nimbus Cloud
June 2021 to Present, Melbourne, VIC
Lead the software development, quality engineering and CloudOps functions, and own the technology strategy, delivery roadmap and operational risk that go with them. This is the same business, and the same platform, I ran QA and DevOps for when it traded as Ploytech, returned to after a restructure and two years away.
Lead the software development, quality engineering and CloudOps functions as one group
Set technology strategy and roadmaps in partnership with product management and the business
Contributed to SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certification, focused on risk management and compliance
Authored the IT policies and procedures behind MDM, Intune and Group Policy for operational consistency
Established how AI is used across the software development lifecycle, with usage policy and guardrails
Implemented infrastructure as code with ARM templates, Terraform, Python and PowerShell, and automated cloud deployment
Built monitoring and alerting, plus automated reporting on SLA metrics and technical debt
Migrated applications to .NET Core and Blazor Server, improving scalability and performance
Negotiated vendor contracts and ran IT operations
Introduced business automation tooling that removed recurring manual work
DevOps Engineer, MYOB
August 2019 - June 2021, Melbourne, VIC
Cloud automation and platform engineering at one of Australia's largest business software companies, working at a scale where anything manual stops being viable.
Eliminated manual database operations across more than 300,000 Azure SQL databases using Azure Functions
Built ARM templates for rapid deployment using PowerShell and pipeline as code
Deployed Azure SQL with geo-replication, standby sync and failover configuration
Automated cloud services, Azure Monitor alerts and AWS Route 53 DNS with Terraform
Architected archival in Azure Data Factory, automating three-month record storage into blob storage
Resolved audit data archiving by migrating SQL audit data to storage tables via Data Factory
Configured Azure Functions with time-based triggers and durable functions for SQL automation
Integrated Azure Application Insights across cloud services for monitoring and troubleshooting
Deployed and maintained an ELK stack using Ansible for log management
Created and registered custom VM images in ACR for use in Azure DevOps pipelines
DevOps Manager and Test Manager, Ploytech
June 2018 - July 2019, Melbourne, VIC
A dual remit across delivery automation and quality engineering, plus Scrum Master duties. This is where the two halves of my career came together.
Cut release cycles by 50% with automated testing frameworks built on Jenkins and Test Studio, without lowering the quality bar
Maintained build profiles in Team Foundation Server and Jenkins to keep CI/CD running cleanly
Implemented automated deployment for client and internal instances using Jenkins
Acted as Scrum Master: facilitated Agile practice, managed backlogs, sprint planning, sizing, standups, reviews and retrospectives
Owned client escalations end to end and streamlined major and patch release processes
Analysed customer requests and produced mockups ahead of development
Monitored and maintained production web applications and databases in Azure
Test Manager, Ploytech
January 2016 - May 2018, Melbourne, VIC
Ran the QA function and moved the organisation from ad hoc testing to automated coverage and Agile delivery.
Achieved over 55% automated test coverage and introduced Jenkins for CI and automated deployment
Introduced Agile methodology along with Jira, Confluence and Service Desk
Built a C# testing framework from scratch
Ran the QA function, turning user stories into test cases and detailed test plans
Ran functional, integration and load testing with JMeter, and regression suites in C# with Telerik Test Studio
Produced test summary reports, maintained requirement traceability and documented defects in Jira
QA Analyst, Apparel21
October 2011 - December 2015, Melbourne, VIC
Quality engineering across an ERP, point of sale and web application suite. Where I learned how software actually breaks.
Performed functional, UI/UX and integration testing across ERP, POS and web applications
Conducted backend database testing in Microsoft SQL, validating stored procedures, jobs and triggers
Scripted automated tests in Test Complete, Selenium and Protractor
Converted an automation suite from VBScript to C# for better performance
Used the Jasmine framework with Protractor for end-to-end testing
Wrote continuous integration tests verifying API endpoints
Recommended new processes and tooling to improve Agile workflow
ERP Consultant, Mobile Route Solutions
January 2011 - October 2011, Melbourne, VIC
Client-facing ERP implementation across Australia and New Zealand. The first lesson in software being a people problem as much as a technical one.
Supported clients across Australia and New Zealand
Gathered requirements and implemented route solutions
Trained users during and after implementation, both onsite and remotely
Designed business intelligence management reports using Crystal Reports
Education
Master of Information Technology, Swinburne University of Technology
Bachelor of Computer Application, Bhavnagar University