How I Work

I have worked on a lot of projects over the years. In that time, I have had successes and some failures and as the old adage goes it's from the latter that you learn the most about yourself. After nearly 30 years in the industry, I have come to group these learnings into three broad categories.

Leadership

I build and grow engineering organisations. The work I find most rewarding is developing engineers — turning strong individual contributors into senior and staff engineers, and building teams that can sustain high output in demanding environments.

My Approach:

  • Growing engineering teams and shaping hiring strategy to match product ambitions
  • Developing individual contributors into senior and staff engineers
  • Restructuring teams into domain-focused pods as organisations scale
  • Building engineering culture in regulated and high-stakes product environments
  • Operating as a senior engineering leader in a founding team context

Examples:

  • Chaired a company board during a management buyout
  • Scaled an engineering organisation from a handful of engineers to 30+ across multiple specialised teams
  • Led a multi-year engineering effort to achieve FDA design control for a regulated medical device platform
  • Developed multiple engineers from individual contributor to senior and staff level
  • Managed a team through a significant workforce reduction while maintaining delivery and morale

Builder

I ship things. Personal projects are how I stay current and how I explore what AI-assisted development can actually do.

My Approach:

  • Building full-stack web applications and interactive experiences
  • Using AI tooling and MCP-connected agents to accelerate development
  • Working across the stack — from 3D rendering in the browser to game engines
  • Writing production code and contributing directly to critical path work
  • Using side projects to test tools and workflows before bringing them to the team

Examples:

  • Built a 3D LiDAR terrain explorer using Three.js and 1m resolution open elevation data
  • Shipped a fully voiced Lovecraftian adventure game in Unity using an AI-assisted workflow
  • Used Claude with MCP to automate Unity editor tasks, discovering where agents help and where they fall short
  • Migrated a production Latin learning platform from WordPress to Next.js

System Design

I design systems that are reliable, maintainable, and fit for purpose. In regulated healthcare contexts, that means building for auditability and correctness as much as performance.

My Approach:

  • Designing cloud-native architectures on AWS including Lambda, API Gateway, and DynamoDB
  • Building isolated deployment environments for parallel workstreams
  • Designing content versioning and controlled deployment systems
  • Git branching strategies and release process design for regulated software
  • ETL pipeline design and data warehouse architecture
  • Implementing security by design across platform components

Examples:

  • Designed isolated execution environments enabling parallel clinical study deployments without cross-contamination
  • Architected a content versioning system that became core to the product team's release workflow
  • Designed branch management and release processes for FDA design-controlled software products
  • Architected an enterprise membership system designed to handle 1M+ users

Are you ready to work together?

Let's discuss how I can help with your next project.