Curriculum Vitæ

Work Experience

Bird (formerly MessageBird)	January 2020 - present
Amsterdam, Netherlands	Software Engineer

Successfully decoupled an existing front-end from an internal-facing system. This allowed for faster & more stable application development.
Sought after by some teams within the Engineering department. Ability to rekindle relationships resulted in better communication, team dynamics & ramp up times.
Responsible for feature development on customer facing products as well as internal tooling. Developed & deployed solutions from loose business requirements, often under tight timelines.
Additional responsibilities included on-call shifts for the tech-stacks as well as providing support for customer-support personnel.

Absa (formerly Barclays Africa Group)	February 2016 - December 2019
Johannesburg, South Africa	Creative Technologist

Introduced the bank to & deployed its first React application. Standardized & scaled these applications across Africa, increasing user engagement.
Motivated for and created the bank’s first AR & VR capability across three cities. Created AR & VR proof of concepts.
Consistently delivered high risk or technical briefs.
Managed three interns remotely to produce augmented reality proof of concepts.
Established a relationship with the University of Pretoria to better explore user engagement in different digital mediums.

McCann Worldgroup	January 2015 - December 2015
Sandton, South Africa	Senior Developer

As the only developer in a newly created digital department, I interfaced directly with clients to unpack & define their core objectives.
Built, deployed, maintained and provided technical direction for all digital projects, often under tight time & budget constraints.
Supported the project managers, community managers & designers in the execution of their tasks.
Conceptualised, successfully motivated, built & deployed a cross-device, cross-platform, mobile based augmented reality solution.
Clients include: McCann Nestle Waltons Kauai UIP Chevrolet Isuzu Zurich Econet

Freelance	January 2014 - December 2014
Pretoria, South Africa	Multimedia Developer

Assisted clients to narrow down & define their core objectives.
Provided technical direction on key technologies & realistic timelines required to achieve objectives.
Successfully conceptualised, scoped, developed & deployed a number of projects.

Gloo (merged into Ogilvy South Africa)	June 2012 - December 2013
Greenside, South Africa	Senior Developer

Part of a dynamic team of designers & developers known for delivering award winning projects within tight timelines & budgets.
Called in to assist with crisis or time-critical projects, as well as interface with difficult clients.
Supported & up-skilled the junior developers & creatives.
Clients include: BMW FNB MINI RMB Samsung SA Tourism

LXi	January 2011 - February 2012
Randburg, South Africa	Developer

As the only developer in the company I successfully scoped, developed & deployed touch, multi-touch and motion capture applications.
Reverse engineered application development for existing & new devices.
Interfaced directly with clients to unpack & better understand their core requirements.
Clients included: Paragon Group PWC Sanofi Aventis SAP

iLogic	May 2010 - November 2010
Sandton, South Africa	Flash & Web Developer

Responsible for taking high-pressure briefs from concept through to deployment.
Successfully planned, developed & deployed projects on desktop, social media & web.
Deadline driven, consistently delivered projects in the given timelines.

ILA Vietnam	July 2007 - March 2009
Hanoi, Vietnam	English Teacher

Provided IELTS preparation, as well as custom classes for business & educational English.
Commended on my innovative teaching style, vibrancy of my classes & the variety of media used in my lessons.
Responsible for planning & presenting English classes for a full range of students from young learners to adults.
Developed teaching resources and presented workshops to my peers around the topics: “Film & video in the classroom” “Interactive software in an educational setting”.

Aston Schools	August 2006 - March 2007
Zhengzhou, China	Foreign Manager & Teacher

Co-managed a school of 200 students in addition to providing orientation, development & continuous assessment for the foreign teachers.
Responsible for planning & presenting English classes for a full range of students from young learners to adults.
Planned and delivered promotional activities for the school including: curriculum development designing advertisements delivering promotional classes (all ages) promotional field work judging English competitions creating public English corners.

Aston Schools	April 2005 - July 2006
Jinan, China	Senior Teacher

Responsible for planning & presenting English classes for a full range of students from young learners to adults.
Developed school resources including: flash-cards posters authentic materials.

AfrikaBurn

2019: Build team lead for the Sweet Love Gateway art work.
Successfully wrote the project proposal & motivated for grants.
Participated in fundraisers for the project.
Solely responsible for the lighting of the project, which was made up of 40m/ 2400 individually addressable LED lights.
2010: Assisted with the development & revision of the original website theme.

University of Pretoria

Played a pivotal role in industry push towards a focus on virtual reality at the University of Pretoria.
Invited to present guest lectures to post-graduate & prospective students.
Invited to join workshops & panels to the benefit of students.

OppiKoppi

Successfully conceptualised, motivated for, prototyped & led/ co-led the construction of a number of structures.
2017: Assisted with the construction of the final tower.
2015: Led the construction of the tower & assisted with the construction of the catapult.
2014: Led the construction of the tower & assisted with the construction of the shade dome.
2013: Led the construction of the solo tower.
2012: Led the construction of the medic tower & assisted with the construction of the primary tower.
2011: Led the construction of the newer, bigger tower.
2010: Led the construction of the first tower.

ThreeJS Journey	April 2025 - present

Frontend Masters	September 2020 - present

Coursera: Machine Learning	July 2019

Coursera Specialisation: Python for Everybody	January 2018

Coursera Specialisation: Functional Programming in Scala	November 2016 - July 2017

CELTA	September 2006 - October 2006

Bachelor of Information Science (Multimedia)	January 2001 - December 2004

Soft Skills

Substantial communication & interpersonal skills, with a sensitivity to cultures & contexts.
Strong leadership skills without sacrificing the ability to collaborate or follow.
Confident presentation skills allowing easy & natural interactions with audiences.
Good motivator able to establish meaningful interactions within a team.
Proven problem solving skills complimented with effective application of design thinking processes.
Excited by a challenge & curious by nature.
Self-motivated with an aptitude to rapidly up-skill myself in a new technology or framework.

Sweet Love Gateway	May 2023
Presented to Creative Coding Utrecht audience.

React workshop	May 2022
Internal Messagebird workshop.

Sweet Love Gateway	April 2020
Internal Messagebird lightning talk.

Sweet Love Gateway	October 2019
Internal Absa presentation.

Sweet Love Gateway	May 2019
Asked to present to Retro Rabbit.

User centered design	March 2019
Univeristy of Pretoria students.