Who I Am
Engineering leader with 15+ years of experience designing and evolving enterprise-scale data platforms in highly regulated environments.
Currently serving as Principal Engineer at BT Financial Group (Westpac), leading the end-to-end modernisation of mission-critical data platforms to cloud-native architecture, including large-scale migrations from on-prem DSE clusters to Databricks and Astra DB.
Led the adoption of AI-driven engineering practices, establishing agent-based development frameworks to accelerate enterprise platform migration and standardise spec-driven software engineering at scale.
Deep expertise in distributed data platforms including Apache Spark, Cassandra, and real-time streaming systems. Strong ability to balance hands-on technical leadership with executive-level influence, partnering across product, risk, and architecture to deliver resilient, scalable, and future-ready data foundations.
Recognized for leadership impact — awarded the 2024 Westpac Business and Wealth Technology Award for delivering the Panorama platform migration with a 40% reduction in TCO.
Career Timeline
Principal Engineer (Data Platform & AI Engineering)
BT Financial Group, Westpac · Sydney, Australia
- ▹Provide end-to-end technical leadership for Panorama data platform modernisation, defining target-state architecture and driving platform evolution from legacy on-prem to cloud-native
- ▹Led large-scale enterprise data platform migration, architecting Spark-based migration and real-time streaming frameworks to transition workloads from on-prem DSE to Databricks and Astra DB
- ▹Architected a specification-driven engineering model using AI agents, achieving 100% consistency across delivery lifecycle and improving coordination across development, QA, and DevOps
- ▹Designed and implemented secure-by-design cloud architecture (PrivateLink, TLS, SSO, BYOK), meeting stringent ISG security and regulatory controls
- ▹Built and operationalised a full observability and monitoring platform (Splunk), enabling proactive detection, lineage visibility, and improved operational resilience
- ▹Drove platform stabilisation and performance uplift, delivering a 40% reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO)
APAC Tech Lead - Escalation
DataStax · Sydney, Australia
- ▹Led technical escalation and platform engineering support for enterprise customers operating large-scale distributed data platforms in regulated environments
- ▹Partnered with engineering and product teams to improve platform reliability, observability, and operational standards, including contributing fixes to Cassandra drivers
- ▹Developed internal tooling and automation to enhance diagnostics, incident response, and operational efficiency across APAC
- ▹Defined and delivered training and capability uplift programs, mentoring engineers in distributed systems, Kubernetes, and advanced debugging
- ▹Influenced cross-functional stakeholders to improve platform resilience, supportability, and engineering quality
DB2 LUW Advanced Support Engineer
IBM Australia Development Lab · Sydney, Australia
- ▹Problem determination and root cause identification for DB2 product defects and usage support
- ▹Focused on Severity 1 issues: database crash/recovery, critical performance, migration, installation
- ▹Subject matter expert (SME) for DB2 optimizer and database recovery
- ▹Lecturer of Advanced Database Recovery for worldwide DB2 support team
Tech Stack
> Languages
> Distributed Data Platforms
> Cloud & Infrastructure
> AI & Modern Engineering
> Databases
> Leadership & Delivery
Notable Work
Next-Gen Trading Platform
Delivered Nov 2024 • Westpac Technology AwardLed the BT Panorama replatform — migrating from on-prem DSE to cloud-native Astra DB with real-time streaming, achieving 40% TCO reduction.
Cloud Security Architecture
Enterprise-grade securityDesigned end-to-end security for platform migration: PrivateLink, TLS, SSO, BYOK — approved by Westpac Information Security Group.
Real-Time Data Migration Framework
Zero-downtime migrationSpark-based framework for migrating critical data workloads from on-premise VM clusters to cloud-native infrastructure with zero downtime.
Observability Stack
Full-stack visibilityBuilt full observability using Splunk to monitor data pipelines, application metrics, and infrastructure health across cloud and on-prem.
Support Automation Tools
Team productivity boostDesigned diagnostic collection and analysis tools for the DataStax APAC support team. Implemented PagerDuty/Slack/JIRA workflow automation.
Get In Touch
Whether you have a question, want to collaborate, or just want to say hi — my inbox is always open.