Experience

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  Sybase software

  Jan 1996 - Jan 2003

  The position Technical Evangelist was created for Principal Consultants like me to have a more senior technical IC role to promote us to. I was one of three Technical Evangelists in all of Sybase worldwide (one each in APAC, US, and EMEA); this had been expanded to six by the time I left Sybase in 2003.These days it would be called Lead Principal Consultant but that title didn't exist then.Formal duties were everything that a Principal Consultant did but more so, with the added target of being assigned as "promotion buddy" for Senior Consultants aspiring to promotion to Principal Consultant. Every Senior Consultant assigned to me for this process passed the Principal Review Board on their first attempt (this is a big deal as some didn't make it).Worked on the largest Sybase software deals in the world; was worldwide international escalation point for all Sybase database cases and issues. Formal duties included presenting at international conferences, assisting in updating product documentation, technical training courses, and technical certifications. By every metric used to measure the success of a postsales consultant I was the most successful consultant every quarter for three years in a row.Position ended through redundancy; I was their most expensive consultant outside of the USA at that point and helped meet their targets to reduce costs in the Professional Services division. We parted as friends and Sybase continued to subcontract education delivery and postsales consulting to me until their acquisition by SAP, who continued subcontracting to me to the present day. Show less Promoted from Senior Consultant to Principal Consultant, which at the time was the most senior IC technical role available.Responsibilities included technical education delivery and updating course material; presale / solutions architecture for the region's largest Sybase software deals; postsales technical consulting as the chief troubleshooter and escalation point for Support cases; regular liaison with Product Management and Engineering; formal mentoring responsibilities for all consultants in Australia & New Zealand; contributing to technical certifications and leading the technical teams for their internal rollout; delegate assistant manager role with up to 12 direct reports; formal QA responsibility for Professional Services division including most successful internal and external QA audits; worked on some of the largest Sybase sites in the world. Show less Promoted from Consultant to Senior Consultant in post-sales Professional Services division. Working independently without supervision; often as team lead in larger projects. Assigned higher duties: regularly assisting Sales and Account Managers as PreSales / Solutions Architect. Delivering every Sybase database course in the Education catalogue. Routinely travelling for work included exported overseas to other Sybase geographies. Mentoring responsibilities for junior consultants. Delegate manager when the branch Consulting Practice Manager was on leave: responsible for six direct reports. Show less

  • Technical Evangelist / Lead Principal Consultant

    Jan 2000 - Jan 2003

  • Principal Consultant

    Jan 1999 - Jan 2000

  • Senior Consultant

    Jan 1998 - Jan 1999

  • Consultant

    Jan 1997 - Jan 1998

  • Associate Consultant

    Jan 1996 - Jan 1997
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  Prima donna consulting

  Feb 2003 - now

  Database engineer across entire tech stack: SQL code, (Sybase) database server, OS, network, virtual hyperscalar, storage. IT consulting, at all stages of project delivery: requirements, analysis, architecture, design, development, conversion, performance & tuning, testing, deployment, release management, service delivery, operations.I do all the sales & marketing and enjoy showing neither have to be evil.Best Sybase performance & tuning result: critical report taking 3.5 days (!) tuned to run in 30 seconds. I measure performance work by orders of magnitude improvement.Best data warehouse data model: 1.2Tb of raw data (fixed width) loaded into fully indexed schema (every column with at least two indexes) using only 280Gb of data warehouse space. Yes, really.These days it isn't enough to know databases & data warehouses. I'm also moving into data science since that's where the most interesting things are happening with data.It's also no longer enough to be a brilliant database cowboy - databases are growing to sizes that call for engineers and scientists. It is the difference between asking "what is the fastest way to run this database housekeeping?" and "how to run this database housekeeping without impacting business SLAs?". It is understanding the new challenges that occur when you reach 200+ CPU cores and 2+Tb RAM. It is understanding that it is no longer possible to be a great database engineer without also understanding deep technical dives into the operating system, network, and storage layers. It is understanding the differences between Disaster Recovery and High Availability solutions; the differences between hardening and resilience; the differences between audit and governance; the differences between Incident, Problem, and Risk Management. Show less

  • Principal Database Engineer

    Jan 2019 - now

  • Senior Database Engineer

    Jan 2015 - Dec 2018

  • Database Engineer

    Jan 2011 - Dec 2014

  • Principal Database Administrator

    Jan 2007 - Dec 2010

  • Senior Database Administrator

    Feb 2003 - Dec 2006
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  Swinburne university of technology

  Jan 2010 - Jan 2010

  Sessional tutor

  I took Swinburne's Enterprise Systems subject as a student in my MISM/MBA double Masters. I topped the class and obviously made an impression on the lecturer as they asked me to help teach the subject in the following semester.According to the student evaluations Swinburne later shared with me, I was rated the most effective teacher in the Faculty for the periods that I taught the unit.

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  Ipse - the association of independent professionals and the self-employed

  Jan 2024 - now

  Non executive director

  The primary duties of any NED are to provide constructive challenge to the Board and contribute to the organisation's governance and strategic direction.Key responsibilities include- strategy, what are the right directions and how to get there- performance, tracking against agreed goals and objectives- people, oversee executive compensation and Board appointments- risk, are financial and regulatory obligations met