About me

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Having commenced working in the industry in 1983, I have accumulated technical experience on a diverse range of platforms.

My roles have covered the full life-cycle of software development. I have successfully led and contributed to teams that have delivered applications to corporate, small to medium business, NGOs and government organisations in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Read on to learn more about my professional background and what others have had to say about my work.

Engineering Manager, Envato (2021 - present)

I joined Envato in July 2021 in the role of an Engineering Manager.

From July 2024 I managed a Find Experience team of six engineers within the Search and Content Management domain. Watch this space for further details in due course.

In mid-2022, following a company-wide restructure, I briefly moved to a Tech Services team before moving to the Market team.

During my time in the Market team, I:

From July 2021 until June 2023 I co-managed the Infrastructure team. My work included:

Co-Founder, RemoteRetro (2016 - present)

Contributed to the development of RemoteRetro, a tool that helps teams run retrospectives remotely. Whilst this is a side-project, I have been honoured to collaborate on the evolution of this tool since its inception at RubyConf AU on the Gold Coast in early 2016.

Contributor, Australian Ruby Community (2006 - 2023)

In 2006 I began a long involvement in the Australian Ruby community. After many contributions over the years my participation is now more occasional.

Most recently, I facilitated Envato’s sponsorship of RubyConf Australia 2023.

At RubyConf Australia 2019, I was delighted to present a talk entitled What were they thinking?

One of the highlights of my career was leading the organisation of RubyConf Australia 2013, the inaugural Ruby conference in Australia, which was held in Melbourne in February 2013. This conference was held yearly until the pandemic, attracting speakers from all over the globe. Thankfully Ruby Australia was able to revive RubyConf AU in 2023.

I also:

Head of Software Engineering, SuperEd Pty Ltd (2020 - 2021)

In October 2020 Clover was acquired by SuperEd Pty Ltd.

I finished up at SuperEd in early July 2021. My work included:

Head of Engineering, Clover.com.au (2019 - 2020)

In September 2019 I took over the role of Head of Engineering.

My work included:

Senior Software Engineer, Clover.com.au (2019)

I joined Clover.com.au in June 2019.

During my first few months the bulk of my work was focussed on re-engineering the main Ruby on Rails application to support many advisors. This included:

Senior Software Developer, Birdsnest (2018 - 2019)

In January 2018 I joined Birdsnest, an online retailer based in Cooma, NSW. Whilst I visited “the nest” most months until my departure in June 2019, I was based remotely at my home on the NSW Central Coast.

My work included:

Developer, The Conversation (2015 - 2017)

In June 2015 I joined the technology team at The Conversation on a contract basis to contribute to the development of the web applications that support their sites in Australia, Africa, Canada, France, Indonesia, the United Kingdom and the United States as well as a Global Perspectives edition.

My work included:

Web Developer, Blake eLearning (2014 - 2015)

From March 2014 until June 2015 I worked for Blake eLearning as a permanent member of their staff, allowing me to focus fully on contributing to the development team responsible for Reading Eggs, Reading Eggspress, Mathseeds and WordFlyers.

Building upon the earlier contributions I made whilst consulting to Blake, I:

Director, Cockatoo Software Pty Ltd (2007 - 2018)

After founding Cockatoo Software in November 2007 I undertook assignments including:

Senior Consultant, Cirrus Technologies Pty Ltd (2000 - 2007)

During more than seven years with Cirrus Technologies I contributed to teams developing software using Java’s standard (Java SE) and enterprise (Java EE) editions for many clients. I also provided services as an instructor.

For example, I:

In my spare time from 2000 onwards I explored many Java technologies, especially open source frameworks. In 2004 I began to take an increasing interest in the Ruby programming language and the Ruby on Rails web application framework.

Senior Consultant, Advanced Software Engineering Pty Ltd (1997 - 1999)

Amongst a variety of assignments during my time with ASE, major clients included Qantas and Woolworths. I assisted a Qantas software infrastructure team as they migrated from CSP to VisualAge Generator. In particular, I taught members of the team the fundamentals of the Smalltalk programming language. For Woolworths, I managed a team of ASE consultants as we developed a Bank Reconciliation system using COBOL/CICS/DB2 and demonstrated the value of Micro Focus software tools. Within ASE I managed the improvement of business procedures as part of the implementation of a Quality Management System. I also provided pre-sales support for Object-Oriented development tools such as VisualAge for Java, Toplink for Java and Simply Objects.

Earlier Positions (1983 - 1997)

In my early years as a professional programmer I used technologies such as PL/I, COBOL, IMS, CICS and DB2 on IBM mainframes. Having started in the IT industry as a trainee programmer for TNT, I moved on to work at IBM Australia where I gained project management experience. During 1988 and 1989, an overseas working holiday included the chance for me to work as a contractor at Lombard North Central in Redhill, UK. Continuing contracting on my return to Sydney, I provided services to major corporations including IBM, Woolworths and Westpac.

From about 1992 onwards I began exploring Object-Orientation and Internet technologies in my spare time. From an OO programming perspective, I began with Smalltalk and later moved on to Java.

Qualifications

I hold a Bachelor of Science from Sydney University and am a member of the Australian Computer Society and the Association for Computing Machinery.

© 2024 Keith Pitty, all rights reserved.