--- title: "Luke Stevenson, Technical Director" url: "https://lucanos.com" description: "Technical Director in Sydney. AI as an amplifier under real engineering governance, interactive 3D and scroll-driven platforms, and campaign builds that survive contact with the real world." availability: "Available now for contract or full-time. Sydney, Central Coast or remote." email: "hello@lucanos.com" phone: "+61412624862" location: "Sydney, NSW, AU" github: "https://github.com/lucanos" linkedin: "https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucanos/" stackoverflow: "https://stackoverflow.com/users/332565/lucanos" updated: "2026-07-28" --- # Luke Stevenson Technical Director, Lucanos Solutions. Sydney, Australia. I turn ambitious creative concepts into platforms that survive contact with the real world: 250+ retail stores, a quarter of a million players, a client's security review. And I build the guardrails that let AI multiply that output instead of multiplying the risk. **Available now for contract or full-time**, sydney, Central Coast or remote. - Email: hello@lucanos.com - Phone: +61 (0) 412 62 48 62 - Github: https://github.com/lucanos - Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucanos/ - Stack Overflow: https://stackoverflow.com/users/332565/lucanos ## At a glance | | | |---|---| | Years building for the web | 25+ | | Retail stores running a build of mine | 250+ | | Opt-in emails from one campaign | 110k | | Years in volunteer emergency services | 20+ | | Current role | Technical Director, Lucanos Solutions | | Core stack | PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, JavaScript, React, Three.js, WebGL, AWS, Docker | | Case studies below | 26 | | Awards | 7 across 4 campaigns | ## Current focus: AI is an amplifier When Artificial Intelligence is used responsibly, with real controls, real governance and a strong steer towards the outcome you actually want, it multiplies the work you can produce. Used carelessly, or without proper planning, it can multiply your risk exposure and your technical debt at an even faster rate. I have engineered a Claude Code profile that operates as a complete development team: specialised roles across security, architecture, test design, implementation, verification, release and analysis, coordinated by one that owns delivery and a second that holds the standards. They run a stage-gated pipeline, security first and test driven. Every stage has written pass criteria and an explicit go or no-go before anything advances, and a failure routes back to the stage that owns it. The next run starts sharper than the last. That compounding is the actual product; the code is just the output. ### The delivery pipeline 1. **01 / Threat model, security posture first.** Trust boundaries, data classification and the security requirements, agreed before any design exists. Nothing downstream starts without it. 2. **02 / Architecture, design and trade-offs.** The system structured and the decisions written down, inside the constraints the first stage set rather than around them. 3. **03 / Tests, specify before building.** Behaviour captured defined through tests and acceptance criteria, so "it works" becomes a measurement rather than an assurance. No production code before this. 4. **04 / Build, implementation.** Small reviewable increments written to the test pack, dispatched by the shape of the task, against an architecture already decided. 5. **05 / Verify, independent challenge.** An adversarial pass over the build by something that did not write it: edge cases, security probes, and gaps against the tests and the threat model. 6. **06 / Release, safe to run.** Pipelines, observability, health checks, runbooks, and rollbacks so a problem at 2am stays a problem and not an outage. 7. **07 / Prove, Post-Deploy Checks.** Once the release lands, check that everything operates as expected - if not, automatically rollback and raise an alert. "Fire and forget" might work for weapons, but if you don't want your system to fail, you need to check it is working properly before you move ahead. 8. **08 / Learn, iterative improvement.** Production signals and review findings become standing rules, routed back into the earlier stages. Learn from the mistakes you encounter, rather than repeating them. ### What stays human The days of a human reading every line of code have come and gone. The leverage has moved: we are worth most steering the system, setting the standards, guardrails and tests the AI must work inside, and then supplying the things it cannot. - **Experience.** Knowing which shortcuts cost you in eighteen months, because you were there when the last ones came due. - **Interpretation.** Hearing what a client actually means underneath what the brief says, and building for that instead. - **Foresight.** Designing for the extension nobody has asked for yet but everybody will: the phase two, the second market, the integration. - **UX judgement.** Recognising the moment where a flow is technically correct and humanly wrong, which no test suite will ever fail on. - **Accountability.** Someone has to own what ships. That cannot be delegated to a system, however good its output looks. ## Case studies ### 1. Teaching 250+ stores the Pixel range in 3D - **Client:** Google Retail - **Year:** 2023 - **Type:** 3D web experience - **Results:** 250+ US stores, then UK, Japan, AU; 8 languages from one codebase; 120k impressions - **Stack:** Three.js, PHP, Localisation, Internationalisation, Interactive 3D A bespoke interactive training experience for Pixel Fold, Pixel Tablet and Pixel 7a: fully rotatable devices with glowing hotspots that reveal features, specs and benefits on tap. **The problem.** Google Retail needed to educate staff across flagship and partner stores on new devices, for a multilingual workforce, on whatever hardware was to hand. **The build.** Three.js device models over a PHP templating layer, with content structured so every language and market ran from one codebase, responsive from phone to desk. **My role.** Defined the technical architecture, guided implementation, and held the line on performance and accessibility so the experience stayed reliable in-store and cheap to update. ### 2. HEATTECH: Hot or Cold - **Client:** UNIQLO - **Year:** 2020–21 - **Type:** Gamified campaign - **Results:** 250k visitors; 110k opt-in emails; 4 min+ average session - **Stack:** Three.js, A-Frame, Data capture, Scaling An online treasure hunt in a cosmic winter landscape. Move your cursor or tilt your phone and the screen shifts from icy blue to burning red as you close on a hidden thermal shirt. The product benefit turned into the mechanic. **The problem.** COVID cancelled the experiential plan. UNIQLO needed the winter thermal range to land online instead, at national scale and on a fixed date. **The build.** Three.js particle effects with A-Frame driving the hunt, plus prize redemption and data capture engineered for spiky traffic and repeat play across two consecutive winters. **My role.** Owned the technical architecture, the data capture and handling approach, and platform stability through peak demand. ### 3. Celebrate the Year of the Horse - **Client:** UNIQLO - **Year:** 2026 - **Type:** Community event - **Results:** 853 players; 12 hours - **Stack:** Touchscreen, Prize management, Analytics dashboard, Event management A digital red-envelope game on a large touchscreen for a Chinese New Year event in Melbourne, with a stock system behind it so the prizes stayed real. **The problem.** UNIQLO wanted to celebrate Chinese New Year with the community of Melbourne. Inspired by the tradition of Red Envelopes, they wanted to share gifts with new and existing customers. **The build.** UNIQLO provided a pool of wonderful gifts and giveaways for the day. We built a custom touchscreen game where everyone who picked their lucky envelope were rewarded with a good luck message from UNIQLO and a gift. To ensure that everyone got the gift they were promised, our system actively tracked the promotional stock ensuring that nobody left empty-handed. **My role.** I built the interactive game and the reveal workflow, and the analytics and stock-management backend that connected the attendee experience to event operations. ### 4. In-Cab Experience - **Client:** ISUZU - **Year:** 2025 - **Type:** Automotive installation - **Stack:** Transparent OLED, Interactive video, Custom mounting, Event playback A transparent OLED touchscreen mounted inside an ISUZU truck cab, so visitors could sit in the driver's seat and call up point-of-view demonstrations across the windscreen. **The problem.** The safety and driver-assistance features worth showing are the ones you cannot demonstrate in a stationary truck on an exhibition floor. **The build.** A transparent interactive display overlaying demonstration video onto the real windscreen view, with custom mounting and a local playback system built for show conditions. **My role.** Contribution to be confirmed. Delivered within the 1000heads technical team. ### 5. Electric Vehicle Highlights - **Client:** ISUZU - **Year:** 2025 - **Type:** Synchronised demonstration - **Stack:** Transparent OLED, Synchronised playback, LED control A transparent display explaining an electric truck's systems, synchronised with LEDs on the vehicle itself so the component under discussion lit up as it was described. **The problem.** The interesting parts of an electric commercial vehicle are scattered across the whole truck, which makes them hard to explain on a screen or a sign. **The build.** Synchronised video playback and controlled LED lighting driven from one control system, tying each moment of the explanation to the physical part it referred to. **My role.** Contribution to be confirmed. Delivered within the 1000heads technical team. ### 6. What AI persona are you? - **Client:** Lenovo - **Year:** 2024 - **Type:** Custom AI Caricature - **Results:** 1,200 AI portraits generated; 3,000 event attendees - **Stack:** Generative AI, Session management, QR handoff, Responsive web, Personality quiz An event photo booth that turned a portrait and a short questionnaire into a themed, branded AI caricature, delivered to the participant's own phone. **The problem.** Lenovo wanted to demonstrate the creative potential of AI at events, in a way an attendee could hold onto and share rather than watch on a screen. **The build.** A connected pipeline: photo capture, a short questionnaire, session management, a unique QR handoff, generative image transformation shaped by the answers, and a personal result page waiting on the participant's phone by the time they walked away. **My role.** I designed the end-to-end journey and built it: capture and questionnaire, session management, the QR handoff, the result pages, and the AI generation step that took the answers as input. ### 7. What UT RU? - **Client:** UNIQLO - **Year:** 2024 - **Type:** Personalised Recommendation - **Results:** 3 connected touchpoints: phone, showroom, store - **Stack:** Mobile web, QR handoff, Voucher redemption, Personality quiz A personality test that ran while you queued. Scan a code in Pitt Street Mall, answer a few questions, and the trailer's screen showed your matched T-shirt as you stepped inside. **The problem.** UNIQLO wanted a broad graphic tee range to feel personal, and wanted the street activation to end at the till rather than at the exit. **The build.** A mobile personality test with custom matching logic, a personal QR code handing the session from the phone into the physical showroom, a large-format result display, and voucher generation redeemable at the store nearby. **My role.** I designed and built the platform: the question and matching logic, the mobile experience, the QR handoff, the showroom result workflow, and voucher generation and redemption. ### 8. A career you can look around - **Client:** ISUZU - **Year:** 2024 - **Type:** VR recruitment experience - **Stack:** 360° Virtual Reality, Oculus, Branching narrative, Event playback A 360° choose-your-own-adventure for careers exhibitions. School leavers put on a headset and picked their way through different parts of the business. **The problem.** ISUZU needed to reach school leavers and show both the breadth of the roles available and the technology behind them, in a few minutes at a busy expo stand. **The build.** Immersive point-of-view footage assembled into a branching narrative, played back locally through an Oculus headset and built to run all day at an exhibition. **My role.** I developed the system which joins together the video segments into a Choose Your Own Adventure path. I also engineered the system allowing for Over-The-Air updates of media and story, allowing changes to the content to be distributed to all headsets automatically and then supporting offline use at events. ### 9. Two Truths, One Myth: Can You Spot It? - **Client:** Cisco - **Year:** 2024 - **Type:** Online Exhibition Engagement - **Stack:** PHP One of the biggest risks to cybersecurity is misinformation and disinformation. Cisco wanted to see how many of their customers and other members of the cybersecurity community knew about Cisco and their range of products. **The problem.** How do we make something fun, fast and interesting? How do we make something which stands out during an exhibition or event where everyone is fighting for attention? A quick, easy, engaging game was the perfect fit! **The build.** We built a custom microsite, where a player was shown 5 random sets of statements within specific subjects. Two were true, one was not. They were tested to see whether they could identify the false answer. The quicker they found it, the more points they scored. **My role.** I was the system developer and architect. ### 10. What type of inventor are you? - **Client:** European Patent Office - **Year:** 2023 - **Type:** Shareable quiz - **Results:** 70% quiz completion rate; 53k+ site visits; 120k engagements - **Stack:** Three.js, PHP, Branching logic, Social sharing, Personality quiz A personality quiz for the European Inventor Awards: a short run of psychological-style questions resolving into one of sixteen inventor archetypes, each with its own 3D character model and shareable result. **The problem.** The awards needed cultural noise, not a press release. Something a broad audience would voluntarily take and then post. **The build.** Branching logic and structured content over PHP, with Three.js rendering the sixteen character models and per-result share links built for social preview. **My role.** Solution design, data handling, and making the experience scale cleanly through the peaks that follow a share spike. ### 11. Interactive iframes on someone else's platform - **Client:** Shell - **Year:** 2021–23 - **Type:** Embedded experiences - **Results:** 4 experiences delivered; A11y signed off with the client - **Stack:** ScrollMagic, Iframe embeds, WCAG, DigitalOcean A series of scroll and click-driven stories on DE&I, decarbonising motorsport, shipping and maritime, hosted independently and embedded into Shell's corporate sites. **The problem.** The experiences had to live inside constrained iframes on a platform we did not control, meeting brand guidelines, load-time budgets, security review and accessibility requirements. **The build.** HTML, CSS and JavaScript with ScrollMagic driving animation, deployed as independently hosted iframes; semantic markup was a primary focus so assistive technology could reach the content. **My role.** Guided the technical approach: sizing and cross-environment behaviour, performance, and a deployment model simple enough to reuse across multiple Shell platforms. ### 12. Spin to Win @ Edutech 2023 - **Client:** Lenovo - **Year:** 2023 - **Type:** Exhibition Activation - **Results:** 2,300 players; 23% attendee conversion rate - **Stack:** PHP, Javascript, QR Code Everyone loves swag. Getting is it nice, but winning it is special. 1000heads built on their experience with the EduTECH event to create an engaging and exciting game for attendees to play and remember. **The problem.** EduTECH 2023 is a leading exhibition where vendors demonstrate products and services for the education industry. Standing out in that crowd can be a challenge. We developed a game to capture attendees' attention and to give them something special to take home. **The build.** We built a bespoke game, connecting a QR code scanner which read attendees' badges and ensured that nobody got more than their fair share. The game drove three screens, so that the fun and excitement could be seen from all angles. **My role.** I engineered the system, building the entire system, and integrating creative provided by the 1000heads studio team. ### 13. Nitrogen pollution, told by scrolling - **Client:** United Nations - **Year:** 2022 - **Type:** Scroll-driven microsite - **Results:** ~30 pages from one structure; 1 shared template layer - **Stack:** FullPage.js, PHP, Scrollytelling, Accessibility A polluted city that clears the further you travel down the page, built for Clean Air Day to make an invisible pollutant legible. **The problem.** The UN needed roughly thirty content-heavy pages produced fast, consistently, and editable by a content team working to a deadline. **The build.** FullPage.js for the scroll narrative with PHP templating generating all thirty pages from one shared structure, so behaviour, performance and accessibility stayed identical throughout. **My role.** Oversaw the technical design and worked with the creative team so the storytelling intent survived translation into the build. ### 14. Shine A Light to Dispell The Darkness of Hate - **Client:** Shine A Light - **Year:** 2022 - **Type:** WordPress platform - **Results:** 2× shorty Award results, 2022; 4 content sections from one theme - **Stack:** WordPress, Custom theme, Plugin development, PHP, CDN delivery - **Award:** Winner, Shorty Awards 2022, Social Activism - **Award:** Bronze Distinction, Shorty Awards 2022, Multicultural Community Engagement The campaign platform for a US awareness initiative, built on a custom WordPress theme. The homepage puts a moveable searchlight over a darkened field, so reading the page means actively uncovering it. **The problem.** A convening platform for organisations and individuals, carrying resources, workplace and education material, video, partner onboarding and event content, all editable by a non-technical content team and reskinned each campaign year. **The build.** A bespoke theme plus supporting plugins rather than an off-the-shelf stack: the searchlight interaction on the homepage, structured content types for resources and partners, validated multi-step enquiry forms, and asset delivery sharded across multiple CDN subdomains to keep a heavily illustrated page fast. **My role.** I built the custom WordPress theme and the plugins behind it, including the searchlight mechanism the campaign became known for. ### 15. International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies - **Client:** United Nations - **Year:** 2022 - **Type:** Microsite - **Stack:** PHP, Fullpage.JS The UN Environment Programme wanted to demonstrate that everyone, through small changes and increased awareness and activitism, can contribute to reducing air pollution and improving public health. **The problem.** The UNEP wanted to a way to demonstrate how small changes can be made to move from unhealthy polluted air to clear air and blue skies, in a compelling online way. We leveraged our experience in animated scrolling sites to tell that story in a compelling visual style. **The build.** We built a bespoke microsite combining the information supplied by the UNEP and the storytelling capabilities of the 1000heads team. **My role.** I built the framework and frontend for this microsite. ### 16. 125,000 portraits, one submission pipeline - **Client:** Ancestry × National Portrait Gallery - **Year:** 2021 - **Type:** User Submitted Content - **Results:** 125k portrait Submissions; 2 systems: public + back office - **Stack:** PHP, MySQL, File uploads, Admin Interface, iFrame A public drag-and-drop submission tool embedded into Ancestry's site, plus a bespoke back office for the team receiving the entries. **The problem.** Ancestry's community needed to contribute images at volume, and the internal team needed them stored, searchable and editable rather than sitting in an inbox. **The build.** An embeddable iframe upload form backed by a PHP application and MySQL, with an admin layer for tracking, editing and deleting submissions. **My role.** Architecture and data handling for user-submitted content: storage, moderation workflow, and the operational side the client actually lives with. ### 17. Showcasing Cisco's Sustainable Technology - **Client:** Cisco - **Year:** 2021 - **Type:** Symposium Microsite - **Results:** 4 languages - **Stack:** PHP, Fullpage.JS, Internationalisation To embrace sustainability means challenging old ways of thinking. Cisco wanted to produce a platform to present their new thinking around their products and services, and offering customers and stakeholders attending their symposium to join the conversation. **The problem.** We needed to produce a focused website where Cisco could showcase their products and initiatives, and also provide their attendees with a way to share and amplify their ideas to drive conversation around how sustainable technology could not just sustain but surge innovation. **The build.** Bespoke Content Management System, allowing content created across 4 languages to be uploaded and arranged. **My role.** I created a bespoke Content Management System, allowing participants to submit business ideas which could then be reviewed, edited, published and voted on. ### 18. Education Transformed - **Client:** Lenovo - **Year:** 2020 - **Type:** Virtual event platform - **Stack:** Virtual events, Streaming, Live chat, Responsive web When COVID closed the events, Lenovo's education showcase moved online: product exploration, streamed sessions, and live chat straight through to product specialists. **The problem.** Lenovo lost the channel it used to demonstrate hardware and talk directly to education decision-makers, with no date to get it back. **The build.** An online event platform combining a product showcase, scheduled streamed sessions and live chat routed to Lenovo specialists who could answer and recommend in real time. **My role.** Contribution to be confirmed. Delivered within the 1000heads technical team. ### 19. The World's First Thermal Selfie Booth - **Client:** UNIQLO - **Year:** 2019 - **Type:** Experiential installation - **Results:** 6M campaign impressions; 1,785 thermies produced; 93% vouchers redeemed; +20% HEATTECH winter sales, year on year - **Stack:** IR imaging, Apple automation, Bash, ImageMagick, Voucher redemption - **Award:** Winner, Shorty Awards 2020, Fashion - **Award:** Winner, Mumbrella CommsCon 2020, Best Use of Technology A five-metre HEATTECH shirt in Sydney's Martin Place, and an infrared camera rig that printed a thermal photo and a unique voucher code. **The problem.** The warmth of a thermal garment is invisible. UNIQLO wanted to help their customers see it, inviting them into the store and gifting them a HEATTECH shirt to feel the heat for themselves. **The build.** An IR camera rig driving an unattended capture-to-print loop: Apple automation orchestrating the camera and printer, Bash and ImageMagick compositing each thermal frame into the branded print, and the same voucher issuing and redemption pipeline behind it so every portrait left with a trackable code. **My role.** I engineered the IR camera system, the image capture and print pipeline, and the voucher redemption system behind it. ### 20. Cisco Partner Cloud - **Client:** Cisco - **Year:** 2019 - **Type:** Conference Engagement - **Stack:** PHP, Twitter API, Chart.JS We created a system which rewarded businesses engaging with conference content - the bigger voices amplifying the message, the bigger their business name was in the cloud. We even heard rumours of C-suite emails being sent to all hands encouraging them to take part. **The problem.** Cisco Designed is a partner conference thst was hosted virtually across the APJC region. Cisco needed to generate excitement for their event and get their attendees engaged with them via social media. **The build.** We leveraged our experience from building the LogoWall, and tapped into Twitter using their API. Running targetted filters and matching Twitter users to businesses, we were able to attribute social media interaction to a business and reward that business through increasing their visibility. **My role.** I developed the framework and system which collected and collated the data, producing a backend interface which allowed an operator to observe and attribute engagement. I also produced the platform for our designed frontend to be hosted on, and the data feed which pushed into it to make the cloud dynamic. ### 21. EduTECH Lenovo Quiz - **Client:** Lenovo - **Year:** 2019 - **Type:** Exhibition Booth Activity - **Stack:** PHP, Javascript, QR code Lenovo wanted to showcase the functionality of the Lenovo Yoga Book - touchscreen and able to be used as a laptop or a tablet - as well as their fun and engaging personality, well suited for educational environments. We wanted to build something completely new. **The problem.** Lenovo education is an important sector for laptop sales and EDUTech is the biggest opportunity to grab the attention of teachers and key decision makers for school devices. **The build.** 1000heads AU created a giant Lenovo Quiz using the Lenovo Yoga Books devices as interactive touchscreens to play the teacher based quiz. Teachers and students scan their event barcode to play the game once and for Lenovo to collect their details for marketing opportunities. **My role.** I created everything. ### 22. Snap a shot. Get a code. Grab a HEATTECH. - **Client:** UNIQLO - **Year:** 2017 - **Type:** Online Engagement for OOH Campaign - **Results:** 2 shorty Award results, 2017; AU nationwide billboard network - **Stack:** PHP, MySQL, Voucher redemption, In-store validation - **Award:** Winner, Shorty Awards 2017, Retail & E-Commerce - **Award:** Audience Honor, Shorty Awards 2017, Oceania Digital billboards near UNIQLO stores flashed frames too fast for the human eye. Photograph one and a five-digit code appeared, redeemable online for a HEATTECH sample. **The problem.** UNIQLO needed a street mechanic that would stop a passer-by, get them to pull out a phone, and carry them from the footpath into a store. **The build.** A campaign microsite that validated codes, walked people through the product benefits, issued vouchers and tracked redemptions live, plus an in-store validation system so staff could verify a voucher at the counter. **My role.** I built the whole online side: the microsite, the data capture, and the voucher issuing and redemption system. ### 23. As It Happened - **Client:** Microsoft - **Year:** 2017 - **Type:** Live publishing platform - **Stack:** Custom CMS, Live publishing, Editorial tooling, Responsive web A live-blogging platform for Microsoft's APAC event: staff published session takeaways, images and social-ready snippets to a timeline while the talk was still running. **The problem.** Attendees were choosing between taking notes and paying attention. Event staff needed to publish in seconds, without a technical operator sitting beside them. **The build.** A controlled editorial interface for non-technical staff feeding an attendee-facing timeline, built for a live environment where a failure has no recovery window. **My role.** I designed the publishing workflow, built the bespoke CMS behind it and the attendee-facing timeline, and prepared the system for time-critical live use. ### 24. The LogoWall - **Client:** Microsoft - **Year:** 2016 - **Type:** Live event display - **Results:** 12,000+ social mentions; 6.7M impressions; 2,320 unique participants - **Stack:** Social APIs, Real-time collation, PHP, Live display - **Award:** Bronze Distinction, Shorty Awards 2017, Gamification An interactive social wall for a Microsoft B2B event: attendee posts collected, collated and pushed live to a large-format display on the floor. **The problem.** A business event needed its audience visibly participating rather than sitting still, and the social activity had to appear on screen fast enough to feel live. **The build.** A collection and collation layer pulling social activity in real time, filtering it and feeding a structured stream to the front-end display. **My role.** I built the data collection side: gathering and collating the social media activity that drove the display. ### 25. An easter egg hunt you could hold - **Client:** Microsoft - **Year:** 2016 - **Type:** Retail activation - **Results:** 200 RFID tiles hidden in store - **Stack:** RFID, Custom hardware, Event application, Prize logic Branded RFID tiles hidden through the new Microsoft Store in Sydney. Find one, bring it to the front desk, and a custom reader revealed what you had won. **The problem.** Microsoft needed a launch activity that pushed visitors to walk the whole of a brand new retail space rather than stopping at the door. **The build.** Custom-engineered branded tiles with RFID tags, a front-desk reading station, and software that identified each tile and drove the prize reveal, built to survive a full day of public handling. **My role.** I designed the technical concept, engineered the branded tiles and their tag integration, built the reading station, and wrote the identification and prize-reveal software. ### 26. A campfire that needs four people - **Client:** Lenovo - **Type:** Interactive installation - **Results:** 4 players - **Stack:** Hologram, Interactive A holographic campfire that grew as people sat down around it. One seat gave a flicker. Four seats gave a fire. Nobody could see the whole thing alone. **The problem.** Lenovo wanted to say that ideas grow through collaboration, using an interaction that made the point instead of stating it. **The build.** A four-sided Pepper's Ghost display: angled transparent reflectors above a concealed screen, with seat occupancy driving the animation state so the flame scaled with the number of people present. **My role.** I developed the interaction concept, chose the Pepper's Ghost approach, designed the inverted four-sided reflector and the enclosure around it, and engineered the seat-occupancy interaction. ## Awards Proud to have been part of teams recognised for the work we made together. Select an award to read the case study behind it. | Year | Body | Result | Category | Campaign | |---|---|---|---|---| | 2022 | Shorty Awards | Winner | Social Activism | Shine A Light | | 2022 | Shorty Awards | Bronze Distinction | Multicultural Community Engagement | Shine A Light | | 2020 | Shorty Awards | Winner | Fashion | UNIQLO #STAYWARM | | 2020 | Mumbrella CommsCon | Winner | Best Use of Technology | UNIQLO #STAYWARM | | 2017 | Shorty Awards | Winner | Retail & E-Commerce | UNIQLO Uncover | | 2017 | Shorty Awards | Audience Honor | Oceania | UNIQLO Uncover | | 2017 | Shorty Awards | Bronze Distinction | Gamification | Microsoft The LogoWall | ## Assurance and governance Enterprise clients do not buy a build. They buy a build their security, privacy and accessibility teams will sign off. That review is part of the work, not a hurdle at the end of it. ### Security: Built for the security review Enterprise builds land in front of security teams: SSL and certificate handling, no data leaving systems we cannot vouch for, hosting and access decided before code starts rather than justified after. ### Privacy: GDPR and consent by design Campaigns collecting personal data, including from minors on the Arm GenArm2Z programme, with consent modals, clear purpose statements, retention thinking and no quiet collection anywhere in the funnel. ### Accessibility: WCAG as a build constraint On Shell and UN work, accessibility drove the markup rather than being retrofitted: semantic structure, keyboard and screen-reader paths, and motion that degrades gracefully. ### AI use: Guardrails for generated code Defined standards, automated tests and review gates that AI-assisted work must pass before merge, so the speed benefit does not arrive attached to unreviewed risk. ## How I work More than two decades in engineering roles, specialising in fault investigation and resolution. Predominantly self-taught, and still learning in the open. I enjoy sharing what I know, and taking on challenges to explore what I don't. ### Architecture & Engineering *Planning, designing, building, fixing and improving software solutions* - Solution design for high-traffic, short-runway campaign platforms - Backend: PHP, with database design in MySQL and PostgreSQL - Frontend: modern JavaScript, React, Three.js and WebGL - API and service integration: payments, email, messaging, third-party data - Cloud infrastructure and deployment: AWS, DigitalOcean, CI pipelines ### Leadership & Delivery *Collaborating and co-operating to reach the goal* - Technical direction across creative, production and client stakeholders - Team leadership, mentoring and capability building - Project management, estimation and technical documentation - Vendor and partner management - Emergency and disaster management, genuinely transferable ### Fault Investigation *Understanding, applying and communicating complex concepts* - A decade in telecommunications fault management and network engineering - Root cause analysis across systems nobody fully documented - Reverse-engineering undocumented networks into working procedures - Explaining the failure to people who need the outcome, not the detail ### Teaching & Self-Education *Growing, learning and teaching* - Predominantly self-taught, and still learning in the open - 10,000+ reputation on Stack Overflow, answering in public since 2010 - VETAB qualified small group trainer - Taught programming fundamentals to school students through Nexgen Codecamp - A standing habit of leaving the comfort zone before it gets comfortable ## Career ### Freelance Web Developer, Lucanos Solutions *2005 – Present* Short-term contracts and ad-hoc work: web development, design, troubleshooting and remedial services, and general IT work, particularly anything internet-shaped that has stopped behaving. ### Technical Director, 1000heads *2016 – 2026* Responsible for technical strategy, solution design and delivery across web platforms, interactive experiences and campaign builds. I work with creative, production and client stakeholders to turn concepts into stable, maintainable solutions, owning technical risk, performance, accessibility, data handling and the long tail of support that follows a launch. Currently building AI-assisted delivery pipelines that put agentic development under real engineering discipline. - **2019 – 2026, Technical Director.** Responsible for technical strategy, solution design and delivery across web platforms, interactive experiences and campaign builds. I worked with creative, production and client stakeholders to turn concepts into stable, maintainable solutions, owning technical risk, performance, accessibility, data handling and the long tail of support that follows a launch. I built AI-assisted delivery pipelines that put agentic development under real engineering discipline. - **2016 – 2019, Lead Developer & Technical Creative.** Designed, developed and executed builds that engaged audiences and impressed stakeholders: UNIQLO's Uncover campaign, the Microsoft LogoWall social display, a bespoke CMS for the Microsoft Australian Partners Conference, the Microsoft Store RFID prize hunt, and physical-digital stand experiences for Lenovo driven by hardware triggers and live data. ### Senior Full Stack Developer, Jaywing Australia *2018 – 2019* Contracted to plan and execute highly customised website builds for the Australian arm of the UK agency, predominantly on WordPress, with hands-on work across Marketo, WooCommerce and Magento. ### Instructor, Nexgen Codecamp *2016 – 2019* Taught programming fundamentals in JavaScript during school holidays as part of a STEAM initiative bringing industry practitioners into education. The program grew to cover robotics, web development and 3D printing. ### Chief Technology Officer, Sourcr *2017 – 2018* Sourcr was a Sydney startup rethinking how employers work with recruiters. I consulted through initial concept development, then managed quality assurance and delivery with an overseas development house to ship the beta platform. ### Technical Director & Co-Founder, Lumik Digital *2012 – 2017* Built a small team of skilled specialists able to compete with established agencies. We worked directly with clients and through agencies to break down jargon and deliver effective, scalable solutions, choosing the right systems and designing around their known limits. ### Senior Web Developer, Publicis Health *2011 – 2012* Part of the newly established Publicis Healthware International team, developing iPad-based training and product education packages plus campaign websites for global healthcare and pharmaceutical clients. A first education in building inside heavily regulated review processes. ### Fault Management to Network Engineering, Optus *1998 – 2009* Eleven years at Optus, starting on the phones and finishing on the network those calls were about. The through-line is the same one I still work to: find the actual cause, write down what you found, and make the next person's job faster than yours was. - **2004 – 2009, Network Engineer.** Surveillance of the Optus national and international networks. Rapid investigation, diagnosis and resolution of network issues, and the handling of escalated and sensitive enquiries from major customers and external agencies. - **2006, Intranet Solution Engineer.** A three-month project designing a knowledge-management intranet for the Optus Networks division: interviewing every group involved, designing an infrastructure on open-source foundations, and building a central CMS-driven hub as a single point of reference. The morale and financial case was proven in the feedback; the build was shelved on budget grounds outside the project group's control. - **1999 – 2004, Project Co-Ordinator, Senior Analyst.** Supporting two Customer Fault Management centres of 200+ people across Sydney and Melbourne. Technical documentation, work instructions, training material and reporting. Analysis of fault trends to find underlying root causes, and liaison with vendors and internal customers to fix them. Direct supervision of six other co-ordinators, escalated and sensitive complaint handling, and a set of internal database-driven sites and tools. - **1998 – 1999, Customer Fault Management Consultant.** First-level technical support on a 24/7 rotating roster: investigation, diagnosis and resolution of faults on the Local Access Telephony product, escalating what could not be fixed at the desk. Direct handling of upset and irate customers, and translating a technical problem for people with every level of technical aptitude. Preliminary reverse-engineering of the Hybrid Fibre Coaxial network into working diagnostic guidelines, plus performance reporting on fault and call data for my team and others in the group. ## Open source and community - **Lighthouse (Chrome Extension)** (Contributing developer). A contributor to the Lighthouse extension used by NSW SES volunteers, improving how operational information is surfaced to people about to go out in it. - **Open-source infrastructure by default** (Practice). From the Optus knowledge-management intranet in 2006 to MediaWiki at 1000heads, I build on open foundations where they exist rather than paying for a worse version of them. - **Knowledge sharing** (Community). Documentation, training material and internal wikis are not admin. They are the difference between a team that compounds and a team that repeats itself. ## Emergency services Almost twenty five years volunteering with the NSW State Emergency Service and the NSW Rural Fire Service, fifteen of them in management roles. Establishing order from chaos, creating and running teams under pressure, and coaching people through their worst moments. When time is short, goals are unwavering, and action is essential, I am at my best. ### NSW State Emergency Service, Ku-Ring-Gai Unit *2002 – Present* Rescue Team Member to Deputy Unit Commander. Storm and flood response, Unit management, plus the on-call coordination behind it. - **2017 – Present, Duty Officer.** On-call command for the unit. Taking the tasking, deciding what goes out and with whom, and staying accountable for every crew in the field until they are back. - **2014 – 2019, Deputy Unit Commander.** Second in command of the unit: training and readiness, crew capability, and the administrative load that keeps a volunteer unit able to respond at all. - **2013 – 2014, Rescue Officer.** Accountable for the unit's rescue capability. Equipment, accreditation, and the standard the teams are held to when it matters. - **2010 – 2013, Rescue Team Leader.** Leading a team on scene: sizing up the job, allocating tasks, and owning the decisions that follow, usually with incomplete information and no second attempt. - **2002 – 2010, Rescue Team Member.** General rescue, storm and flood response, and searches. Eight years turning out on the truck before moving into leading the teams that do. ### NSW Rural Fire Service, Pearl Beach Brigade *2017 – Present* Firefighter to Deputy Captain, with the brigade's president and secretary roles along the way. Operational response and the governance that keeps a volunteer brigade running. - **2023 – Present, Deputy Captain.** Operational leadership on the fireground and back at the station: leading a crew, keeping the brigade ready, and bringing newer members up to standard. - **2021 – 2023, Brigade President.** Chairing the brigade, representing it to the district, and holding together the non-operational side that a volunteer organisation lives or dies on. - **2021, 2023 – 2024, Brigade Secretary.** Records, correspondence, meetings and reporting. Knowing the processes, procedures, and standards which manage brigade activities, and ensuring that they are properly applied and adhered to. - **2017 – 2023, Firefighter.** Bush and structure fire response, hazard reduction, and community protection in the NSW Central Coast. ## Contact Available now for contract or full-time, sydney, Central Coast or remote. - hello@lucanos.com - +61 (0) 412 62 48 62 - https://lucanos.com Structured data: https://lucanos.com/index.json. This file: https://lucanos.com/index.md.