--- title: "Luke Stevenson, Independent Technical Director & Solution Architect" url: "https://lucanos.com" description: "Independent Technical Director & Solution Architect in Sydney. I use AI as an amplifier under real engineering governance, and produce interactive 3D, 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 Independent Technical Director & Solution Architect, 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 compounding 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 | Independent Technical Director & Solution Architect, Self-Employed Freelancer | | Core stack | PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, JavaScript, React, Three.js, WebGL, AWS, Docker | | Case studies below | 20 | | Awards | 7 across 4 campaigns | ## Current focus: AI is an amplifier Used with clear objectives, engineering controls and accountable governance, Artificial Intelligence multiplies the work a team can produce. Used carelessly, it multiplies risk exposure and technical debt just as quickly. 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. Each run feeds what it learns back into the standards, tests and delivery process, so the system improves alongside the software it produces. ### The delivery pipeline 1. **01 / Threat model, security posture first.** Trust boundaries, data classification and security requirements are agreed before any design work begins. Nothing downstream starts without them. 2. **02 / Architecture, design and trade-offs.** The system is structured and the key decisions documented within the constraints established during the first stage. 3. **03 / Tests, specify before building.** Required behaviour is identified and captured 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 are implemented against the test suite and assigned according to the shape of the task, within an architecture that has already been agreed. 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.** Verify the release in production against defined health checks. If validation fails, roll back automatically and raise an alert before the deployment progresses. 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 As AI increases the volume of code a team can produce, human leverage moves upstream: defining the architecture, standards, guardrails and tests, then applying judgement where automation 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. Getting Hands-On with a Phone Nobody Could Get Their Hands on Yet - **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.** We created layered 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. This design allowed us to overlay real video onto the virtual screens, showcasing the features and functionality of the new models. **My role.** I defined the technical architecture, guided implementation, and set the performance and accessibility standards that kept the experience reliable across more than 250 stores and efficient to update across markets and languages. ### 2. 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. ### 3. 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. ### 4. 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.** I owned the technical architecture, data-capture and handling approach, and platform stability through periods of peak demand. ### 5. Immerse yourself in a new career - **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 and played locally through Oculus headsets. A manifest-driven update system distributed new media, scenes and story paths to each device while preserving reliable offline playback throughout an event. **My role.** I developed the application that assembled the 360-degree footage into a branching experience and designed the content-distribution architecture that allowed each headset to update centrally while continuing to operate reliably offline at events. ### 6. 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 Melbourne's community. Inspired by the tradition of red envelopes, it wanted to share gifts with new and existing customers. **The build.** UNIQLO provided a pool of gifts and giveaways for the event. We built a custom touchscreen game that awarded each player a good-luck message and a prize, with real-time stock tracking preventing unavailable gifts from being selected. **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. ### 7. 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.** I designed the technical experience around the driver's point of view, working with the video team to position the camera and capture each feature demonstration from the correct perspective. I then built the touchscreen interface and designed a custom mounting solution that integrated the transparent display into the truck cab. ### 8. 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.** I designed the system that synchronised the video presentation with physical lighting across the vehicle. The playback computer controlled Wi-Fi-enabled LED units, illuminating each component on the truck as it was introduced on screen. ### 9. 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. ### 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, Social sharing, Personality quiz A personality quiz for the European Inventor Awards: a short set of questions classifying the player into one of sixteen inventor archetypes, issuing them a completely unique 3D character model and a shareable result. **The problem.** How do you engage an audience of people who are not just looking for, but creating or discovering the next big thing? You help them discover something about themselves. For the European Inventor Awards, the EPO wanted a way to build excitement and buzz before and during the event, creating something unique for every participant which they would want to share with their contacts through social media. **The build.** Inspired by Jungian personality classifications, we created a bank of questions tailored to the audience, giving them a range of choices to reflect the aspects of their work which they found most rewarding. Their answers were used to connect them with 16 archetypes, and then from a massive pool of procedurally generated 3D models, the player was assigned a completely unique online avatar to share. **My role.** I was the system architect for this project, initially concepting the game play and mechanics, as well as curating the question bank and designing the classification engine and avatar allocation system. ### 11. Rich content embedded into a corporate website - **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.** I guided the technical approach across iframe sizing, cross-platform behaviour, performance and deployment, creating a model that could be reused 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 A badge-activated prize game that gave EduTECH attendees a reason to stop, play and engage with Lenovo's exhibition stand. **The problem.** Lenovo needed an activity that could stand out on a crowded exhibition floor, draw attendees into the stand and reward participation without allowing repeat entries to exhaust the available prizes. **The build.** We built a bespoke game connected to a QR badge scanner, allowing each attendee to participate once. The game drove three synchronised displays so the animation and prize reveal could be seen from anywhere around the stand. **My role.** I engineered the game application, animation and multi-screen playback system, integrating the visual assets produced 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.** I oversaw the technical design and worked with the creative team to ensure the storytelling intent survived its translation into the final build. ### 14. Shine A Light to Dispel 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. 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.** I designed the architecture and data-handling workflow for the user-submitted content, including storage, moderation tools and the back-office processes used by the client team. ### 16. 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. ### 17. As It Happens - **Client:** Microsoft - **Year:** 2017 - **Type:** Live publishing platform - **Stack:** Custom CMS, Live publishing, Editorial tooling, Responsive web, Second screen 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. ### 18. 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. ### 19. 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. ### 20. 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 projects involving younger audiences, with explicit consent, clear purpose statements, defined retention practices and no collection outside the documented user journey. ### 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 I work by finding the real constraint first, making the important decisions explicit, and turning ambiguous requirements into systems that can be built, tested and supported. More than two decades in engineering and fault investigation have taught me to look beyond the visible symptom, document what matters and leave the next person with a clearer system than the one I inherited. ### 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* - Continuous independent learning across new languages, platforms and delivery methods - 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 - Regularly applying unfamiliar technologies to real delivery problems rather than treating learning as a separate exercise ## Career ### Independent Technical Director and Solution Architect, Lucanos Solutions *2005 – Present* Independent consulting and contract delivery across technical direction, solution architecture, AI-assisted development, web engineering and complex remediation. I help turn unclear or ambitious requirements into practical systems, introduce AI where it creates genuine leverage, and investigate existing platforms that are unstable, undocumented or no longer behaving as intended. Established in 2005 as a concurrent freelance practice, Lucanos Solutions now serves as my primary vehicle for consulting and contract work. ### Technical Director, 1000heads *2016 – 2026* Progressed from Lead Developer and Technical Creative to Technical Director, leading the technical delivery of campaign platforms, interactive experiences and physical-digital installations for global clients. - **2019 – 2026, Technical Director.** Led technical strategy, solution design and delivery across web platforms, interactive experiences and campaign builds. I worked across creative, production and client teams, owning technical risk, performance, accessibility, data handling and long-term support. I also developed AI-assisted delivery pipelines that placed agentic development under established engineering controls. - **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 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. ### 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. - **2026 – Present, Operational Management Team Member.** Performing as part of the Incident Management Team, triaging, prioritising, dispatching and managing requests for assistance and field assets. - **2017 – 2026, 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 - Rescue.** 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. ## 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.