Software engineer · Melbourne
Hi, I'm Handy.
I'm a software engineer in Melbourne with 7+ years across the full stack. Right now I'm building medical imaging systems at 4DMedical (ASX: 4DX).
Before that I worked at Who Gives A Crap and The Good Guys (JB Hi-Fi, ASX: JBH). I mostly work in React, Python and AWS. Open to work with Melbourne tech companies and startups.
Frontend
React, Next.js, TypeScript, React Native, Tailwind
Backend
Python, Django, FastAPI, Node.js, gRPC, GraphQL
Infra & data
AWS, Docker, CI/CD, Terraform, PostgreSQL, Redis
Experience
Full history →Backend services and front-ends for a lung imaging platform that ingests large volumes of patient scans. Folded ML models into the image pipeline and cut average incident resolution time by about half.
Ran A/B tests and CRO experiments across sign-up, checkout and subscription flows on a React + Shopify stack, and built the experimentation tooling other engineers shipped on.
Helped move a monolithic e-commerce app to microservices, built catalog and checkout interfaces, and kept inventory and pricing in sync across channels.
Selected work
Interactive Lung 3D
DemoA browser-based medical imaging demo: a breathing 3D lung, DICOM slice scrubbing and a respiratory data overlay. Built with Three.js, drawn from my day job at 4DMedical.
WebGL · Three.js
FinPay Dashboard
DemoA fintech analytics dashboard with live transaction monitoring, payment-method breakdowns, risk scoring and regional views. React and TypeScript.
React · TypeScript
Hangtime
App StoreA mobile app for finding local basketball runs and pickup games around Melbourne. Around 10,000 people have used it.
React Native · iOS
Recruiter Copilot
LiveA recruiting dashboard that does candidate matching and first-pass screening, with the data views recruiters actually look at day to day.
Next.js · LLM
LifeGPT
LiveA reflection app where you talk to different versions of yourself — your future self, your 60-year-old self, your harshest critic. A small side project about self-awareness.
Next.js · LLM
Re-Coded
LiveA site for a recruitment agency — clean, mobile-first, built to make it easy for both clients and candidates to get in touch.
Client work
Writing
Notes from the work — mostly things I had to figure out and wanted to write down.
Vector embeddings and RAG, explained from scratch
Machine learning · 25 minHow text turns into numbers, why keyword search falls down, and what it actually takes to put a retrieval system into production.
Cutting a React app's energy footprint in six steps
React · Performance · 18 minBattery and CPU are a UX cost too. A repeatable way to profile a React app and trim the waste.
Picking an incident management stack in 2025
DevOps · 22 minWhat I'd reach for to get from 'something's wrong' to 'it's fixed' without ten dashboards in between.
Polling vs. WebSockets vs. Server Actions
React · Next.js · 16 minThree ways to keep a React/Next.js UI in sync, and how I decide which one a feature actually needs.
Testing at scale: unit tests, Cypress and SonarCloud
Testing · 15 minTests are less about coverage numbers and more about the habits that keep bugs out of prod.
Talking to medical devices over gRPC
gRPC · Medical · 12 minConnecting 4DMedical's XVD hardware to the cloud, and how the protocol choice cut bandwidth by 80%.
Shipping on Railway with Postgres and Git
DevOps · 10 minDeployment shouldn't be the hard part. How I get small projects live without a weekend of YAML.
The invisible layer of e-commerce: observability
E-commerce · DevOps · 12 minMixpanel, New Relic and Sumo Logic — what they each tell you, and how they fit together.
From monolith to microservices, without the dogma
Architecture · 8 minMost platforms start as a monolith for good reasons. When splitting it up is worth the pain.
Building Hangtime: basketball meets software
Mobile · 10 minThe business side and the technical side of building a sports community app as a side project.
Beyond Stripe: when to build your own payments
Payments · 12 minStripe covers most cases. The handful where it doesn't, and how to roll your own safely.
Medical imaging in the cloud: DICOM, PACS and ML
Healthcare · 14 minThe standards and plumbing behind processing medical images at scale.
Scaling an Aussie e-commerce brand into Asia
E-commerce · 11 minCurrency, localization, logistics and the cultural things you only learn by getting them wrong first.
What people say
“Handy is a rare breed of engineer. He brings deep technical capability across a broad range of verticals, but he also has a sharp eye for design and detail that sets him apart. Having placed over 500 technologists into roles over the past decade, I can confidently say Handy stands out.”
“Handy has a deep understanding of system architecture, scalability and performance. On the DRRD project he kept everyone aligned, proposed solutions, and completed his work promptly and at high quality. An excellent full-stack engineer.”
“Strong depth in algorithms and CS fundamentals. His thoughtful approach to turning complex research ideas into practical software made him an invaluable bridge between the research and engineering teams.”
“A talented and resourceful engineer with a real passion for clean, scalable code. Handy consistently delivers beyond expectations and brings a collaborative, solutions-driven mindset to every project.”
“Highly capable across both greenfield and brownfield work, and well-versed in the architecture behind it. His input in grooming sessions often turned into the most thoughtful, user-friendly features.”
“Handy has all the traits you want in a teammate: attentive to detail, a fast learner, and genuine enthusiasm for both learning and sharing knowledge. Great in close teams where code review really matters.”
Get in touch
Looking for a collaborator, a contractor, or just want to talk shop? Drop me a line — I read everything.