Alistair Burrowes

info

I am a geek who has been working as a software developer for about 18 years. I am a polyglot programmer with varied experience. I take pride in my work and thoroughly enjoy my profession.

Skills

  • Programming
    Go
    Haskell
    Scala
    Ruby
    Java
    Kotlin
    JavaScript
    C#
  • Software Testing
    TDD
    BDD
    Integration Testing
    Property Based Testing
    Smoke Testing
  • Database
    MySQL
    PostgreSQL
    SQL Server
    ORM
  • Cloud
    AWS
    GCP
    Terraform
  • Continuous Delivery
    Jenkins
    Bamboo
    Buildkite
    Spinnaker
    Monitoring
  • Containers
    Docker
    Kubernetes
  • Web
    HTML
    CSS
    HTTP
    JavaScript Libraries
    Accessibility
    Web Performance
    SEO

employment

Staff Software Engineer, Zendesk

2021-06 — Present | Go Kubernetes AWS Spinnaker Linux

Develop and maintain Kubernetes operators for provisioning and accessing datastores.

  • Became Tech Lead of the 'Galaxy' team June 2022.
  • Led the multi-AWS account S3 operator project. This was the first step in Zendesk moving to multiple AWS accounts in production.
  • Worked on the Redis operator project, building an auditing Redis proxy.
  • Mentored other developers on the team.
  • Championed code quality within the team.

Founder, Deadpendency

2020-02 — 2022-12 | Haskell Docker GCP Terraform Linux

Develop my startup idea into a complete product.

  • Improved my Haskell and functional programming skills.
  • Improved my 'ops' skills, being forced to build all componentry including CI setup, alerting integration etc.
  • Improved my archtiectural ability, solving a complex problem.
  • Grew in product level thinking.
  • Ultimately shutdown as not a viable business.
  • Open sourced!

Lead Developer (Tech Lead), REA Group

2016-05 — 2020-02 | Scala Ruby Docker AWS Linux

Work on REA's core data ingestion, storage and publication related systems.

  • Promoted to Lead Developer in June 2018.
  • Led moving our last systems out of the DC and into AWS.
  • Led the Listings API project to support the 'Ignite' app for agents.
  • Led the Listing Publisher project, a next gen listing publication pipeline.
  • Led the team in the move from Ruby to Scala.
  • Mentored other developers in the team.
  • Heavily involved in the functional programming guild.
  • Heavily involved in the code review and hiring process.
  • Haskell in prod!

Senior Developer, Inlogik

2015-10 — 2016-04 | .NET C# ASP.NET MVC Web React JS Mobile Web-based Apps

Develop the CMP expense management system and ExpenseMe mobile app.

Senior Developer, Carsales

2013-04 — 2015-04 | .NET C# ASP.NET MVC Web Web performance Angular JS

Develop and maintain a number of 'lifestyle' related websites.

  • Worked on the redevelopment of a number of Carsales' websites.
  • Led the team in front end development.
  • Heavily involved in the front end guild.
  • Achieved a large improvement in front end performance.

Senior Developer, Toll Priority

2009-09 — 2012-06 | .NET C# VB.NET ASP.NET MVC ASP.NET WebForms Web jQuery

Develop and maintain internal and external web applications.

  • Led the invoice reconciliation 2.0 project achieving a large efficiency increase.
  • Led the introduction of ASP.NET MVC framework.

English Teacher, Japan

2007-04 — 2009-04

Teach English in Japan to adults and children.

  • Became fluent in Japanese, passing the top level of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.

Developer, Hyro Technologies

2004-04 — 2007-02 | Classic ASP .NET C# ASP.NET WebForms Java Web Accessibility jQuery

Develop and maintain websites for clients.

  • Through my own volition I developed the 'Rolling Tool' for automating deployment to test and production environments.

affiliation

Software Developer, Haskell Docker

2021-04 — Present

Maintain the official Haskell docker images.

Software Developer, Australia Lesbian Medical Association

2013-06 — 2021-04

Develop and maintain Doclist as a volunteer.

education

Sun Certified Java Programmer 5.0, Sun Certification

2005-05

Diploma Of Software Development, Swinburne University

2002-02 — 2003-11