Mind games/havkerccs/json Microsoft -satellite

[clipperchipperkid]

start_date: 1997-01
end_date: 2000-12
highlights:
- Information Systems
- Statistics
experience:
- company: Mechanical Orchard
position: Staff Software Engineer - AI Context Engineering Lead
start_date: 2023-09
highlights:
- Pioneered AI agent orchestration for Kubernetes/Terraform automation - creating
environments where AI agents collaborate and self-correct
- Continued Decision Copilot development through collaborative IP sharing agreement
- Built and maintained cloud infrastructure on GCP and AWS for Imogen modernization
platform
- Applied behavior-driven transformation to legacy system modernization
location: San Francisco, CA
- company: Make Time Together Ltd
position: Co-founder
start_date: 2023-08
highlights:
- Built Decision Copilot - open-source tool for structured team decision-making
(started 2023-08)
- Developed full-stack applications using NextJS, React, and TypeScript for
decision-making tools
- Applied platform engineering principles to financial systems architecture
and data reconciliation
- Established IP sharing agreement with Mechanical Orchard enabling collaborative
development while retaining ownership
location: Dublin, Ireland
- company: Shopify Ltd
position: Senior Staff Reliability Engineer
start_date: 2022-05
highlights:
- Maintained platform reliability during $3.5M/minute peak traffic (BFCM) through
data-driven monitoring
- Pioneered data reliability engineering practices for 100PB data lake infrastructure
- Applied long-term reliability thinking to commerce platform serving millions
of merchants
end_date: 2023-07
- company: VMware Ltd
position: Staff 2 Software Engineer (Data)
start_date: 2020-05
highlights:
- Built and maintained dagster.io data pipelines for cross-portfolio analytics
- Established telemetry gathering and data curation practices for R&D insights
- Created data-driven feedback loops for business unit strategic decisions
end_date: 2022-04
- company: Pivotal Software Ltd
position: Director of Engineering/SRE
start_date: 2015-12
highlights:
- Orchestrated balanced leadership team driving shared outcomes across ~80 R&D
teams globally
- Built SRE team from scratch to operate Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes platforms
- Established reliability practices for pivotaltracker.com (1M active users)
and UK charity donation platforms (£1B+ donations)
- Created data-driven understanding of enterprise customer upgrade challenges
- Collaborated with Google SRE engineers on SLI/SLO design and error budget
implementation
end_date: 2020-04
- company: StayUp.io Ltd
position: Co-founder
start_date: 2015-03
highlights:
- Created open-source ELK distribution handling 2TB daily log ingest for Cloud
Foundry ecosystem
- Built product from concept to acquisition in 7 months
end_date: 2015-12
- company: City Index Ltd
position: R&D Team Leader
start_date: 2008-12
highlights:
- Led LogSearch open source project for Cloud Foundry ecosystem log aggregation
- Established TDD & Agile practices across development teams
- Led organizational transition to open-source software adoption
- Pioneered migration to public cloud infrastructure
end_date: 2015-03
location: London, UK
- company: BBC Worldwide
position: Agile Developer
start_date: 2008-05
highlights:
- Learned foundational XP, TDD, and pair programming practices
- Contributed to Kangaroo digital media platform development
end_date: 2008-10
location: London, UK
- company: Lucid Communications Ltd
position: Senior Developer
start_date: 2003-08
highlights: []
end_date: 2007-04
location: London, UK
- company: Vardus Internet Solutions
position: Developer
start_date: 2001-01
highlights: []
end_date: 2002-08
location: Cape Town, SA
publications:
- title: 'From Values to Velocity: Building Momentum Through Aligned Systems'
authors:
- David Laing
date: 2024-02
journal: Unpublished Thoughts - Exploration of how shared values create alignment
frameworks that enable sustainable team momentum - with practical examples
from engineering leadership
- title: Staying up-to-date with Kubernetes
authors:
- David Laing
journal: Web Publication - Explorable model for understanding enterprise software
upgrade challenges and long-term maintenance practices
- title: SRE & the Vulnerability Budget
authors:
- David Laing
date: 2019-03
journal: SRECon AMER - Using Error Budget model to balance security patching
with feature development - applying structured decision-making to operational
priorities
projects:
- name: Decision Copilot Development
date: '2023'
highlights:
- Open-source tool for structured team decision-making, addressing the gap between
individual expertise and collective decision quality. Developed under Make
Time Together Ltd with collaborative IP sharing enabling continued development
at Mechanical Orchard.
- Built framework for transparent, repeatable decision processes
- Created learning loops for decision quality improvement
- Established sustainable development model through strategic IP sharing agreement
- Growing community around structured decision-making practices
technologies:
- label: Context Engineering & Orchestration
details: AI Agent Orchestration, Team Environment Design, Cross-functional Collaboration,
Decision Framework Design
- label: Financial Systems & Platform Engineering
details: Financial Data Reconciliation, Small Business Finance Applications,
Platform Engineering for Finance, Investment Company Operations
- label: Modern Web Ecosystem
details: TypeScript, NextJS, Firebase, TurboRepo, Full-stack Architecture Patterns
- label: Cloud Infrastructure & Platform Engineering
details: GCP Networking, Kubernetes, Terraform, Golang, Bash, Platform Architecture
Patterns
- label: Data Engineering & Analytics
details: BigQuery, Python