Andrew McDowell
Mail
About me
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Engineering Experience
Approx 32,000 hours
Hobbies and interests
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Social media
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Technologies
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Achievements
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SEP 2026: Claude Certified Architect
Foundations Certification
Claude Certified Architect Foundations certification badge
SEP 2025: Google Cloud Certified
Generative AI Leader Certification
Google Cloud Generative AI Leader Certification badge
MAR 2024: Completed NASA ARSET training
Introduction to Lightning Observations and Applications
ARSET Introduction to Lightning Observations and Applications certificate
NOV 2023: Completed NASA ARSET training
Spectral Indices for Land and Aquatic Applications
ARSET Spectral Indicies certificate
OCT 2022: Completed NASA ARSET training
Accessing and Analyzing Air Quality Data from Geostationary Satellites
ARSET Accessing and Analyzing Air Quality Data from Geostationary Satellites certificate
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January 2021 - Present
...
Senior Geospatial & Frontend Technical LeadKablamo
Kablamo logo
✨Upgrade January 2023✨
Firestory Technical Director
✨Upgrade March 2022✨
Tech Lead -> Senior Tech Lead
Duties:
  • Host the fortnightly frontend catchup where we discuss emerging frontend technology and trends and showcase frontend work our team has achieved.
  • Mentor frontend developers to reach their full potential
  • Consult on the geospatial projects
  • Rapid prototypes for client tenders
  • Engineering team design
  • Project scope validation and estimation
  • C4 Model architecture design
  • Infrastructure design
  • Build partnerships with complimentary businesses
  • Lead teams during planning, discovery and implementation phases of client engagements
  • Get developers excited about 3D visualisations and geospatial applications
  • Build out and manage our geospatial knowledge base
  • Interview candidates for our geospatial and frontend teams
  • Work with clients during engagements to make sure we're delivering on their needs
  • Champion lean agile practices
  • Help the team integrate AI best practices into our software development process
Experience:
  • Led the technical integration of Firestory into ESRI's ArcGIS platform as part of ESRI Partnership
  • Worked with the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist to develop software for Forestry Corp to model Heavy Plant dry firefighting impact on bushfires through the Natural Hazards Technology Program
    • Typescript
    • NextJS
    • Drizzle
    • tRPC
    • NodeJS
    • AWS Step Functions
    • Lambda
    • SQS
    • Event Bridge
  • Led the team to deliver a predictive capability for FRNSW to help them forward plan for periods with increased incident risk.
    • Typescript
    • NextJS
    • Drizzle
    • tRPC
    • ShadCN UI
    • AWS Lambda
    • SQS
    • Event Bridge
    • Postgres/PostGIS
  • Architected and led the team delivering capabilities for Firestory
    • Configurable Incident management system integration for fire agencies
    • Automated Remote Fire Detection using Australia-centric ML and thermal satellite data
    • Fire Prediction Capability Expansion for model swapping and comparison
    • Scenario Modelling for hazard reduction exercises with live weather
    • Automated Incident Comms Tool using Generative AI for multi-language bulletins
    • Watch Zone Notifications for area-specific event alerts
    • Event Driven, Serverless, Modular architecture
    • AWS EventBridge, SQS, Step Functions, Lambda, ECS/Fargate
    • NodeJS, Go, Typescript, Python, React, NextJS, DrizzleORM, Postgres/PostGIS
  • Led the team to deliver an Automated Fireground Aviation Safety Assessment tool for NSW RFS which integrated BOM and Airservices Australia data. In the process, I became an SME on Aviation Weather Forecast data.
    • AWS Lambda
    • Golang
    • React
    • Typescript
  • Led the frontend team to deliver a 3D fire prediction tool for NSW RFS (Athena). NSW RFS Athena
    • Typescript
    • Mapbox
    • React
    • Golang
    • Phoenix fire prediction engine
    • AWS
  • Developed software that helps identify and report on cases of child exploitation (ICMEC)
    • NextJS
    • Postgres
  • Built an internal AI Transcription tool for the ABC
    • Typescript
    • React
    • NodeJS
  • Built the notification mechanism for the ABC News App to send news notifications to Apple and Android apps
    • Typescript
    • React
    • NodeJS
    • AWS SNS
    • APNS
    • FMS
    • Lambda
  • Delivered the Triple J Unearthed website upgrade and 2021 Hottest 100 voting website, contributing to the ABC 'Presentation Layer' design system
    • Typescript
    • React
    • GraphQL
  • Exhibited at AFAC 2023, 2024 and the 2024 Office of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer Commercialisation showcase
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2016-December 2020
...
Senior Software Engineer / (Engineering) Head of VisualiserPropeller Aero
Duties:
  • Build and maintain 3D drone mapping visualisation tool leveraging React, Redux and CesiumJS
  • Build and maintain the backend service written in Koa serving both REST and GraphQL endpoints
  • Mentor junior developers on software best practices and run workshops on the technologies and methodologies we use such as React, Redux, Node, Koa, Express, TDD.
  • Scrum master for a small team of developers
  • Write and maintain webpack and CI tooling and configuration to facilitate complex frontend builds
  • Deliver software demos to the company to showcase work delivered
  • Lead hiring interviews for Software Engineers, QA Engineers, Head of Engineering, Product Owners
  • Facilitate regular team retros and feedback sessions
  • Run One-to-Ones with the engineers
  • Champion best practices and standards
  • Visit customers to understand their needs and communicate back to the teams
  • Translate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
  • Build technical roadmaps and documentation to facilitate modernisation of an aging codebase
  • Build feature usage dashboards so we can make informed data-driven decisions
  • Write Infrastructure-as-Code using Terraform to generate the AWS cloud infrastructure to host our applications
  • Architect simple solutions to complex problems with the team of engineers
Skills snapshot:
  • Expert level React
  • Expert level Node
  • Strong mapping skills
  • CesiumJS
    • CesiumJS
    • Resium
    • Leaflet
    • Mapbox
  • Tech/Team Leading
  • Developer Experience
  • Agile ceremony facilitation
  • OKR planning
  • Mentoring
  • Stakeholder management
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2014-2016
...
Senior Software EngineerMi9/Channel 9
Duties:
  • Work as part of a scrum team to create and maintain the whole of Channel 9's network of websites
  • Leading teams to deliver these websites
  • Set the technical direction of the teams to ensure we're moving forward and taking advantage of best practices and new technology
  • Helped deliver the first webpack built website in the network and help transition away from gulp and grunt
  • Worked on the component library for Channel 9 to help share code across different codebases
  • Pushed for React adoption within the company and lead the team building yourmovies.com.au in React
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2013-2014
...
Software EngineerPace International, Sydney office
Duties:
  • Work as part of a small remote team to deliver Foxtel iQ3 UI software written in HTML, CSS and JS
  • Deliver software demos to customer stakeholders
  • Work with other vendors to align on delivery and usage of APIs
  • Work with set top box hardware to diagnose and solve issues
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Add another card
2010-2013
...
Software EngineerAsidua, Belfast
Duties:
  • Work as part of scrum teams on many projects across the business
  • Work onsite with customer teams to deliver software projects
  • Communicate progress with external stakeholders on behalf of the business
Notable projects:
  • Built a testing framework from scratch for set top box hardware in Perl + HTML/CSS/JS
  • Rebuilt the BTVision set top box UI software with a focus on reducing memory footprint in JS
  • Worked on high speed communications ordering tool for well known telecommunications company in Java + Angular JS
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2005-2010
...
Bachelors of Engineering in Computer ScienceQueens University Belfast
Java DemonstratorQueens University Belfast
Database AdministratorCentral Services Agency Northern Ireland
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Andrew McDowell

Senior Geospatial & Frontend Technical Lead · Kablamo

Github · Bluesky · Linkedin · madole.xyz

Profile

Software engineer with approximately 32,000 hours of engineering experience, specialising in geospatial and 3D web applications and the teams that build them.

Experience

Senior Geospatial & Frontend Technical Lead · Kablamo

January 2021 - Present

January 2023: → Firestory Technical Director · March 2022: Tech Lead → Senior Tech Lead

  • Host the fortnightly frontend catchup where we discuss emerging frontend technology and trends and showcase frontend work our team has achieved.
  • Mentor frontend developers to reach their full potential
  • Consult on the geospatial projects
  • Rapid prototypes for client tenders
  • Engineering team design
  • Project scope validation and estimation
  • C4 Model architecture design
  • Infrastructure design
  • Build partnerships with complimentary businesses
  • Lead teams during planning, discovery and implementation phases of client engagements
  • Get developers excited about 3D visualisations and geospatial applications
  • Build out and manage our geospatial knowledge base
  • Interview candidates for our geospatial and frontend teams
  • Work with clients during engagements to make sure we're delivering on their needs
  • Champion lean agile practices
  • Help the team integrate AI best practices into our software development process
Selected work
  • Led the technical integration of Firestory into ESRI's ArcGIS platform as part of ESRI Partnership
  • Worked with the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist to develop software for Forestry Corp to model Heavy Plant dry firefighting impact on bushfires through the (Natural Hazards Technology Program) — Typescript, NextJS, Drizzle, tRPC, NodeJS, AWS Step Functions, Lambda, SQS, Event Bridge
  • Led the team to deliver a predictive capability for FRNSW to help them forward plan for periods with increased incident risk. — Typescript, NextJS, Drizzle, tRPC, ShadCN UI, AWS Lambda, SQS, Event Bridge, Postgres/PostGIS
  • Architected and led the team delivering capabilities for (Firestory) — Configurable Incident management system integration for fire agencies, Automated Remote Fire Detection using Australia-centric ML and thermal satellite data, Fire Prediction Capability Expansion for model swapping and comparison, Scenario Modelling for hazard reduction exercises with live weather, Automated Incident Comms Tool using Generative AI for multi-language bulletins, Watch Zone Notifications for area-specific event alerts, Event Driven, Serverless, Modular architecture, AWS EventBridge, SQS, Step Functions, Lambda, ECS/Fargate, NodeJS, Go, Typescript, Python, React, NextJS, DrizzleORM, Postgres/PostGIS
  • Led the team to deliver an Automated Fireground Aviation Safety Assessment tool for NSW RFS which integrated BOM and Airservices Australia data. In the process, I became an SME on Aviation Weather Forecast data. — AWS Lambda, Golang, React, Typescript
  • Led the frontend team to deliver a 3D fire prediction tool for NSW RFS (Athena). (NSW RFS Athena) — Typescript, Mapbox, React, Golang, Phoenix fire prediction engine, AWS
  • Developed software that helps identify and report on cases of child exploitation (ICMEC) — NextJS, Postgres
  • Built an internal AI Transcription tool for the ABC — Typescript, React, NodeJS
  • Built the notification mechanism for the ABC News App to send news notifications to Apple and Android apps — Typescript, React, NodeJS, AWS SNS, APNS, FMS, Lambda
  • Delivered the Triple J Unearthed website upgrade and 2021 Hottest 100 voting website, contributing to the ABC 'Presentation Layer' design system — Typescript, React, GraphQL
  • Exhibited at AFAC 2023, 2024 and the 2024 Office of the NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer Commercialisation showcase

Senior Software Engineer / (Engineering) Head of Visualiser · Propeller Aero

2016-December 2020
  • Build and maintain 3D drone mapping visualisation tool leveraging React, Redux and CesiumJS
  • Build and maintain the backend service written in Koa serving both REST and GraphQL endpoints
  • Mentor junior developers on software best practices and run workshops on the technologies and methodologies we use such as React, Redux, Node, Koa, Express, TDD.
  • Scrum master for a small team of developers
  • Write and maintain webpack and CI tooling and configuration to facilitate complex frontend builds
  • Deliver software demos to the company to showcase work delivered
  • Lead hiring interviews for Software Engineers, QA Engineers, Head of Engineering, Product Owners
  • Facilitate regular team retros and feedback sessions
  • Run One-to-Ones with the engineers
  • Champion best practices and standards
  • Visit customers to understand their needs and communicate back to the teams
  • Translate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
  • Build technical roadmaps and documentation to facilitate modernisation of an aging codebase
  • Build feature usage dashboards so we can make informed data-driven decisions
  • Write Infrastructure-as-Code using Terraform to generate the AWS cloud infrastructure to host our applications
  • Architect simple solutions to complex problems with the team of engineers
Skills
  • Expert level React
  • Expert level Node
  • Strong mapping skills
  • CesiumJS — CesiumJS, Resium, Leaflet, Mapbox
  • Tech/Team Leading
  • Developer Experience
  • Agile ceremony facilitation
  • OKR planning
  • Mentoring
  • Stakeholder management

Senior Software Engineer · Mi9/Channel 9

2014-2016
  • Work as part of a scrum team to create and maintain the whole of Channel 9's network of websites
  • Leading teams to deliver these websites
  • Set the technical direction of the teams to ensure we're moving forward and taking advantage of best practices and new technology
  • Helped deliver the first webpack built website in the network and help transition away from gulp and grunt
  • Worked on the component library for Channel 9 to help share code across different codebases
  • Pushed for React adoption within the company and lead the team building yourmovies.com.au in React

Software Engineer · Pace International, Sydney office

2013-2014
  • Work as part of a small remote team to deliver Foxtel iQ3 UI software written in HTML, CSS and JS
  • Deliver software demos to customer stakeholders
  • Work with other vendors to align on delivery and usage of APIs
  • Work with set top box hardware to diagnose and solve issues

Software Engineer · Asidua, Belfast

2010-2013
  • Work as part of scrum teams on many projects across the business
  • Work onsite with customer teams to deliver software projects
  • Communicate progress with external stakeholders on behalf of the business
Notable projects
  • Built a testing framework from scratch for set top box hardware in Perl + HTML/CSS/JS
  • Rebuilt the BTVision set top box UI software with a focus on reducing memory footprint in JS
  • Worked on high speed communications ordering tool for well known telecommunications company in Java + Angular JS

Certifications & achievements

  • Claude Certified Architect — Foundations CertificationSEP 2026
  • Google Cloud Certified — Generative AI Leader CertificationSEP 2025
  • Completed NASA ARSET training — Introduction to Lightning Observations and ApplicationsMAR 2024
  • Completed NASA ARSET training — Spectral Indices for Land and Aquatic ApplicationsNOV 2023
  • Completed NASA ARSET training — Accessing and Analyzing Air Quality Data from Geostationary SatellitesOCT 2022

Education

2005-2010
Bachelors of Engineering in Computer Science · Queens University Belfast
Java Demonstrator · Queens University Belfast
Database Administrator · Central Services Agency Northern Ireland

Technologies

GeospatialMapbox, Maplibre, Turf, Leaflet, Cesium JS, Resium, Geopandas, GDAL, QGIS, ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, Geoserver, WFS, WMS, Phoenix Fire Prediction Engine
AIGithub Copilot, Cursor, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock, AWS Sagemaker, AWS Rekognition, AWS Polly, OpenAI Whisper, Ollama, MCP, Agentic AI, Mastra AI
FrontendNext, SvelteKit, React, Mapbox, Maplibre, Turf, NodeJS, Bun, Deno, Leaflet, Jest, Vitest, Webpack, ESBuild, Vite, JS for embedded devices, NPM, Styled Components, Cesium JS, Tailwind CSS, Gatsby
BE ⸳ DevOps ⸳ Data SciAWS, Step Functions, Terraform, Cloudformation, Python, Pandas/Geopandas, NumPy, Scikit-learn, Tensorflow/DanfoJS
Agile ⸳ ProductJira, Confluence, Metabase, Redash, Intercom

Hobbies and interests

Samba drumming · Photography · Blogging · Whiskey tasting · Skateboarding · Cycling · Cooking · Baking bread · Cats