Avatar of Shea Dawson

Shea Dawson

Senior Full Stack Developer

Technology Alchemist crafting with Laravel
In support of humanity's most beautiful,
Inspired and life affirming pursuits.

About

I combine 15 years experience in a range of web frameworks with lateral, systems and first principles thinking. With a strong desire to make a meaningful contribution in the world, I’m in my happy place synthesizing awesome software that makes a real difference.

I get a kick out of unveiling the simplest, most elegant solutions to complex problems, and take both an intuitive and analytical approach to selecting the optimal tools and technologies to bring them to life.

In recent years, Laravel has been my framework of choice for just about all projects. I'm always looking for the best opportunities to share my skills and enthusiasm for building with Laravel, while learning and developing myself and my team towards excellence as both exceptional developers and great human beings.

Outside of work, I enjoy family adventures in nature with my much loved partner and 2 year old daughter, climbing things, cooking things, composting things, religiously cycling everywhere, and contemplating the singularity (and the rest of life's age old questions).

Experience

  1. 2022 — present

    Senior Software Engineer - UpShift

    Led the design, development and delivery of solutions for clients in the health, science and environment space. Created and facilitated mentoring and professional development programs for junior developers. Established processes and standards for improved productivity, quality and enjoyment of work within the dev team.

    • Laravel
    • Nova
    • FilamentPHP
    • Forge/Envoyer
    • Typescript
    • NodeJS
    • VueJS
    • LiveWire
    • AlpineJS
    • RxDB
    • MySQL
    • Python
    • SilverStripe
    • Tailwind CSS
    • Redis
    • Docker
    • Sentry
  2. 2019 — present

    Co-director, Software Engineer - Community Compost

    Designed and developed software and hardware solutions for two automated, internet connected, in-vessel hot composting machines.

    Watch the documentary

    • Linux PLC
    • NodeJS
    • ModBus
    • MongoDB Realm
    • Wireless Sensors
    • Teltonika RMS
    • OTA Updates
    • VueJS
    • Tailwind CSS
    • Sentry
  3. 2014 — 2022

    Freelance Web Designer + Developer - LiveSource

    Supported designers & agencies as a contract SilverStripe developer, often jumping in to help development teams at times of overflow. Worked directly with small-medium size businesses in Australia and New Zealand, providing end-to-end website design, development, hosting, maintenance and support.

    • SilverStripe
    • VueJS
    • SCSS
    • MySQL
    • PHP
  4. 2011 — 2014

    Web Developer - SilverStripe Australia (now Symbiote)

    Made significant contributions to the SilverStripe ecosystem, authoring around 20 popular open source modules. Made valuable contributions to SilverStripe core and community maintained modules. Supported the development of many websites and applications for local Government and public services.

    • SilverStripe
    • jQuery
    • SCSS
    • MySQL
    • PHP
  5. 2009 — 2011

    Freelance Web Designer + Developer - LiveSource

    After graduating with my Diploma of Web Development, I made use of the network I'd built up through my music project and dove head first into full time freelancing. This was a period of rapid, self directed learning and experimentation, through many web projects for NZ and international electronic music artists, labels and festivals... and petfood websites, mortgage calculators and other every day things.

    • SilverStripe
    • WordPress
    • Joomla
    • jQuery
    • CSS
    • MySQL
    • PHP
  6. 2007 - 2008

    Diploma of Web Development - Natcoll Design Institute (now Yoobee)

    Learned web development fundamentals though building websites and apps from scratch, without any frameworks. During the course I was able to build a music platform for prominent and upcoming New Zealand electronic music artists to share and promote their tunes and events. The platform hosted the profiles and releases of over 40 artists, before being steamrolled by newer, bigger services like SoundCloud and BandCamp.

    • PHP
    • MySQL
    • HTML
    • Javascript
    • CSS

Recent Projects

  1. 2023

    Marine Invasive Species Registry
    Made with at UpShift

    Web app that screens eDNA samples for the presence of non-indigenous species (NiS). Samples with positive matches for NiS are then be published to the registry, where detection data is publicly available to explore via interactive maps, creating awareness and informing management decisions.

    • Laravel
    • Nova
    • Jetstream
    • Horizon
    • Python
    • Google Maps APIs
    • Auth0
    • Azure Web Service
    • Pest PHP
    • MySQL
    • InertiaJS
    • VueJS
    • Tailwind CSS
  2. 2023

    Carbon Credit Inventory Management System
    Made with at UpShift

    Back office system for a carbon credit retailer to manage and track inventory of carbon credits through the various stages of their lifecycle. The app integrates seamlessly with Xero and other platforms to sync sales data and produce detailed reporting.

    • Laravel
    • Nova
    • Horizon
    • Forge
    • Xero APIs
    • Pest PHP
    • MySQL
    • VueJS
    • Tailwind CSS
  3. 2022

    Freight Emissions Calculator
    Made with at UpShift

    Web app for a carbon analysis company to calculate total CO2 emissions from land and air freight. The app takes a csv input of tens of thousands of domestic and international freight trips origin, destination and payload weight from a business' logistics activity. It uses a combination of Google Maps APIs and Geospatial Indexing to discover most likely routes and distances via road and air freight. This enables businesses to accurately offset emissions from all import, export and delivery operations.

    • NodeJS
    • Redis
    • Google Maps APIs
    • VueJS
    • Jest
    • Tailwind CSS
  4. 2022

    bEartha IIoT Composting Machine
    Made with at Community Compost

    Designed and developed software and hardware solutions for two automated, internet connected, in-vessel hot composting machines.
    The system enables automated turning of up to 8 tonnes of organic material at optimal points in the composting process, in response to temperature sensor data. The companion app also enables remote configuration and operation of the machine, as well as real-time visualisation of collected sensor data and activity logs.

    Watch the documentary

    • Linux PLC
    • NodeJS
    • ModBus
    • MongoDB Realm
    • Wireless Sensors
    • Teltonika RMS
    • OTA Updates
    • VueJS
    • Tailwind CSS
    • Sentry