Systems Engineer | AI Integration | Cognitive Accessibility

Adelaide, South Australia

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Engineer with 40 years experience in computing and engineering, including early electrical and electronic engineering background. IT focus since the early 90s. I work out how whole systems fit together — hardware, software, and the people who use them.

Currently building AI-powered systems, with focus on multi-agent coordination, prompt engineering, cognitive support tooling, and distributed deployment. My path to AI started practically — building a RAG-based chatbot for an educational platform — and the aptitude turned out to be there. Prompt engineering is heuristic programming in natural language.

Self-directed learning across entire career, including current AI specialisation. Seeking a permanent, hands-on role building AI-powered products or integrating AI into real systems.

CORE COMPETENCIES

AI & LLM Integration

  • Multi-agent AI coordination across different models
  • Prompt engineering and metaprompt design
  • RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) systems
  • MCP (Model Context Protocol) tooling
  • Local model deployment (Ollama)
  • Cognitive accessibility engineering

Databases & Storage

  • SQL databases (25+ years experience)
  • PostgreSQL (primary, with pgvector for semantic search, PostGIS for spatial data)
  • MySQL
  • SQLite

Languages & Frameworks

  • Python
  • SQL
  • Perl
  • Node.js
  • Go

Infrastructure & Deployment

  • Docker containerisation
  • Distributed systems on heterogeneous hardware
  • Tailscale private networking
  • Bare-metal deployment
  • Infrastructure automation
  • Whisper ASR (voice transcription)
  • IoT protocols (MQTT, HTTP, LoRaWAN)

DESIGN & ACCESSIBILITY PRINCIPLES

  • Accessibility-first design for all user-facing systems
  • Cognitive load optimisation as architectural requirement
  • Trauma-aware system design for vulnerable user populations
  • Building systems that work with human cognition as it actually is
  • FOSS and open source priority

SELECTED PROJECTS & CONTRACTS

Misti — Distributed AI Cognitive Support System (September 2025 - Present)

Multi-agent AI system providing cognitive accessibility for vulnerable users

  • Distributed, multi-agent system coordinating different AI models across machines linked via Tailscale
  • Voice interaction with local model deployment and persistent memory
  • Integration with calendars, email, web search, and printing
  • PostgreSQL-backed knowledge management with pgvector semantic search
  • MCP (Model Context Protocol) tooling for agent coordination and state management
  • Architecture designed for users with AuDHD, one with complex trauma where stress blocks memory encoding — maintains continuity across dissociative gaps
  • In production as real accessibility infrastructure for vulnerable people
  • Runs on a mix of commodity and distributed hardware
  • Some components public on GitHub; personal data kept private by design

Technologies: Python, PostgreSQL, pgvector, Ministral 3B, Ollama, Whisper ASR, Docker, Tailscale, MCP, Flask, Redis, Claude Code, Claude Desktop - Opus (project management)

Culture Atlas — Backend Modernisation & RAG Chatbot (2022 - October 2025)

Backend for an educational platform serving scholarship humanities students

  • Migrated legacy Perl/SQLite backend to Python/PostgreSQL
  • Built “Study Buddy” — a RAG-based chatbot answering questions solely from a corpus of textbooks, syllabi, and teaching guides
  • Deployed on consumer hardware using local Llama 3.1-8b model (cost-effective, private)
  • Extensive prompt engineering for corpus-constrained response synthesis — preventing hallucination and training data leakage
  • This project initiated the move to AI specialisation

Technologies: Python, PostgreSQL, Llama 3.1-8b, Ollama, prompt engineering, RAG architecture

Infrastructure Automation via Claude Code (2025)

Autonomous system administration using LLM-directed tooling

  • Automated Ollama migration from Windows to WSL with zero-touch deployment
  • Executed Opencore Patcher for Mac system upgrades bypassing vendor planned obsolescence restrictions
  • Developed patterns for LLM-directed infrastructure operations
  • Infrastructure-as-conversation approach to system maintenance

Technologies: Claude Code, Ollama, WSL, Windows, Opencore Patcher, macOS, autonomous deployment patterns

IoT/Remote Sensing — OpenSensing Austria / Hartl Consulting (Contract, Remote)

August 2021 - Present (on-call) Remote sensing data storage and ingestion for environmental monitoring and animal tracking

  • Universal payload decoder replacing fragmented manufacturer implementations (public on GitHub)
  • Avalanche warning systems, flood mitigation, livestock tracking in Alpine pastures, lake level monitoring
  • End-to-end work from sensor hardware through data ingestion to database design
  • High-volume sensor data ingestion with PostgreSQL/PostGIS spatial databases
  • Constrained hardware, hostile environments, intermittent connectivity

Technologies: Python, Go, PostgreSQL, PostGIS, InfluxData Telegraf, Docker, MQTT, HTTP, LoRaWAN, bare-metal deployment

Software Developer — Frisk (Contract, Adelaide / Remote)

May 2014 - December 2019 (5 years 8 months) Distributed team development for retrieval and management systems

  • Business intelligence and audit reporting systems
  • System management interfaces and Kerberos integration
  • Full-stack development in Perl and Node.js environment

Technologies: Perl, Node.js, GNU/Linux, Kerberos, business intelligence tooling

PUBLICATIONS

Co-author (with Claude Sonnet), The Joy of Prompts: A Humanities Approach to LLM Interaction (2025)

Collaborative writing demonstrating LLM-human partnership while preserving authorial voice. Documents prompt engineering methodologies and accessibility of LLM tools for non-technical users. Self-published in HTML, ePub, and PDF formats. LLM-assisted publication workflow using Hugo and Cloudflare Pages.

EARLIER CAREER

Early career includes roles in pump engineering, systems administration, ICT management, and membership of the ITT Industries European Network Management Team. Consistent pattern of self-directed learning and systems-level problem solving across diverse technical domains.

AVAILABILITY

Seeking a permanent, hands-on role. Based in regional South Australia, available for hybrid work in Adelaide (up to 4 days/week), and comfortable with remote.

Work Style: Direct communication, clear requirements, focus on functional outcomes. Best suited to teams that value substance over process ceremony and accommodate different cognitive approaches.

I actively want to mentor. People matter.

Contact: [email protected] | GitHub: smiffy-online | Hugging Face: smiffy-online

Last updated: 2026-02-10

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Last updated: 2026-02-10