Data & AI Engineering Lead
Architecting Enterprise Data Platforms & Scalable Generative AI Systems
AI & Analytics Lead · Solution Architect · Data Engineer · Generative AI Engineer · Brisbane, Australia.
Two decades of building data & AI.
Rob is a seasoned AI and Data Engineer, Solution Architect, and People Leader with over two decades of experience driving data and AI innovations across various industries, spanning two continents.
His expertise spans data engineering, cloud computing, DevOps, and AI-driven decision systems, enabling organizations to leverage data for strategic advantage. With a deep understanding of AWS and Azure ecosystems, he specializes in architecting scalable data solutions, implementing machine learning models, and optimizing cloud data infrastructures.
As a certified AWS Solutions Architect, Azure Data Engineer, and Microsoft Power Platform Consultant, Rob has led the design and deployment of enterprise-grade data architectures, integrating AI and real-time analytics into business processes.
His leadership extends beyond technology, he is a proven team builder, mentor, and advocate for best practices in data governance, security, and agile development. He has successfully managed cross-functional teams, facilitated solution architecture workshops, and driven innovation in cloud-based data engineering and automation. Rob has played a key role in high-impact AI initiatives, including developing a Generative AI-based Claims Research Assistant presented at AWS Sydney Summit 2024 and AWS Innovate.
With a passion for solving complex data challenges and leading high-performing teams, Rob brings a unique blend of technical excellence and strategic vision, making him an invaluable asset in any AI-driven enterprise. Please get in contact with me, using my LinkedIn profile.
AI, Automation and Data Projects
Note: This represents a select sample of my recent projects and enterprise initiatives. Please reach out directly to discuss additional case studies and technical experience.
Generative Marketing Platform
Enterprise GenAI platform producing campaign creative using Google Imagen and Veo.
Metrics-as-a-Platform — AI for BI
Chat-based natural-language analytics over enterprise relational data, custom-built in React with Anthropic Claude as the LLM.
Customer Incident Management Insights
AI-derived insights on customer incidents and complaints, surfaced through an interactive Power BI dashboard.
Invoice Automation and Data Integration
Streamlined invoice processing and data workflows by building an end-to-end Creditor Invoice automation integration using n8n
Microsoft Fabric Migration and Data Platform
Migrated a insurance partner's on-premise data platform to Microsoft Fabric, enabling enterprise-wide analytics and reporting.
IBM Cognos and Tableau Lineage and Data Quality Solution
Architected and deployed an end-to-end data lineage and quality solution across IBM Cognos and Tableau enterprise environments.
AssureAI — GenAI Governance Agent
GenAI agent that assesses AI use cases against TLC's AI and Automation Governance Framework and classifies them into risk categories.
Roadside Assistance Knowledge Base Agent
Copilot Studio knowledge-base agent for RACQ Roadside Assistance, surfacing answers from SharePoint resources directly inside Microsoft Teams.
Insurance Complaints Knowledge Base Agent
Natural-language Q&A agent over an AWS Redshift complaints dataset, routed through API Gateway and Bedrock from a Copilot Studio front end.
Tableau - Report Email Distribution Solution
Developed a solution that enables departmental staff members to schedule report extracts in CSV and PDF formats using a Power App.
Tableau - Group User Assignment Solution
Developed a solution that enables users to add departmental staff members to a Tableau group using a Power App. Power Automate is integrated with Tableau API endpoints to automate the backend process.
Tableau - Group Performance Metrics Solution
Developed a solution that enables users to capture KPI metrics using a Power App. The metrics are combined with data stored in AWS Redshift and visualized within a Tableau dashboard.
Generative AI Claims Research Assistant
GenAI assistant that surfaces relevant claims context and policy interpretations for assessors. Showcased at AWS Sydney Summit 2024 and AWS Innovate.
Tow-truck footage review agent
Delivered a GenAI‑powered solution that analyses tow‑truck footage to verify correct vehicle loading, improving process quality and supporting operator training.
Call Transcript Analysis Agent
Architected and deployed a GenAI-Powered solution, which analyses call transcripts against quality criteria to provide real-time feedback and coaching to contact centre agents, improving customer interactions and service quality.
Survey Comment Theme Analyser
AWS Bedrock batch-inference pipeline that extracts themes from member survey comments and feeds them into Tableau for trend reporting.
Lineage knowledge assistant
Developed a lineage knowledge assistant that provides data engineers with information about data lineage, including source systems, transformations, and dependencies. The assistant uses natural language processing to understand user queries and provide relevant information from the data catalog.
Nudge Messaging Solution
Developed a nudge messaging solution for RACQ Insurance. The solution delivers nudge messages to clients during both the acquisition quote journey and the renewal journeys. It leverages an unsupervised machine learning model to determine which nudge messages to present to specific target audiences.
AWS SageMaker Studio - IaC deployment
Developed an AWS SageMaker Studio Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solution, used to deploy SageMaker domains, user profiles, roles, permissions, and lifecycle scripts across various AWS environments.
Developed a central datawarehouse solution for a global retailer, replicating transactional data into a consolidated AWS RDS SQL Server instance to enable enterprise-wide group reporting.
Developed a central datawarehouse solution for a global retailer, replicating transactional data into a consolidated AWS RDS SQL Server instance to enable enterprise-wide group reporting
Facilities Dashboard
Power BI Facilities dashboard for a private college, integrating data from SharePoint Online and Freshdesk.
SQL Server to AWS RDS SQL Server
Automated the replication process to ensure data is consistently refreshed in the cloud warehouse. Designed and delivered a central data‑warehouse solution for a global retailer, replicating transactional data into a consolidated AWS RDS SQL Server instance to enable enterprise‑wide group reporting.
Click and Collect Kiosk Solution
Developed a Kiosk Click-and-Collect solution for a large retailer in South Africa. The solution enables customers to enter their order numbers, which triggers a notification to the back-office team. The back-office team then delivers the customers' purchased goods. The solution was developed using VueJS, along with several back-end API endpoints.
BCX Zone
Developed a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that enabled BCX customers to view monitoring statistics of their hosted platforms, along with detailed asset information.
BCX Commercial Management Solution (CMS)
Developed a commercial management solution that enabled BCX pre-sales architects and commercial staff to estimate costs for solutions, store configuration data, create proposals, and track billing information.
Object detection stock take solution
Developed a mobile application that enabled a retailer to use object detection technology for stock-taking. The solution leveraged shelf and fridge dimensions to estimate the number of items on a shelf or fridge shelf.
Service Management Dashboard
Developed a service management dashboard solution that enabled a managed service provider to share weekly and monthly operational reporting feedback and statistics with their customer base.
Price Spot Check
Developed a Price Spot Check mobile application that enabled a retail analysis company to record competitor pricing and monitor price competitiveness across different retailers.
Select at least one category to see projects.
Roles & impact.
- Generative AI Incident Analytics: Developed and deployed an enterprise Customer Incident Management (CIM) platform using Generative AI to automatically analyze, categorize, and synthesize customer complaints into monthly executive trend summaries.
- Agentic AI-for-BI Platform: Architected a Metrics-as-a-Platform capability enabling natural language analytics over enterprise data warehouses. Built agentic workflows that interpret natural language queries, map optimal datasets, generate precise queries, and present dynamic visualizations via Recharts with built-in team collaboration features.
- Responsible AI & Governance Framework: Built an AI Use Case Risk Assessment tool to evaluate data privacy, bias, and regulatory compliance risks across proposed business initiatives, establishing a structured framework for ethical AI adoption.
- Centralized AI & Automation Hub: Designed and launched an enterprise AI & Automation platform featuring Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). Provided business users with a unified portal to access AI tools while delivering real-time visibility into organization-wide consumption, security, and governance metrics.
- Developer Enablement & Tooling Rollout: Co-led the enterprise deployment and monitoring of Claude Code at TLC. Established a secure, best-practice repository and partnered with the Data Governance team to publish the company-wide AI Toolset guide for safe and effective developer adoption.
- Architected and deployed Generative AI and machine-learning decision engines for claims assessment, risk and product recommendations during web journeys.
- Delivered a GenAI‑powered solution that analyses tow‑truck footage to verify correct vehicle loading, improving process quality and supporting operator training.
- Architected and deployed a GenAI-Powered solution, which analyses call transcripts against quality criteria to provide real-time feedback and coaching to contact centre agents, improving customer interactions and service quality.
- Designed and delivered Generative AI chatbot assistants — knowledge-base and data-driven agents — using Copilot Studio and Power Automate.
- Built and operated AWS SageMaker endpoints with full model training, versioning and deployment pipelines into production.
- Designed batch and real-time data pipelines on AWS (Glue, Step Functions, Kinesis) and integration platforms (Qlik); built bespoke ETL/ELT in Python and C#.
- Implemented enterprise data catalog and lineage via DataHub.
- Automated cloud and ML deployments using CloudFormation, AWS CDK and Terraform via Bitbucket and Azure DevOps pipelines.
- Showcased the GenAI Claims Research Assistant at AWS Sydney Summit 2024 and AWS Innovate.
- Presented the GenAI Claims Research Assistant to the RACQ Senior Leadership Team, demonstrating the solution's capabilities and potential impact on claims processing efficiency and customer experience.
- Designed and delivered cloud migration and data engineering solutions across AWS (LakeFormation, Glue, S3, Redshift), Azure (Synapse, Data Factory) and Databricks.
- Automated cloud deployments using CloudFormation, SAM and Terraform via Bitbucket and GitLab pipelines.
- Built bespoke ETL/ELT solutions in Python and C# on AWS Lambda and Glue.
- Led programming, BI/reporting, server and database administration services.
- Designed and implemented integration interfaces and on-premise to AWS Redshift / SQL Server migrations.
- Led the Data Operations & Optimisation value stream, owning enterprise data governance, security (POPI, PCI/DSS, ISO 27000) and monitoring (New Relic, SolarWinds).
- Designed and led on-premise to cloud database migration programmes across SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, Cosmos DB and MongoDB.
- Built and ran a multi-disciplinary team of DBAs, ETL engineers and reporting developers; mentored multiple direct reports into senior roles.
- Delivered reporting and integration platforms using SSIS, Power BI, AWS QuickSight, SSRS and bespoke API services.
- Held technical ownership of system integration, software development and project management across on-premise and cloud RDBMS (DB2, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MaxDB).
- Drove database performance optimisation and bespoke reporting (SSRS, Power BI).
Validated expertise.
Degrees & qualifications.
Across the stack.
Generative AI & ML
Cloud
Integration & Orchestration
Data platforms
Languages
IaC & DevOps
Leadership
On the stage.
