Simon Quick
Sydney, AU
siquick@gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonquick/

Lead Software Engineer with extensive technical expertise across multiple domains including Generative AI applications, and web and mobile platforms. Currently leading AI-driven solutions development at Pollen Digital, focusing on healthcare apps, procurement platforms, and enterprise search. Previously held technical leadership positions serving major clients including Apple, Expedia, Google, and Vodafone. Demonstrated entrepreneurial success as founder of Sound Shelter, a vinyl marketplace with 30+ partner stores and 100,000 annual visitors. Technical expertise spans from front-end development with React/Next.js to AI systems incorporating RAG, vector databases, and prompt engineering with frontier LLMs. Experience across startups, digital product studios, and global enterprises with a proven track record of delivering high-value projects.

Education

Northumbria University
January 2004
 — 
January 2008
BSc (Hons) in Internet Computing

    Experience

    Lead Software Engineer
    March 2023
     — 
    Present
    Pollen Digital

    Leading AI-driven solutions development focusing on healthcare apps, procurement platforms, and enterprise search.

    • Architected and built AI-driven health care companion app for people with arthritis, winning a Good Design Award
    • Developed data-driven procurement platform revolutionizing the sustainable building materials industry
    • Created personalized AI/Hybrid Search solution for enterprise using RAG and vector databases
    • Led technical strategy and delivery of AI offerings across multiple high-value projects
    • Established engineering excellence initiatives including bi-weekly skill-up sessions and improved documentation
    Senior Software Engineer
    January 2022
     — 
    March 2023
    Pollen Digital

    Full-stack senior engineer in small, highly collaborative product teams.

    • Managed technical architecture of SaaS platform connecting business leaders with experts
    • Developed new e-learning and events platform for agriculture focus group
    • Reduced infrastructure costs by 30% through migration to modern providers
    • Improved developer experience with new CI/CD pipelines
    Founder / Engineer
    April 2013
     — 
    Present
    Sound Shelter

    Designed, built, and ran a platform connecting vinyl record buyers with record shops.

    • Built platform connecting vinyl record buyers with 30+ partner record shops
    • Scaled to 100,000 unique visitors per year
    • Full ownership of UI/UX design and marketing automation
    • Built and launched iOS app
    Senior Software Engineer
    January 2020
     — 
    December 2021
    Endeavour College of Natural Health

    Engineer for the marketing team focusing on building content and event platforms.

    • Built content and event platforms beating lead targets by 17%
    • Migrated events platform to React + Django Rest Framework
    • Managed build of student onboarding platform used by hundreds each term
    • Built clinic booking front-end processing ~40 payments per day
    Senior Software Engineer
    August 2018
     — 
    August 2019
    YouCheck

    Founding engineer at an early stage startup focused on improving the online information environment.

    • Founding engineer at startup awarded Google DNI funding
    • Led team building React/Node platform connecting journalists with experts
    • Developed backend infrastructure for ML-based misinformation detection
    • Managed DevOps and gave code reviews for teammates
    Integration Engineer
    December 2016
     — 
    April 2018
    Partnerize

    Technical lead for APAC working on integrating clients into partner marketing infrastructure.

    • Technical lead for APAC working on integrating clients into partner marketing infrastructure
    • Created custom integrations with 3rd party platforms and APIs to extract and transform data
    • Worked as pre-sales and post-sales consultant in teams that won several million dollars worth of new business
    • Supported major clients including Apple, Expedia, Tripadvisor, Vodafone, Nike, Google and Emirates
    Sales Engineer
    June 2012
     — 
    August 2016
    Expedia Group

    First technical hire for HomeAway.com in APAC, providing technical solutions to help partners grow their holiday rental business.

    • First technical hire for HomeAway.com in APAC
    • Developed custom feed parsing infrastructure powering ~20,000 property listings
    • Worked in global team to migrate listings to a standardized platform
    • Provided pre-sales and post-sales consulting for the APAC sales business
    • Delivered technical solutions helping partners grow their holiday rental business

    Projects

    Clara AI Companion
    January 2023
     — 
    January 2024

    An AI-driven companion app for people with arthritis, trained on Arthritis NSW's vast catalogue of content to answer important questions for Australians living with inflammatory arthritis.

    • Won Good Design Award in October 2024
    • Built using AI and RAG technologies
    • Powered by frontier LLMs

    Certificates

    Mastering LLMs For Developers & Data Scientists
    June 2024
    Maven

    Publications

    Awards

    Good Design Award
    October 2024
    Good Design Australia

    For Clara AI Companion, an innovative platform developed for Arthritis NSW

    Languages

    English:
    Native

    Skills

    Frontend Development:
    JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Next.js, React Native, Expo, Tailwind
    Backend Development:
    Node.js, Express, Prisma, GraphQL, Django, FastAPI, Postgres, Python, SQL
    AI & Machine Learning:
    RAG, Semantic search, Vector databases, Prompt engineering, OpenAI, Anthropic, LLamaIndex
    DevOps & Infrastructure:
    Docker, AWS, Google Cloud, Vercel, CI/CD, Git
    Testing & Analytics:
    Playwright, Jest, RTL, Vitest, GA4, Mixpanel