Thomas Davis
Full Stack Developer & AI Engineer
Full stack developer with 15+ years building products from the ground up at startups and open source. Recently focused on generative AI — building LLM-powered applications with Vercel AI SDK, designing MCP tool ecosystems, and creating AI agent infrastructure. Product-minded engineer who ships fast and prioritizes user feedback.
Education
Software Engineering (incomplete)
Feb 12, 2008Dec 12, 2009BachelorsThe University of QueenslandEmployment
Product Engineer (AI Focus)
May 5, 2020Misc CompaniesMelbourneWorking at early-stage startups building generative AI products. Building full stack applications with Vercel AI SDK, designing LLM pipelines with structured outputs, implementing vector search and RAG systems, and creating AI agent tooling including MCP servers and Claude Code skills. Managing cloud infrastructure on GCP with Kubernetes for production workloads.
- Vercel AI SDK / OpenAI / Anthropic
- Structured outputs, embeddings, vector search
- MCP servers and AI agent infrastructure
- GCP / Kubernetes / Cloud Infrastructure
- React / Next.js / TypeScript
- Node.js / PostgreSQL / Supabase
Senior Javascript Developer
May 5, 2020May 5, 2021TokenizedMelbourneTokenized is a Bitcoin wallet for issuing, managing and trading digital tokens. I built out the front end which was packaged as an electron app. It was a difficult frontend to build because we store the users keys locally and used them to sign transactions and contracts.
- React
- Redux
- SCSS
- Product
Senior Javascript Developer
Mar 1, 2018Jan 1, 2020BlockbidMelbourneBlockbid is an Australian crypto currency exchange. I started off on the frontend but eventually became lead tech and worked on every moving piece of the exchange. I really enjoyed working with liquidity providers and connecting their platforms to help us achieve liquid markets.
- React, Apollo, Styled Components
- Node.js / Rails
- Docker / Heroku / GCP
- Used Figma for design and UX work
- Optimizing markets with tens of millions of rows using SQL.
Developer
Jan 1, 2016Jan 1, 2018ListiumBuilt a very large and complex React / Redux application. It works on all platforms and has IOS/Android builds due to it being a PWA. (wrapped it in React Native though only implementing a WebView)
- Worked with Postgres, Redis and Dynamodb for storage.
- Hosted on a mixture of Heroku Apps and EC2 servers.
- Caching by Fastly and Cloudflare
- Hybrid app supported on all platforms
Developer
Apr 1, 2014Jan 1, 2016Electronic Frontier FoundationHired to take EFF's campaigning to the next level by building an action centre in Ruby on Rails. The action centre is built around some large open source tools that lower the barrier to entry when contacting congress.
- Developed new tools for contacting congress
- Brainstormed campaign ideas to raise maximum awareness about issues
- Lots of social networking integration
CTO
Mar 8, 2013Jan 9, 2015EarbitsStarted off as a front end developer but took on the role of CTO in early 2013. The application frontend is built with Javascript and organized as a single page application that talks to a collection of Rails web servers which are connected to MongoDB.
- Managed a small team of developers and designers
- Built the entire frontend application with Backbone.js
- Transferred all of the infrastructure from Heroku to AWS
Founder
Apr 1, 2014JSON ResumeJSON Resume is a community driven open source initiative to create a JSON based standard for resumes. There is no reason why there can't be a common standard for writing a resume that can be extended with an ecosystem of open source tools.
- This resume is built with JSON Resume
- Over 5000 stars on Github
- Community developed themes
- Tens of thousands of users
Developer
Jun 1, 2013Jan 1, 2016Taskforce.isWorked on many politically charged campaigns against mass surveillance. Not only technically challenging work but also a lot of networking and getting my hands dirty with politics. Our biggest project was "TheDayWeFightBack"..
- Generated 37,000,000 banner views
- 100, 000 phone calls to congress
- 500, 000 emails
- 250, 000 signatures
Co-Founder
Jan 1, 2013Drone HireAn international directory of civilian drone / UAV operators for hire. Services include aerial photography, aerial video, mapping, surveying, precision agriculture, real estate photography, remote inspections and infrared imaging. Our plan is to be the place to go when looking for UAV/Drone services. The website is built in Backbone.js and API is built with Node.js and Postgres.
- The site and blog combined have managed to receive over 200,000 visitors in 2014.
Founder
Jan 1, 2011Jan 1, 2014BackboneTutorials.comI write tutorials and blog post regarding the popular Javascript framework Backbone.js. The tutorials cover a range of topics regarding front end development aimed at beginners, experts and anyone in between.
- Over two million unique visitors a year
- 25,000+ ebook downloads
- 300,000+ Youtube views
Front-end Developer
Jan 1, 2011Jun 1, 2012EphoxEphox is a worldwide company who is heavily involved with the development of TinyMce and enterprise editors. My primary role included building front-end widgets and applications. Worked on a major product using Backbone.js as a base. Heavily involved in UI/UX design and wire-framing. Also spend a lot of time designing API specifications and documentation.
Volunteering
Contributor
Jan 1, 2016Open Source ProjectContributing to open source projects to improve software quality.
- Fixed critical bugs and added new features.
- Mentored new contributors.
References
Joey Flores, Co-founder and CEO of Earbits, Inc.
Thomas was hired as a lead developer and, upon the leaving of our co-founder took over as CTO of Earbits. Thomas is, hands down, one of those A Players you hear of companies dying to hire. He is incredibly smart, not just at code but about everything from classical music to Chinese language and culture. Thomas is great to work with and, as a well established contributor to open source projects and several successful ventures, commands the respect of engineers at all levels. I would suggest doing anything you can to have him on your team.
Yotam Rosenbaum, SVP of Operations, Earbits, Inc.
I've had the great pleasure of working with Thomas for the past three years at Earbits, and on a few side projects. Two years ago our CTO left on a moment's notice, Thomas saved our company by quickly stepping up to fill this role. He has been with our company through thick and thin and made serious personal sacrifices in order to help the company during tough times. He is a phenomenal hacker and a true team player. Highly recommended!
Ryan Kirkman, Senior Software Engineer at Nerdwallet
Thomas is an extremely talented engineer with a very broad range of skills and experience. From being a thought leader in the front-end community via backbonetutorials.com and cdnjs.com, to designing and implementing the API for cdnjs.com, working with Thomas has been fantastic learning experience. Thomas is truly a full stack develop, and his work output is incredible. If there is any opportunity to work with Thomas, I take it. He is the definition of an A player.
Greg Davis
On Thomas Davis... Hire this guy. Do not be fooled. Incredibly capable and fast. Plays well with others. Unbelievable at front-end work end programming but that is just the start. Visionary. Hire him before I do.
Contact
URL
Phone
Phone0411021021
Location
Profiles
Awards
Defender of the Internet
Oct 2, 2014Fight For The FutureFor my work against mass surveillance and building out civic tools for digital democracy.
Projects
JSON Resume
Apr 1, 2014Community-driven open source standard for resumes in JSON format. Recently added AI-powered job matching using vector embeddings, GPT-powered job parsing, and a Claude Code skill for interactive job hunting.
- 5000+ GitHub stars, tens of thousands of users
- AI job matching with vector embeddings and semantic search
- Built with Next.js, Supabase, Vercel AI SDK
- Community developed themes ecosystem
Cdnjs
Jan 8, 2011Following Google's CDN for jQuery, we decided to start a CDN for the less popular Javascript frameworks. The CDN is community moderated and open source on GitHub. We secured a partnership with Cloudflare who now supports the infrastructure.
- Millions of sites use the CDN in production
- Larger market share than Yahoo's, Microsoft's and Google's javascript content distribution networks
- We serve hundreds of billions request a month
- Contains over 3000 popular Javascript libraries
Omega
Jun 1, 2025github.com/thomasdavis/omegaSelf-evolving AI Discord bot with 80+ specialized tools, multi-database architecture, and autonomous development capabilities. Built with Vercel AI SDK, Discord.js, and Next.js.
- 80+ AI tools including code execution in 42+ languages
- Self-evolution capability — analyzes behavior and proposes improvements via GitHub issues
- Dual database architecture (PostgreSQL + MongoDB)
- AI-powered decision making for natural conversation participation
Alpha
Sep 1, 2025github.com/thomasdavis/alpha2From-scratch GPT training and inference system built in TypeScript with a hand-written C Vulkan addon for GPU compute. No PyTorch or TensorFlow — custom tensor backend, autograd, tokenizers, training loop, and inference engine.
- Custom tensor backend with tape-based reverse-mode autodiff
- Hand-written Vulkan GPU backend with TS-generated SPIR-V kernels
- Full training pipeline: BPE tokenizers, checkpointing, eval, sampling
- OpenAI-compatible chat API, CLI, web dashboard, and TUI
TPMJS
Jun 1, 2025tpmjs.comThe Tool Package Manager for AI Agents. An open-source registry and execution platform that automatically discovers, validates, and runs npm packages as AI agent tools via MCP, SDK, or CLI.
- Auto-discovers npm packages with tpmjs keyword
- Sandboxed tool execution via Deno runtime
- MCP aggregator for connecting tool collections to Claude, Cursor, etc.
- Agent platform for building, sharing, and forking AI agents
Blocks
Nov 1, 2025github.com/thomasdavis/blocksAI coding validator with semantic guardrails. A development-time validator that lets AI agents write code freely while maintaining consistency through domain semantics and multi-layer validation.
- Domain specification via blocks.yml for entities, signals, measures, and rules
- Multi-layer validation: Schema, Shape, and AI-powered Domain checks
- Semantic feedback loop for AI coding tools
- Drift detection between code and specification
MobTranslate
Dec 7, 2024Feb 27, 2025github.com/yourusername/mobtranslate.comOpen-source Indigenous language dictionary platform supporting advanced search, real-time AI translation, and server-side rendering. Built with Next.js and Turborepo.
- Implemented multilingual dictionary with advanced search and pagination.
- Added real-time translation API using AI techniques.
- Optimized performance with server-side rendering (Next.js).
- Structured codebase as a monorepo using Turborepo.
Skills
AI & LLMs
Advanced- Vercel AI SDK
- OpenAI API
- Anthropic API
- Google Gemini
- Structured Outputs
- Embeddings / Vector Search
- RAG Pipelines
- AI Agents
- Model Context Protocol (MCP)
- Prompt Engineering
- LLM Training (from scratch)
- Autograd / Tensor Operations
Frontend
Senior- React
- Next.js
- TypeScript
- JavaScript
- HTML / JSX
- Tailwind CSS
- Styled Components
- Redux
- Apollo / GraphQL
- Electron
- Three.js
- Backbone.js
Backend
Senior- Node.js
- Go
- Python
- Ruby on Rails
- PostgreSQL
- MongoDB
- Redis
- Supabase
- REST APIs
- WebSockets
- Deno
Cloud & DevOps
Senior- Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
- Kubernetes
- AWS
- Docker
- Vercel
- Railway
- Heroku
- GitHub Actions
- CI/CD Pipelines
- Serverless
- Cloudflare
Architecture & Tooling
Senior- Monorepos (Turborepo)
- System Design
- API Design
- Microservices
- Real-time Systems (Pusher / Yjs)
- CLI Tools
- npm Package Publishing
- Open Source Maintenance
Low-Level & GPU
Intermediate- C
- Vulkan
- SPIR-V Shader Generation
- GPU Compute
- Mixed Precision (FP16)
Interests
Gardening
- Lazy Gardening
Music
- Guitar
- Singing
- Dancing
Books
- Reading
- Writing
- History
Open Source
- All of it