Engineering Manager · Brisbane, QLD

Daniel Roy Sanders

Building teams that scale. Shipping products that matter.

danielrsanders@gmail.com 0426 504 783 linkedin.com/in/danielrsanders Logan Reserve, QLD 4133 Open to Opportunities
15+
Years at Simpro
5×
Times Promoted
12K+
Customers Served
6
Countries
"
I believe engineering managers exist to remove friction and raise the ceiling for every person on their team.
— Daniel Sanders, Engineering Manager
Key Achievements
×5
🚀

15 Years, One Company

Promoted 5 times at Simpro — from Software Engineer to Engineering Manager on a product now operating in 5+ countries.

3×
🏗️

Team Built from Scratch

Grew Core Engineering Team 3× in under 12 months; led hiring for Principal and Staff Engineer roles across the organisation.

AI
🤖

AI Initiative Leader

Driving LLM integration and GitHub Copilot adoption across a 40–80 person R&D organisation. Projecting 50% velocity increase.

10%
💰

Budget & Vendor Owner

Manages engineering toolchain budget and leads third-party contract negotiation, achieving an average 10% cost saving.

×4
📖

Engineering Playbook

Authored org-wide engineering standards used to onboard every engineer across 4 international locations.

Career Timeline

Simpro Software · Apr 2010 – Present

Sep 2024 – Present

Core Engineering Manager

Simpro Software · Brisbane

  • Scaled team capacity 300% within 12 months via strategic hires
  • Championing AI-first engineering: OpenAI/Claude APIs + GitHub Copilot across 40–80 engineers
  • Revamped technical interview process; established formal career growth framework
  • Holds full budget responsibility; 10% avg cost savings on vendor contracts
  • Driving 5+ years of legacy debt modernisation for 12,000+ customers
  • Evolved Agile practice from Kanban → Scrum → FaST Agile
Leadership AI Strategy Budget FaST Agile
Apr 2018 – Sep 2024 · 6 yrs 6 mos

Software Architect

Simpro Software · Brisbane + Philippines

  • Owned technical vision for flagship product across 6+ countries, ~30 engineers
  • Authored and maintained the Engineering Playbook — source of truth for all R&D teams
  • Championed OWASP Top 10 secure development practices org-wide
  • Flew to Legazpi, Philippines to deliver hands-on technical enablement for offshore team
  • Modernised engineering standards (PSR) across a distributed team
Architecture Standards Security Distributed Teams
Nov 2016 – Apr 2018 · 1 yr 6 mos

Development Team Lead – Projects

Simpro Software · Brisbane

  • Spearheaded end-to-end project delivery and Agile (Scrum/Kanban) adoption
  • Led migration from legacy tools to Jira and Bitbucket, enabling real-time project visibility
  • Established team norms for predictability and delivery quality
Scrum Jira Project Delivery
Mar 2014 – Nov 2016 · 2 yrs 9 mos

Core Development Supervisor

Simpro Software · Brisbane

  • Managed team of 9 developers across 17 products
  • Implemented sprint rituals, ownership models, and dependency management
  • Mentored junior/mid engineers → multiple progressed to senior/lead roles
Mentoring 9 Developers 17 Products
Apr 2010 – Mar 2014 · 4 yrs

Software Engineer

Simpro Software · Brisbane

  • Re-architected Simpro Enterprise from multi-codebase to single shared codebase — enabling global scale
  • Co-designed the V11 SOAP API and built financial integrations (QuickBooks, MYOB, Sage 50 UK)
  • Delivered enterprise PDF reporting and client customisations in PHP/jQuery
PHP API Design VB.NET Architecture
Technical Skills
AI & Modern
Claude / LLMs
95%
GitHub Copilot
90%
MCP / AI Tooling
85%
Languages
PHP
95%
TypeScript / JS
85%
Python
70%
Frontend
Angular
80%
React
75%
CSS / Sass
85%
Database
PostgreSQL
90%
MySQL
85%
AWS RDS/Aurora
75%
Cloud / Infra
AWS Lambda/EC2
80%
EKS / Serverless
70%
IAM / EFS
75%
Tools & Methods
Jira / Confluence
95%
DataDog / Grafana
80%
FaST / Scrum
90%
Early Career (2005 – 2010)
2005 – 2009

PHP / MySQL Developer

Freelance

CRM systems and freelance web development projects. Foundational years building real products for real clients.

2007

Tier 1/2 Support Engineer

TelstraClear

Customer-facing technical fault resolution. Built instincts for empathy, communication, and systematic debugging.

Education & Certifications
Manukau Institute of Technology
Bachelor of Engineering Technology
Feb 2004 – Nov 2005
Manukau Institute of Technology
Diploma – Computer Network Engineering
Feb 2002 – Jul 2004
University of Auckland
Teaching Skills — Lectures, Tutorials & Lab Demonstrations

Certifications

CCNA
Cisco Certified Networking Associate
OWASP
Secure Software Practices — Top 10
FaST Agile
Fluid Scaling Technology Methodology
Sastrify
SaaS Vendor Contract Negotiation
Additional Responsibilities
Current Role · Simpro Software
Chief Fire Warden

Chief Fire Warden for the Brisbane office (300+ staff). Founding member of the company's Health and Safety Committee.