Callum Thomas
pre-coffee, unresponsive · 7:49 am Melb
Callum Thomas
DWG CT-000 · Sheet 1 of 1Please disturb ↖ run your cursor through it

00 · Hello

A person.

per·son/ˈpɜː.sən/noun

  1. A real, living human. Not artificial. Occasionally intelligent.
  2. Callum Thomas. Builder, AI whisperer, solution seeker. Can feel things, man.

The machines write a lot of the code now, and I'm glad of the help. But someone still has to find the problem worth solving, ask better questions than the machine, and care whether it works for the people using it. I did that for eight years as a traffic engineer. Now I do it in software, as a forward-deployed software engineer at RJE Global.

See the work ↓Ask Callum →
Callum grinning beside the Yukhin Peak summit sign, 5,130 m, with snowy mountains behind
Fig. 1 · Callum at 5,130 m. Not AI‑generated.
Now
Forward-deployed software engineer, RJE Global
Before
8 years as a consulting traffic engineer (Stantec, Amber)
Studied
BE (Hons) Civil & BCom Finance, University of Auckland
Based
Melbourne. Kiwi, and now an Australian citizen too.New
Human check
✓Passed. Still has a pulse.

01Work

19 projects, newest first. The live ones are real, so go and use them.

Things I've built for construction sites, traffic engineers, clients, and my own life.

  • CT-01What's Cyber TerminalThe CDT-98 terminal that used to be this site's homepage, kept running as a museum piece.PersonalLive ↗
  • CT-02Blindfold Chess TrainerBoard-vision drills and blind tactics for the part of chess you play in your head. Front-end only, installable, works offline.PersonalLive ↗
  • CT-03AlmanacPersonal life-tracking PWA — notes, journal, habits, tasks, recipes, finances, sleep. One searchable basement for everything I want to look back on.PersonalLive ↗
  • CT-04BoatlogA private trip logbook for the boat — distance, weather, fuel, crew. The damp chart-table notebook, but on a phone.PersonalLive ↗
  • CT-05LAN HeroGamified personal-development tracker. Give your real life an XP bar, skill trees, quests, and an inventory.PersonalLive ↗
  • CT-06CentreSafeA risk management portal for companies and NGOs.WorkRead →
  • CT-07CentreSafe Web DesignBrand guidelines and web design template for CentreSafe.WorkRead →
  • CT-08Sliding Tiles PuzzleRetro sliding tile puzzle game with multiple grid sizes.PersonalLive ↗
  • CT-09This siteThis site. Fully AI-built editorial-brutalist portfolio with a custom admin, live data, and a /b-sides shelf for internet relics.PersonalRead →
  • CT-10Connect FiveA web game built with Next.js and Tailwind CSS.PersonalLive ↗

02CV

The site is the CV, so here's the CV bit. Numbered like drawing revisions, because old habits.

LinkedIn ↗

An engineer who learned to code, then learned to work with the machines.

  • D2023-nowForward-deployed Software EngineerRJE GlobalIn-house at an electrical construction business. I find the processes still running on paper and spreadsheets and replace them with web apps that plug into the company's data. Eight so far:
    1. D.01Quality management systemOnsite testing, off paper and into live data, compliance checks and sign-offs. Rebuilt front to back in TypeScript, and much faster.
    2. D.02Document controlThe compliance workflow that gates construction plans before they reach site teams. Contract milestones hang on it.
    3. D.03Learning management systemTraining moved off Moodle to an in-house system with SCORM, a qualifications matrix, and inductions for contractors coming on site.
    4. D.04TimesheetsThe timesheet interface. More than 1,000 people use it every week.
    5. D.05Design systemFor the company's new AI-first platform: the UX standards, page templates and component library the whole business now builds to.
    6. D.06Home portalA self-serve staff portal with a personal dashboard, plus new navigation and an app launcher across every RJE web app.
    7. D.07Qualification migration13,707 licence and qualification documents matched to the HR system, with a review bench so HR signed off every match first.
    8. D.08CRMThe company's first, built on monday.com.
  • C2021-2023Senior Traffic EngineerAmber OrganisationLed traffic engineering projects, including a major subdivision in Dubbo. Built the quote-signing portal clients kept asking for, on the side.
  • B2019-2021Project EngineerStantecTraffic impact assessments, SIDRA modelling, swept paths and transport strategies for public and private clients.
  • A2015BE (Hons) Civil & Environmental, BCom FinanceUniversity of AucklandEngineering and finance at the same time, which explains the spreadsheets.
    Also certifiedAccreditedRoad safety auditorDoT VictoriaMovement and placeSIDRAIntermediateQualifiedTraffic control
How I work
  1. 01Sit with them.Watch the job done the way it's really done, not the way the manual says.
  2. 02Map it.The paper, the spreadsheets, the workarounds, the person everyone phones.
  3. 03Build it.A web app that makes the job faster and harder to get wrong.
  4. 04Wire it in.Connected to the company's data, so nobody types anything twice.

That's the forward-deployed part: I work where the problem is, not from a ticket queue.

Toolbox

TypeScript, React, Next.js, SvelteKit, Angular, Node, Supabase, Postgres, PHP, MySQL, Tailwind and Figma. Plus Claude, which is faster than me at nearly everything except knowing what's worth building.

03Proof of humanity

Things no language model has ever done. Submitted as evidence.

All stuff →

Robots don't sleep, climb hills for fun, or tap out at jiu-jitsu. I do all three, and more.

  • Exhibit A

    CitizenshipNew

    Officially Australian, and still a Kiwi. Only one robot has ever been granted citizenship (Sophia, Saudi Arabia, 2017). I'm pleased to confirm I'm not her.Read the post →

  • Exhibit B

    Sleep

    About 7 hours a night, on a good fortnight. Machines don't need it. I very much do.Illustrative. Almanac's been quiet lately.

  • Exhibit C

    Altitude

    Yukhin Peak, 5,130 m, Kyrgyzstan. Two weeks acclimatising, one awful night at base camp, then a summit so sunny I wore a t-shirt. No machine would bother.Read the trip →

    A lone black yak on golden grassland beneath a huge bare mountain
    Fig. 2 · Yak. Also not AI‑generated.
  • Exhibit D

    Jiu-jitsu

    Brazilian. I tap out regularly. Humbling in a way no benchmark is.

  • Exhibit E

    The boat

    Logged in Boatlog, naturally. Every entry says "windy".

  • Exhibit F

    Art

    Digital, and the kind with glue. Occasionally both, which is messier than it sounds.

  • Exhibit G

    Right now

    Local time in Melbourne, where Callum is probably pre-coffee, unresponsive.

    7:49 am
Slide to prove your humanity

04Ask Callum

Hiring, collaborating, or just checking there's still a human in here.

Or the old-fashioned waycallumdavidthomas@gmail.com
GitHub ↗LinkedIn ↗

Everyone's asking AI.
Try asking a human.

Ask Callum

Callum 1.0 is away from his desk. Messages still reach him, and he'll reply within a day.

Good morning.
What can Callum help with?

Callum can make mistakes. He's only human.

SKScratch area

Not for construction