I’m a software developer and technology leader with over 20 years of experience in software development for data processing at scale and conceptual data modelling. Programming-wise, I am most fluent in Ruby and Java, with a smattering of Python, Kotlin, Golang, and Typescript. I have a background in Artificial Intelligence, semantics, linked data and ontologies. I live and work in Wellington, New Zealand.
Projects
Eclipse RDF4J
Founder & Primary Developer • 2003 — 2021
Eclipse RDF4J is a powerful Java framework for processing and handling RDF data. This includes creating, parsing, scalable storage, reasoning and querying with RDF and Linked Data. It allows you to connect with SPARQL endpoints and create applications that leverage the power of linked data and Semantic Web.
The project grew out of research during my PhD project and was originally co-developed by myself and Arjohn Kampman.
W3C SPARQL Working Group
invited expert / WG member • 2003 — 2007
The W3C Data Access Working Group (DAWG), later renamed SPARQL Working Group, focused on producing a set of standards for querying and manipulating data in the RDF data model. This became SPARQL - the “Simple Protocol and RDF Query Language”. During my tenure as invited expert and later member of the working group, I contributed to several W3C Recommendations, including the SPARQL query language itself, as well as the Protocol standard, and the SPARQL XML results format.
Work Experience
Culture Amp
Staff Engineer / Engineering Manager • 2021 — Present
Working across both the staff engineering and engineering management tracks: leading architectural decisions for platform growth and scaling, and leading a multidisciplinary team responsible for data ingestion, processing and enrichment in the Culture Amp platform.
metaphacts GmbH
Principal Software Engineer • 2020 — 2021
Provided technical leadership, setting technical roadmaps and architectural guidelines for the metaphactory Knowledge Graph platform.
Culture Amp
Senior Machine Learning Engineer • 2018 — 2020
Co-led establishment of a machine learning practice, helping managers act on employee survey results.
Billcap
Senior Software Engineer • 2017 — 2018
Senior designer and developer for a SaaS platform for energy retail operations.
InsightNG
Chief Technologist / Co-Founder • 2012 — 2016
Co-founded and served as chief engineer, defining the architecture and leading R&D for a visual knowledge discovery platform, integrating machine learning and knowledge representation.
Wageningen University - Food & Biobased Research
Senior Developer/Researcher • 2007 — 2011
Designed and developed software for customer projects, led a cross-functional team building a research management system, and introduced Agile practices to the team.
Eindhoven University of Technology
Lecturer/Researcher • 2005 — 2007
Researched semantic web technologies for web-based information systems, taught undergraduate courses, and supervised Master and PhD students.
Education
PhD - Artificial Intelligence
VU University Amsterdam
Thesis: “Storage, Querying and Inferencing for Semantic Web languages”
Advisor: prof. dr. Frank van Harmelen
MSc - Artificial Intelligence
Specialized subject: Knowledge Representation and Reasoning