Meet Paul Redhead who has recently joined Datamine Australia in Brisbane as a Senior Software Engineer on the Datablast and Sirovision development team. Paul will be starting on some exciting new integrations between Sirovision and Pixpro to make the solution even more seamless.
Get to know Paul a little better through the interview below:
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I am originally from Durban, South Africa – graduated with an honour’s degree in computer science. I have spent most of my working career preventing forest fires by developing, selling, and installing complex surveillance software for the early detection and management of wildfires. The work was extremely rewarding, and I was fortunate to travel extensively while working in this field.
In 2016 I ended up in Hong Kong working for a start-up in a similar forestry field, however, having residency requirements for Australia, I found myself living between both countries. I have a passion for Aviation and Railways, having worked very briefly for an airline before the pandemic.
Can you explain some of the challenges you consult to your clients on in a few sentences and how you help them improve?
The challenges I experienced in the past varied from training rural African school graduates how to use complex GIS software to pitching my heart and soul to VC investors. This gave me a great foundation to deal with complex problems for various audiences. In my current role, I am performing software development on the R&D side and working on some of the solutions with my first responsibility encompassing the integration of 3rd party tools into Sirovision in order to improve user experience and performance.
What inspired your career in this industry?
The mining sector is somewhat new to me, I looked for a role involved in an industry that would offer me the ability to work with engineering teams or practical individuals rather than being involved in the financial sector. Having worked predominantly within the forestry sector, I see similarities in the mining sector, and this drew my interest.
What is the most satisfying aspect of your role / the work you do?
I am passionate about learning fresh solutions and discovering innovative ways to improve them. Working with diverse clients in multicultural environments allows me to gain a unique insight into the way a new functionality should be implemented. The user experience side of software development is also something I really enjoy. I believe the development of a product really comes into its own when the development team is able to fully appreciate the customer’s environment.
What are your best memories from your career?
My fondest memory from my role in South Africa was a guided tour through George Lucas’ ranch in Marin County California called “Skywalker Ranch” – I was lucky to get in through the fire department and got to see a few key items from Star Wars, Willow and Indiana Jones, along with a visit to the movie theatre which was being used by Pixar for one of their movie releases at the time.
I got to see them watch through one of the cartoon movie shorts which are played before the feature film – they were doing an audio check which is one of the areas Industrial Light and Magic is famous for. My other good memory is my 8 month stint in the airways, which had me learn how to fly a Boeing 777 in Hong Kong.
What’s a fun fact about you?
My fun fact would have to be that I know how to drive a miniature steam train. I did this back in South Africa and learned through a friend who builds locomotives for a living. While I enjoy a good breakfast, traveling and simply good conversation – I would have to say that learning to drive a steam train is quite rare these days.
Connect with Paul on LinkedIn here.
For more information or to connect with our team, make sure to send us an enquiry.
