I'm Dylan, a tech leader with 10+ years building and leading engineering teams in SaaS and fintech environments. I have proven experience scaling enterprise platforms and building high-performing engineering teams. I passionately build products that solve real problems and strive to build their value and purpose, while retaining awareness of risk and non-functional priorities. When I'm not coding.

Dylan Johnston

I'm Dylan, a tech leader with 10+ years building and leading engineering teams in SaaS and fintech environments. I have proven experience scaling enterprise platforms and building high-performing engineering teams. I passionately build products that solve real problems and strive to build their value and purpose, while retaining awareness of risk and non-functional priorities. When I'm not coding.

Available to hire

I’m Dylan, a tech leader with 10+ years building and leading engineering teams in SaaS and fintech environments. I have proven experience scaling enterprise platforms and building high-performing engineering teams.

I passionately build products that solve real problems and strive to build their value and purpose, while retaining awareness of risk and non-functional priorities. When I’m not coding.

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Experience Level

Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Intermediate
Intermediate
Intermediate
Intermediate
Intermediate
Intermediate
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Language

English
Fluent

Work Experience

Software Engineer (co-founder) at Clevercare
January 1, 2014 - November 7, 2015
In this role I was the senior developer, architect and designer for the product in a team of 3 developers. The nature of Clevercare meant the system and app has to be robust and reliable, which was achieved through both a lot of product designing and testing, as well as a highly reliable and redundant hosting platform. Managing a team of 3 developers, I was able to bring the product to a point where it is easily managed through a number of interfaces, with instant error reporting and reliability indicators.
Contract Software engineer at Self-employed
November 7, 2015 - April 20, 2020
I have had the privilege of contracting to a number of local and remote companies, startups and founders since 2015. My experience with working in a number of project/team sizes at varying stages of life has been incredibly valuable. I have been a part of 2 successful startups - being Clevercare and Seespray In all of these projects I have been more than just a senior developer, but also system architect, product owner, and technical consultant. Outside of the startup world, I have been very lucky to have worked alongside some great local and international companies in New Zealand, including Company-X, Harvard, Butlertech and many others.
Technical co-founder, Maintainer (part-time) at Seespray
December 12, 2015 - Present
Seespray is an award winning spray job management and notification system, built for the New Zealand horticulture industry. A majority (over 2,500) of New Zealand Kiwifruit and Avocado orchards trust Seespray to manage their orchards when it comes to creating, organising and notifying their spray jobs. I am a co-founder, architect and (part-time) maintainer of this product which has run and scaled since 2015.
Software developer, Business intelligence manager at Generator (Precinct properties)
July 10, 2017 - November 25, 2020
Working with Generator (acquired by Precinct properties), I worked closely with the executive team to provide business intelligence tools and systems. I delivered numerous software integrations, automations, and internally consumed software systems. This included the establishment of a data lake, reporting systems (Metabase, PowerBI), and other notable projects including: Billing process automations * Data management and audit processes * Custom point of sale payment authorisation (think eftpos)
Senior Engineer, Tech Lead at Paloma
November 25, 2019 - April 29, 2023
Paloma is one of New Zealand's best product agencies and now Australasia's largest venture studio. Paloma has an incredibly high calibre of talent and services. With Paloma I worked in some extraordinary teams building some industry leading products including: Afterpay, Bakkt and BlockFi. During this time I was both engineer and Tech Lead.
Head of Technology at Ruby Play Network
October 31, 2025 - April 29, 2023
Technical co-founder at Vivamo
February 10, 2025 - Present
Vivamo is a startup founded from challenges faced by Ruby Play Network (former employer). This fintech provides a full stack payments and compliance platform for the high risk gaming sector that Ruby operates in. As the technical co-founder, my role has included: • Understanding the needs and requirements of clients in order to design the product. • Establish technical operations. • Design, architect and lead the build of the platform. • Implement scalable infrastructure, CI/CD processes, DevOps and more. • Manage a build team to ensure delivery meets requirements. • Work with directors and founders to ensure risk and company strategies are handled by the product and technology. During my time with both Vivamo and Ruby Play Network, I have held a seat on an advisory panel for the parent group, consulting and driving initiatives like cyber insurance, information security, business continuity planning, and more.

Education

Diploma in Information and Communications Technology at WINTEC
January 1, 2007 - December 31, 2009

Qualifications

Add your qualifications or awards here.

Industry Experience

Software & Internet, Financial Services, Professional Services
    paper Seespray

    Seespray (https://www.twine.net/signin is an award winning spray job management and notification system, built for the New Zealand
    horticulture industry. A majority, over 2500 Orchards, of the New Zealand Kiwifruit and Avocado industry trust Seespray to manage their orchards when it comes to creating, managing and notifying their spray jobs.

    I am a co-founder, architect and (part-time) maintainer of this product which has run without fail since 2015.