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G'day, I'm
Daniel Mastrorillo
Lead platform engineer at Rex Software. Face behind The Simply Initiative. My ADHD picks the side projects, I just write the code.
About Me
The story of how a Minecraft plugin got wildly out of hand.
I taught myself to code in 2015 because I wanted to add a plugin to Minecraft. I was 19, I watched maybe 40 minutes of a YouTube tutorial, decided "this is easy", and threw myself in the deep end. The plugin never shipped. The obsession absolutely did.
From there I built my own budgeting app in Java, then rebuilt the SAME app in C# (apparently I like suffering), then found my way into web and app development properly. I started my own company, took on a contract with the NSW Government digitising state park permits, then spent a few years at Atlassian working on Jira. These days I'm a lead platform engineer at Rex Software, and after hours I'm building apps under The Simply Initiative and dabbling in game development.
Nobody taught me any of this. I broke things until they worked, then broke them again to figure out WHY they worked. That's still my whole methodology. The only difference is these days companies pay me for it.
When I'm Not Shipping
Everything here has survived multiple hyperfocus cycles. That's how you know it's true love.
Motorbikes
Riding since 2024 and still grinning inside the helmet every single time. A long ride with no laptop in sight is the best debugging tool I own. And yes, the helmet has eyes. No, I'm not taking them off.
Building Apps
The budgeting app I built to teach myself to code never really left me. It grew up into SimplyBudget, with more apps on the way under The Simply Initiative. My rule is simple: if I have to do something more than once, it gets automated. Sometimes the automation grows a logo and becomes an app.
![[MIS]CONDUCT cover art](/_next/image?url=%2Fmisconduct%2Fcover.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
Game Development
My after-hours obsession. I'm building [MIS]CONDUCT, an open-world police sim where the city actually remembers what you did. Writing an emotion engine from scratch for thousands of NPCs is exactly the kind of "how hard could it be?" decision I specialise in.
Music
Piano since I was four, drums since I was six. In The Shiprex (Rex's entry in the battle of the tech bands) I'm the one behind the drum kit, being exactly as loud as my parents feared.
Want to see where all this energy actually goes?
See My ProjectsWork Experience
Everywhere I've shipped things and asked "why are we doing it like this?"
Lead Platform Engineer
2025 - PresentRex Software
Platform engineer across Rex's product suite, focused on system reliability, developer velocity, and cross-team enablement. The person you ping when something spans three teams and nobody knows who owns it.
- Led the frontend architecture of Pocket Offline, an offline sync engine that keeps the mobile app working with zero bars
- Cut feature flag API calls by 50 to 60%, lowering operational costs while improving performance
- Led the solution design for a complex three-way sync between CRM and Property Management systems
- Built internal tooling that automated large-scale data operations, linking thousands of imported properties to CRM records
ReactReact NativeTS/JSPHPLaravelMySQL
Frontend Software Engineer
2022 - 2025Atlassian
Frontend development on Jira, working with React, TypeScript, and Relay with GraphQL on the redesign of key user interfaces.
- Contributed to the Bulk Operations Toolbar: 10.6% increase in overall bulk updates and 21.7% more updates from the backlog
- Built a code mod that generates boilerplate for large-scale Jira field implementations, saving countless developer hours
- Introduced inline editing to Jira's backlog: 60% adoption over the previous system and 40,000+ unique users in the first week
- Security Champion for an agile organisation of over 20 teams
ReactTS/JSRelayGraphQL
Senior Fullstack Software Engineer
2021 - 2024Mighty Minds
Joined a family-owned LMS provider as a frontend developer. Within 3 months the entire engineering team left, which I choose to believe was a coincidence. So I became the engineering department. One-man team for nearly 4 years.
- Revamped the entire infrastructure, saving over $1.5K in AWS costs per month with an autoscaling database
- Took the most heavily used part of the platform from 80+ second load times to under 2 seconds
- Introduced feature flagging and session replay, unlocking controlled releases and fixing bugs older than my tenure
- Automated Jira ticket creation from grouped errors, prioritised by frequency
HTMLCSSJavaScriptWordPress
Fullstack Software Engineer
2021 - 2022Properti
Fullstack work on a React-based SaaS platform used by real estate companies across Australia, working closely with the CTO inside a PropTech scale-up.
- Automated the import of designer templates: a process that took 2 to 3 people weeks now takes minutes
- Led features from planning to deployment, with client agencies reporting a Brisbane City Auction record and three suburb records
ReactTS/JSPostgreSQLNodeJSHasuraGraphQL
Director / Fullstack Software Engineer
2020 - 2022WP Opera
My own company. SaaS platform plus bespoke client apps, and I owned everything from client relations to deployment.
- Built a PWA for the NSW Government digitising state park permits: 11,432 permits issued within 2 months, over 80% purchased on mobile
- Permit transactions now average three minutes, with a 77% reduction in permit-related fines issued by park rangers
- Built WP Opera's core SaaS: pick a template, buy a domain, launch a working WordPress site in minutes
ReactTS/JSPWACI/CDWordPressElasticSearch
Want this kind of impact on your team?
Get in TouchSpeaking & Mentoring
Turns out you should NOT hand me a microphone. I will use it.
I mentored two cohorts at Hobbleton School in Melbourne, and got up on stage there to tell a room full of students exactly how a kid with no degree and a YouTube tutorial ended up doing this for a living. An audience that legally has to stay and listen to me? Best gig I've ever had.
Need a mentor for your devs or a speaker who brings the energy?
Get in Touch