Jared
Whittington

Hands-on product engineering | Technical leadership | AI Ambassador

Kia ora! I build things, connect people & untangle problems. I am a technical leader and hands-on builder based in Aotearoa.
My career has moved through software engineering, architecture, team leadership, product thinking and community technology. I'm happiest when the problem is real, slightly messy, and worth building.

See what I've built Contact Jared Ask Claude Ask ChatGPT

[ Selected work ]

Don't take my word for it.
Take a peek for yourself.

These are live projects. Made by me. Open them, click around. Consider signing up to some of them!

01 CollectiVE

Multi-tenant community infrastructure for discussion, decisions, participation and member engagement. It grew out of technology I built for my own community after severe flooding, and dwindling community engagement.

Built using a foundation of Angular, NestJS, LangGraph, Docker, and nginx, CollectiVE provides communities and their members with comprehensive, low cost collaboration tools such as articles, event registrations, polls, surveys, virtual whiteboards, governance tools, backed by powerful AI driven smart tools such as autonomous content moderation, community insights, and context aware generative text and images. I have been building this platform now for over 3 years.

collecti.ve.net.nz

Visit

02 Let's Make Music

A browser-based DAW with synthesis, sequencing, automation, effects, MIDI, publishing and a mobile experience that has no business being as capable as it is.

I created the basic synthesizer in LMM years ago and recently rediscovered its source code. I was looking for an excuse to add OAuth/OIDC capability into CollectiVE and thought it would be cool to develop a feature-rich DAW in which people could share their creations with others, while using CollectiVE as its user identity provider - "Sign in using CollectiVE" was born. The expansion used agentic coding methods and tools to significantly expedite development.

letsmakemusic.nz

03 Waitārere Rise

CollectiVE began with a real neighbourhood, real people, and real issues that required participation, collaboration and coordination.

After our neighbourhood experienced significant flooding in 2022, residents needed a way for people to reach out, offer support and coordinate help within the community discreetly, safely and with some dignity.

At the same time, our Residents Society was still heavily dependent on spreadsheets and disconnected systems. Member engagement had been lacking, which inevitably made it harder for the committee to communicate, organise and act effectively on behalf of the community.

We needed better ways of working. A patchwork of social media groups, email chains, spreadsheets and disconnected free-tier services was quickly rejected in favour of a comprehensive solution built specifically around the needs of our community - one that could improve communication, organisation, decision-making and community support in one shared space.

Now trusted by more than 140 residents for over three years, CollectiVE continues to support the people of Waitārere Rise today.

waitarererise.org.nz

Visit

[ How I work ]

Technical enough to build it.
Human enough to know why.

With over a decade of experience deciding what deserves to ship, balancing user needs, quality, cost and reliability, I build and influence cross-functional teams who aren't dependent on late nights and heroics.

The disciplines I bring together

I have built my professional career striving for excellence in these areas below.
These aren't just fancy buzzwords, they are key to my successes to date:

CraftBuild better software with less rework

QualityTurn implementation into evidence, automation and confidence

ProductDefine the right problem and create experiences customers value

SystemsDesign for reliability, cost, scale, operations and incidents

LeadershipMultiply the capability of the people around you

SustainabilityStay effective without making heroics the operating model

Applied AIUse AI for leverage while retaining review and judgment

STANDBY

SHIP IT! 🚀
The delivery game.

I built this arcade-style game to demonstrate how these skills, which I have accumulated over the past decade, intersect to improve a delivery team's output, quality and morale - and, ultimately, delight customers.

This is playable. Click below

[ Career ]

Professional career

2013-2016 Palmerston North · Aotearoa
Foundations

Massey University
SharePoint and Webapp Developer
SharePoint development, UX standards, accessibility and internal systems.
- Engineering
- UX
- Accessibility
2016-2021 Palmerston North · Aotearoa
Engineering

Docuvera
Senior Software Engineer → Agile Architect.
Building an international life sciences SaaS platform and increasingly working across the boundaries between implementation, architecture and delivery.
- SaaS
- Architecture
- Delivery
2021-2025 Palmerston North · Aotearoa
Leadership

Docuvera
Technical Lead → Senior Technical Lead.
I wore hats across architecture, delivery, recruitment, applied AI, coaching, vendors and hands-on engineering.
- Technical leadership
- Coaching
- People
- Applied AI
2025-2026 Palmerston North · Aotearoa
Building my own

CollectiVE + independent products
Founder, builder and product owner
Community software, helping people make positive change in their communities. I'm now looking to bring that builder mentality back into a strong product and engineering team.
- Founder
- Product

Download My CV

[ About Me ]

A peek behind
the screen.

My work matters to me, but it is only part of a bigger picture. Here is a glimpse into my life beyond the keyboard: my whanau, my hobbies and interests, and the principles I carry into both life and work.

[ Can you hear the music? ]

Hobbies & interests

When I'm not working or playing with my kids, I live at the intersection where sound, visual design, and technology converge. I find joy in these little pockets of our world:

[ The code I live by ]

Core values

The eight values that guide how I make decisions and treat other people:

[ Contact me ]

If there's a
difficult problem
worth the innovation,
I'm here for it!