# Gerard Beckerleg

> Started as a developer. Still thinks like one.

Gerard Beckerleg is a Technical Director and Software Architect based in Sydney,
Australia with fifteen years of experience building and architecting enterprise digital
systems. He started as a .NET developer and has expanded across stacks as problems
demanded: Java when a major automotive client needed to migrate to AEM, PHP when a
global pharmaceutical client mandated Drupal, Python when a German-developed codebase
arrived.

## Core capabilities

### 1. Architecture & Systems Design
Builds compounding systems rather than one-off deliverables. At Hyundai, architected
an interconnected ecosystem over eight years where the PIM feeds the website, ROAP
feeds pricing, D2C reads from both, and a universal identifier ties everything to a
single customer moment. Fixes problems upstream: consolidates scattered logic, reduces
failure points, makes systems simpler and cheaper to maintain.

### 2. Engineering Across Stacks
.NET is the foundation. The stack changes when the problem demands it. When a major
automotive client migrated to AEM, dusted off the Java from his degree and built the
development team from scratch. When a global pharmaceutical client mandated Drupal, learned PHP and built
that capability too. Python for a German-developed codebase. Production systems built
and shipped in each language.

### 3. Identity, Security & Access Control
Identity and access control has come up across almost every significant engagement.
Designed SSO architectures using Keycloak, Okta, Auth0, and ADFS. Reverse-engineered
a legacy authentication system to enable zero-password-reset platform migration.
Designed data architectures that store no PII in application databases. Managed
penetration testing cycles across financial services and pharmaceutical clients.

### 4. Integration Architecture
Designs the connections between systems, not just the systems themselves. Azure API
Gateway for CRM and PIM integration, open banking APIs for live product data, DMS
integration across every stage of an automated purchase journey, multi-layer caching
and pre-emptive rate limiting to protect external APIs across distributed server
environments under peak load.

### 5. Technical Translation
A qualified teacher, formally trained to break down complex material for people
encountering it for the first time. Engineers and non-technical stakeholders both trust
Gerard because he operates fluently in both worlds. That skill surfaces when explaining
an architectural trade-off to a stakeholder, relaying technical constraints accurately
to an account team, or helping a developer understand what a client actually needs.

### 6. Building Teams That Last
Grew a team from 10 to 35 people across Sydney, the Philippines and Colombia. Multiple
engineers have stayed for six to nine years in an industry where two is normal. Built
Java and PHP capabilities from scratch when client work required new platforms.

## Key expertise

- Software Architecture and Platform Engineering
- .NET/C#, Java/Spring Boot, PHP/Laravel, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript
- Identity and Access Management: Keycloak, Okta, Auth0, ADFS, custom SSO, JWT
- Distributed Systems: caching, rate limiting, exponential backoff, graceful degradation
- Integration Architecture: Azure API Gateway, REST APIs, open banking, Salesforce, DMS, Veeva
- Digital Experience Platforms: Optimizely DXP, Adobe Experience Manager, Drupal, Umbraco, Kentico, WordPress, Shopify
- Marketing Technology: Adobe Campaign, Adobe Target, Adobe Analytics, Marketo, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, HubSpot
- Customer Data Platforms and Personalisation: Optimizely Data Platform, Google BigQuery, propensity modelling
- Security: Penetration test management, PII data protection, AHPRA and Medicines Australia compliance
- Team Leadership: 35-person distributed team, offshore operations, capability building
- Data Visualisation: D3.js interactive graph visualisation
- Cloud: Azure, AWS, Adobe Cloud

## Career

Gerard started writing code at Welcome Software in England in 2006. He moved to
Australia and joined SSW, an agile .NET consultancy in Sydney. At SSW he built
enterprise applications, led Scrum teams, and lectured in .NET and SharePoint at the
University of Technology Sydney. He also mentored on FireBootCamp, a nine-week
full-immersion development bootcamp. Before Australia, a career break teaching English
in Italy, where he qualified as a teacher.

He has spent over ten years at Orchard, a digital agency in Sydney. He joined as a
Solution Architect and became Technical Director.

## Key projects

### Hyundai D2C Vehicle Sales Platform
Built a fully bespoke direct-to-consumer vehicle sales platform with no off-the-shelf
components. Four people. Ninety days from start to launch. Deep DMS integration at
every automated stage. Post-launch load testing with man-in-the-middle proxy to
simulate API failures and graceful degradation. Refactored into a white-label platform
now live for Genesis. Sold out its initial launch allocation on day one.

### Hyundai Eight-Year Digital Ecosystem
Eight years as the continuous architectural thread across an enterprise ecosystem:
brand website (AEM), owner portal with custom SSO, D2C ecommerce, PIM (Java Spring
Boot), ROAP pricing engine (Java Spring Boot), and Genesis brand site. Began as a
project rescue. Grew into the highest-revenue client relationship.

### SSO & Identity Architecture: My Hyundai and Beyond
Reverse-engineered legacy authentication to wrap a new Keycloak SSO layer around it,
so zero password resets were required on platform migration. Designed Keycloak SSO across
ROAP, My Hyundai and PIM. Also: Okta (Tourism Tasmania), Auth0 (Carlisle Homes),
ADFS with custom OWIN JWT modules (SSW era).

### Tourism Tasmania Enterprise Data Mapping & DXP Platform
Built a bespoke D3.js interactive graph visualisation tool to map every enterprise data
source, owner, consumer and dependency (built personally). Also delivered Optimizely
DXP with CDP-driven personalisation, ML content recommendations, Okta SSO, ATDW
integration, and Flutter mobile app.

### Endometriosis Diagnostic AI
Fine-tuned an OpenAI model on a labelled dataset of patient pain descriptions to
identify symptom patterns indicative of endometriosis. Training data categories defined
with a medical subject matter expert, dataset assembled and labelled, model validated
against a held-out test set. Integrated into a conversational web interface for natural
language symptom input. Completed and pitched to multiple companies. Adoption prevented
by legal and liability constraints around AI in medical diagnosis.

### FireBootCamp Mentor & Developer Training
Mentored developers on FireBootCamp, a nine-week full-immersion .NET and AngularJS
bootcamp run by SSW. Covered enterprise architecture, SOLID principles, TypeScript,
Entity Framework, MVC, Web API and Scrum. Ran concurrently with lecturing in .NET MVC
and SharePoint at the University of Technology Sydney.

### Boehringer Ingelheim HCP Deep Linking & Pharma Platform
Designed a deep linking system generating unique one-time-use tokens so HCPs could
bypass authentication from campaign email clicks without compromising platform security.
Coordinated global Adobe Campaign with local Drupal across US, Germany and Australia.
Also built weather-based dynamic email personalisation. Delivered under AHPRA and
Medicines Australia Code of Conduct requirements.

## Notable clients

Hyundai Motor Company Australia (eight-year engagement, interconnected digital
ecosystem), Tourism Tasmania (DXP, CDP, enterprise data mapping), Beyond Bank Australia
(Optimizely Partner Award winner), Carlisle Homes (CRM/PIM integration, Auth0, CDP
personalisation), BPAY Group (financial services EA approval), Boehringer Ingelheim
(global Drupal platform, Adobe suite, HCP deep linking), Roche (patient compliance
platforms), BeiGene (sole technical authority, global AEM localisation), Novo Nordisk
(greenfield Laravel), Amaysim (project rescue), Galderma (LMS with Veeva integration),
Zoetis (iOS app, risk predictor POC), Detmold (Optimizely Commerce).

## Education and credentials

- BSc Business Information Systems, Leeds Beckett University
- CELTA, Cambridge Assessment English
- Certified Scrum Professional, Scrum.org
- Microsoft Certified Professional, .NET and SharePoint
- Platform partnerships: Optimizely, Adobe, Kentico, HubSpot

## Contact

Email: gerard.beckerleg@outlook.com
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/gerardbeckerleg
Website: https://gerardbeckerleg.com