# iain simmons (@iainsimmons.com)

Profile: https://sifa.id/p/iainsimmons.com
Headline: Senior Team Lead at Squiz

## About

Senior Team Lead and Web Dev. Terminal and Neovim fan. Strangely enjoys reading docs. Supporter of the open web.

## Experience

- **Senior Web Developer at Squiz** (2021 – 2022)
- **Development Lead at Squiz** (2024 – 2025)
- **Web Developer / Implementation Specialist at Squiz** (2016 – 2021)
  Responsibilities:
  \- Implementing websites using the Squiz Matrix web content management system
  \- Integrating Squiz Matrix with data/content from other repositories using external web APIs
- **Web Publishing and Collaboration Officer at Australian Government Attorney-General's Department** (2006 – 2008)
  The Australian Government Attorney-General's Department serves the people of Australia by providing essential expert support to the Government in the maintenance and improvement of Australia's system of law and justice and its national security and emergency management systems.
  
  Responsibilities: Publishing new and updated web content on the Department's internal and external websites Troubleshooting and supporting users of the Department's website and related tools Maintaining a high standard of code and content on the Department's existing websites Developing and reviewing publishing procedures
- **Ground Handler at Corporate Air** (2004 – 2006)
  Corporate Air is the largest private charter company in the Canberra and surrounding region that provides charter, freight handling, ground handling and engineering services.
  
  Responsibilities: Freight Handling Aircraft Towing Aircraft Interior Re-configurations Cabin Cleaning (Virgin Blue Aircraft) Luggage Handling (Ad-Hoc at RAAF Fairbairn) Office & Flight Lounge Cleaning
- **Casual Sales Assistant at Simply Fresh Fruit Market** (2002 – 2004)
  Simply Fresh is a small chain of fruit markets in the ACT, seeking to provide superior quality produce at prices competitive to the larger supermarket chains.
  
  Responsibilities: Customer service Register operation Cleaning and maintaining store premises Replenishing stock
- **Senior Team Lead at Squiz** (2025 – present)
- **Technical Lead at Squiz** (2022 – 2024)
- **Web Developer at Department of Communications** (2012 – 2016)
  Responsibilities
  • Functional development work on the department’s external websites and intranet, in line with government and international web standards of coding, markup, accessibility and usability
  • Integrating existing web applications or APIs with the department’s websites using already available resources and with little or no additional effort required from users
  • Working closely with the web publishing team and external vendors in analysing, documenting, escalating and resolving technical issues
  • Contributing to requirements analysis, providing accessible and feasible solutions using existing features of the content management system where possible, together with modern web development technologies
  • Preparing technical documentation and implementing changes using internal testing methodologies and change control procedures
  • Managing the department’s domain names, SSL certificates, analytics and user access to web applications  Achievements
  • Built a HTML5 website in the Squiz Matrix content management system from the ground up with a mobile-first framework, including ‘tel’ links to launch dialler applications on smartphones
  • Integrated multiple social network APIs into a single homepage feed on the Minister’s website using JSON, server-side JavaScript and Squiz Matrix
  • Implemented custom feeds on a Google Search Appliance to index the Minister’s social media content using XML, Linux Bash shell scripting and Squiz Matrix
  • Created a jQuery plugin for automatically tracking file download, external and email link clicks on a website in Google Analytics, with an option of an ‘override’ list of links to include/exclude
  • Used SQL queries and knowledge of the Squiz Matrix and Wordpress content management systems to find all instances of a particular string of text to provide to content owners
- **Web Publisher at Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy** (2011 – 2011)
  Responsibilities
  • Publishing new and updated web content on the department’s internal and external websites
  • Troubleshooting issues and supporting content contributors of the department’s websites and related tools
  • Maintaining a high standard of code, content, accessibility and usability on the department’s websites
  • Developing and reviewing publishing procedures, help sheets and wiki pages  Achievements
  • Published new and updated content under time pressures on Budget Night 2011
  • Contributed to and supported the publishing and testing work of other teams in the section on a number of occasions
  • Participated in and contributed to a number of planning meetings in order to improve and develop current and future procedures
- **Special Projects Group Leader at Baha'i World Centre** (2008 – 2010)
  The Bahá'í World Centre, the spiritual and administrative heart of the Bahá'í community, is located in the twin cities of 'Akká and Haifa in northern Israel. The staff of the Bahá'í World Centre comprises of Bahá'í volunteers drawn from many different countries, who are invited to serve for varying periods of time by the Universal House of Justice, the supreme administrative body of the Bahá'í Faith.
  
  Responsibilities: Scheduling and supervising a small team of youth volunteers to maintain the cleanliness of Bahá'í World Centre buildings and facilities Liaising with departmental administrators and managers on matters of safety, efficiency, and team morale Participating in the development of improved procedures, manuals and group unity Transportation of staff and cleaning equipment to various locations in the busy Haifa and 'Akká areas of Israel Recording and maintaining levels of cleaning supplies and effectiveness of cleaning equipment
- **Web Publishing Coordinator at Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy** (2011 – 2012)
  Responsibilities
  • Managing the publishing of new and updated web content on the department’s internal and external websites
  • Troubleshooting issues and supporting content contributors of the department’s website and related tools
  • Maintaining and enforcing a high standard of code, content, accessibility and usability on the department’s websites
  • Developing, reviewing, and encouraging the use of publishing procedures, help sheets and wiki pages
  • Organising and contributing to content planning and development meetings, suggesting accessible and feasible solutions using existing features of the content management system where possible
  • Producing usable, accurate and timely statistics and content ownership reports
  • Continually and actively training and mentoring the assisting web publishers  Achievements
  • Implemented a CSS-based workflow diagram for the Satellite Phone Subsidy Scheme page on the department's website
  • Provided assistance in the acceptance testing and implementation the distributed publishing interfaces for the department’s main public website and intranet website, and taken initiative to provide user support since their launch
  • Coordinated acceptance testing of Internet Explorer 9 for all content management systems and websites managed by the Web Services Section
  • Contributed, documented and implemented some out-of-the-box technical solutions to online forms, news listings and other existing elements of the department’s intranet site to improve efficiency and usability
  • Implemented more efficient and user-friendly weekly status reporting methods and publishing logs to increase transparency and accountability, while reducing task-recording and reporting overheads
- **Casual Recruitment Assistant at Cordelta** (2010 – 2011)
  Established in 2004, Cordelta is a management consultancy with service offerings across Strategic Management Consulting, Information Technology Consulting, Financial Management Consulting, Testing Solutions, and Recruitment Consulting Services. Cordelta Recruitment Services provides professional staffing solutions to Federal government, Federal government business enterprise, local government and the private sector, as well as supporting the ongoing growth of Cordelta’s management consultancy practice.
  
  Responsibilities:
  • Preparing and posting employment position advertisements
  • Maintaining, updating and searching recruitment database of clients & candidates
  • Formatting and preparing résumés for presentation to clients
  • Organising, assisting and observing candidate interviews
  • Generating and preparing employment contracts
  • Marketing and sourcing candidates
  • Liaising with clients, candidates and applicants via email and phone
  • General administration duties as required  Achievements:
  • Developed networking and communication skills
  • Strengthened database skills and knowledge
  • Exposure to recruitment process and market

## Education

- **Karabar High School** (1996 – 2001)

## Skills

- Squiz Matrix
- Node.js
- Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
- CMS
- Requirements Analysis
- Web Services
- Social Media
- Web Design
- Web Content
- WordPress
- SharePoint
- AJAX
- XHTML
- Training
- Troubleshooting
- Information Architecture
- Microsoft Office
- Microsoft Excel
- MySource Matrix
- Functional Specifications
- Functional Requirements
- HTML
- JavaScript
- Web Development
- jQuery
- CSS
- TypeScript
- Content Management Systems (CMS)
- React.js

## Publications

- Cross-posting to Bluesky via Sequoia and Standard.site — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/cross-posting-to-bluesky-via-sequoia-and-standardsite)
- Uses — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/uses)
- Cloudflare for Families DNS resolver and miscategorisation — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/cloudflare-for-families-dns-resolver-and-miscategorisation)
- Enable browser access to keyboard firmware on Linux — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/enable-browser-access-to-keyboard-firmware-on-linux)
- tmux extended-keys option and Neovim keymaps with modifiers — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/tmux-extended-keys-option-and-neovim-keymaps-with-modifiers)
- Adding an animated card border glow with CSS — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/adding-an-animated-card-border-glow-with-css)
- Upgrading to Neovim 0.12: built-in Undotree plugin, incremental selections — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/upgrading-to-neovim-0-12-built-in-undotree-plugin-incremental-selections)
- Better code blocks with the Astro Expressive Code integration — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/better-code-blocks-with-the-astro-expressive-code-integration)
- CSVs are terrible, Miller makes them bearable — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/csvs-are-terrible-miller-makes-them-bearable)
- Always-on mini-monitor as a dashboard — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/always-on-mini-monitor-as-a-dashboard)
- Content-Security-Policy Reporting endpoint — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/content-security-policy-reporting-endpoint)
- Screenshot DOM nodes to create favicon and Open Graph images — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/screenshot-dom-nodes-to-create-favicon-and-open-graph-images)
- Remap the CapsLock key in Linux — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/remap-the-capslock-key-in-linux)
- Raycast Extension fetch error — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/raycast-extension-fetch-error)
- Use terminal commands for displaying a Neovim dashboard logo — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/use-terminal-commands-for-displaying-a-neovim-dashboard-logo)
- Add keybinds or shortcuts for other keys in Hyprland — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/add-keybinds-or-shortcuts-for-other-keys-in-hyprland)
- How to fix WezTerm in Hyprland — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/how-to-fix-wezterm-in-hyprland)
- kitty sessions — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/kitty-sessions)
- Set custom cursor in Hyprland — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/set-custom-cursor-in-hyprland)
- Walker + Elephant = Raycast on Linux — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/walker-elephant-raycast-on-linux)
- Restarting a MacBook in recovery mode — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/restarting-a-macbook-in-recovery-mode)
- Learned or Learnt — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/learned-or-learnt)
- Acupuncture is great — til.iainsimmons.com (https://til.iainsimmons.com/posts/acupuncture-is-great)

## Other profiles

- linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iain-simmons