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John Ng

I build the integrations and platform code that keep a university's learning systems talking to each other.

Senior software engineer in Adelaide, South Australia. Available for freelance and contract projects.

John Ng
Student, course and staff data flows from CourseLoop, TechnologyOne and SailPoint through Dell Boomi into the Canvas Middleware, which applies university rules and updates Canvas LMS. CourseLoop TechnologyOne SailPoint Dell Boomi Canvas Middleware Canvas LMS
The pipeline I spend most of my days in at Flinders University. The red box is the part I built.

About me

I'm a software engineer with about six and a half years of commercial experience, most of it in education technology. Today I work on the Education Success Platform team at Flinders University, where I'm the go-to person for the Django service that turns enrolment, course and identity data into a working Canvas LMS.

Before that I spent nearly four years at a local mathematics publisher doing a bit of everything: building a Rails textbook platform and React learning games, and running the company's network and servers. That mix shaped how I work. I'm comfortable in the code, in the database and in the server room, and I like owning a system end to end.

I'm Malaysian, and I speak English, Mandarin and Malay. Outside work you'll find me reading East Asian history, cooking, or doing DIY on a 1970s double-brick unit.

  • Based inAdelaide, SA (ACST)
  • FocusPlatform & integration engineering
  • Experience~6.5 years commercial
  • EducationB.CompSci (Software Dev), Swinburne University of Technology
  • CertificationGoogle IT Support Professional, ITIL v5
  • LanguagesEnglish, Mandarin, Malay
  • Looking forFreelance & contract projects

How I can help

I take on a small number of freelance projects alongside my role at Flinders.

Business websites

Fast, clean sites that work well on phones and are easy for you to keep up to date.

Going digital

Replacing spreadsheets, paper forms and manual processes with simple tools that save your team time.

Complex software

Custom systems, integrations between the tools you already use, and simulations or data-heavy applications.

Tell me about your project

Experience

  1. Senior Platform Analyst & Developer

    2024 – present

    Flinders University · Education Success Platform team

    • Built the majority of Canvas Middleware, the Django service that feeds Canvas LMS from CourseLoop, TechnologyOne and SailPoint data delivered via Dell Boomi, and helped set its architecture.
    • Implemented the university's business rules in code, including shared and merged courses and attribute-based cohort auto-enrolment.
    • Act as the team's main subject-matter expert for the middleware: first call for incidents, design questions and changes.
    • Support the wider learning and teaching platform estate, including Canvas, CourseLoop, TechnologyOne, Mahara, Alma and openEquella.
    • Completed the ITIL v5 Certificate, sponsored by the university.

  2. Contract Developer

    2023 – present · part-time

    Software Leadership · Adelaide IT consultancy

    • Built a thermal processing simulator for a food manufacturing client of the firm, working directly with the director.
    • The tool models optimal processing temperatures from a set of initial parameters, and lets users adjust inputs and see the model respond.
    • Continue to support and extend the product as the client's needs change.

  3. IT Programmer

    2020 – 2024

    Haese Mathematics

    • Full-stack development on a Ruby on Rails platform that delivers interactive textbooks, including content, licensing and the reseller API.
    • Built React educational games used alongside the textbooks.
    • Ran IT infrastructure: redesigned the office network, managed endpoints, maintained Zentyal and Ubuntu servers, firewall and VPN, and backup and recovery.
    • Completed the Google IT Support Professional Certificate, sponsored by the company.

  4. Graduate Software Developer

    Jan – Apr 2020

    Dynamic Creative

    • Started in customer success and L2 support, then moved into backend development on a Ruby on Rails and React app that generated dynamic-keyword Google Ads and SEO content for Shopify and Magento merchants.

Selected work

Canvas Middleware

Flinders University · Integration platform

Canvas on its own doesn't know which students belong in which course, how co-taught or merged offerings should combine, or which cohorts to enrol automatically. The middleware holds that knowledge. It ingests course, enrolment and identity data from the university's student, finance and identity systems, applies the university's rules, and keeps Canvas in sync.

I wrote most of the codebase and worked through the major design decisions with the team.

  • Python
  • Django
  • Canvas API
  • Dell Boomi
  • CourseLoop
  • TechnologyOne
  • SailPoint

Thermal processing simulator

Client project · Software Leadership

Lets the client’s team test temperature settings for a product on screen and see the predicted outcome before running it on the line.

  • Django
  • Simulation modelling
  • Product design

Interactive textbook platform

Haese Mathematics

The Rails platform behind the publisher's digital textbooks: content delivery, licence management, and an API that lets resellers provision access for schools.

  • Ruby on Rails
  • REST API
  • Licensing

Maths learning games

Haese Mathematics

React games that sit alongside the textbooks, giving students a hands-on way to practise the concepts in each chapter.

  • React
  • JavaScript

Office network & server rebuild

Haese Mathematics

Redesigned the company network, brought endpoints under management, and set up Zentyal and Ubuntu servers with firewall, VPN, and a backup and recovery process that could actually be restored from.

  • Networking
  • Linux
  • Zentyal
  • VPN

What I work with

Languages & frameworks

  • Python, Django
  • Ruby, Rails
  • JavaScript, React
  • SQL

Integration

  • REST APIs
  • Canvas LMS API
  • Dell Boomi
  • Data sync & reconciliation

Edtech platforms

  • Canvas LMS
  • CourseLoop
  • TechnologyOne
  • Mahara, Alma, openEquella

Infrastructure

  • Linux (Ubuntu)
  • Networking, firewall, VPN
  • Backup & recovery
  • Endpoint management

Let's talk

Have a project in mind? Tell me what you're trying to solve and I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right fit.

Email me