Jackson Rakena

Jackson Rakena

Software & Cloud Engineer in Wellington, New Zealand, He/him

I am a driven full-stack software and hardware engineer with extensive commercial and hobbyist experience, looking to deliver real value in your team from day one.

I have over 3 years of professional, salaried experience in a variety of engineering roles and positions. I have 2 years of experience in bleeding-edge front-end technologies and Amazon Web Services, including interacting with clients, writing documentation, managing product delivery, and assembling technology stacks. Additionally, I have over 7 years of hobbyist and open-source experience, driven by my passion for the computer science world.

I would consider myself an expert in C#, JavaScript, React, Java, and Python. I have a special interest in the study of programming language theory and the development of new programming technologies.

On my GitHub are 80+ public repositories detailing my experience and practice in a wide variety of established and emerging technologies. Recently I have been learning Rust, with my first large practice project being an online programming quiz site.

Work Experience

2023 — Now
Software Developer Intern at SeeEverything
Wellington, New Zealand

I was employed as a software developer intern in a small, distributed, and bleeding-edge software development team. SeeEverything is an small but incredibly agile company, serving large Australian, New Zealand, and American financial institutions including the Bank of New Zealand and Westpac (both Australia and New Zealand branches).

In my first month, I rewrote SeeEverything’s ASP.NET-based internal product configuration service to use a PostgreSQL backend instead of Amazon S3 – including planning and writing database schemas, queries, and procedures. This configuration service is called every time a SeeEverything customer loads up any of its service applications. This project was expected to last the entire internship – I finished it in a month.

Later on in the internship, I switched to working on the Next.js and React-based client application, including delivering new components, widgets, and features, in conjunction with authoring upgrades to the backend to support these new features.

In my largest piece of work, I implemented a full-stack auditing suite for changes to actions, a work item in SeeEverything’s software. This included designing the database table, recording all events across a sprawling, 100,000+ line codebase, storing them, and then designing and wiring up the frontend components needed to display action history to the user, in an aesthetically pleasing way.

2021 — 2023
Wellington

I was employed as a junior-level software and cloud engineer in a small and fast-moving team. In this role I wrote applications deployed on AWS in JavaScript, React, and Python, and interacted with clients as a representative of the engineering team.

In 2022, I led the development of a React-based call center solution using Amazon Connect that was deployed nationally to Plunket’s at-home care service. This solution involved 4 repositories, 30,000 lines of code, and over 100 total AWS resources organized with CloudFormation and remains the proudest piece of work in my career.

Another significant project in my time at GoCloud was the Tuhonohono – Design for People project, an all- in-one solution that connected payroll systems, HR systems, and Microsoft Office 365 licenses into one automated turn-key staff management solution for a large education-based client. An HR administrator could create a new employee record and our system would automatically issue the appropriate Office license, create a payroll account with their payment information, and issue notifications to appropriate parties.

I was well-respected within my team for my background in computer science theory and in-depth knowledge of JavaScript and React.

Education

2022 — Now
Wellington, New Zealand

Graduating 2025

I am in my penultimate year of my Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree, majoring in Computer Science. I achieved the Dean’s List for academic excellence in 2022 and 2023.

2015 — 2021
NCEA Level 3 at Scots College
Wellington

I attended Scots College from 2015 to 2021, graduating as the College's IT Prefect and leader of the Digital Committee.

I also received the top of subject prize for Digital Technologies and History in my graduating year.

Projects

Ongoing

Used daily by 370+ users at 15+ universities and colleges across the world, Gradekeeper is a full-stack web application that provides users with predicted grades based on the grades they have achieved so far.

It is based on React using Next.js, and Planetscale (MySQL) as the database. It allows users to upload their grades and view them across multiple devices.

I created Gradekeeper because I was annoyed at not being able to see my progress in a course – and what grade I would likely get based on my results so far. It has gained traction at many universities in New Zealand, with over 370 registered accounts at 15+ universities around the world including Victoria, Otago, Auckland, Canterbury, and the University of California, San Francisco.

Ongoing

Jacksonbot is a Rust-based Discord chatbot providing several utilities for server administrators, games, and web services.

It is used by over 1,000 Discord servers, reaching 61,121 Discord users, and has 17 stars on GitHub.

It has a fully integrated accounts and currency system, including sending currency to other users, and spending it on decorative items. It is written in Rust using the Serenity framework coupled with my own macro-based command framework.

2020
Quicktable at Scots College

Quicktable was a free and open-source timetable frontend for my high school's class scheduling system. It was mobile-friendly and accessible, including a knowledge base and wiki to save students time and help them navigate their way through high school.

Side Projects

2023

I created an open-source game networking & relay solution in C# for games made in Unity. Open-source and free-to-use, my solution allowed game developers to create peer-to-play multiplayer networks over a relay server, allowing players to connect to each other even when behind strict NATs and firewalls.

My solution proved to be a viable alternative to the paid and closed-source Unity Relay solution

2019

I created an open-source .NET library to interact with the Spotify Client API.

2019

I created a challenge mod for popular video game Grand Theft Auto V with over 3,000 downloads.

This mod went on to be featured by popular streamers such as DarkViperAU, in his famous series "Completing GTA V Without Taking Damage?" with over 30 million views on YouTube.

Certifications

2021

I have achieved the AWS Partner: Accreditation (Business) (Digital) and AWS Partner: Accreditation (Technical) courses.

2019
DELF A2 Competency from Embassy of France, New Zealand

I received a DELF A2 competency certificate in French language awarded by the Ambassade de France à Wellington in 2019.

Contact

GitHub