About Daniel

Hi, I'm Daniel Foote - happily married father of two, and the person you'll be working with if you engage Systems Automation Workshop. There's no team behind me. It's just me.

The short version

I've had a lot of different jobs thanks to my neurodivergence and high energy approach to work. I've repaired radars and weather stations. I've programmed for household names like HBF, Synergy, and 96FM during my time at digital agencies. I've built and deployed traditional servers and cloud servers. I've done CAD and 3D modelling for 3D printing. I've worked on a fire safety system that complied with Australian standards. I've repaired laser cutters and CNC routers. I've run my own manufacturing business for nine years, and employed staff. I've worked in a pathology lab.

I've had enough experiences to know what I don't know.

If you have the time, my very extensive full resume has the whole story. Below is the version that fits on a page.

Where I've been

Bureau of Meteorology

My first real job out of TAFE was electronics for the Federal Government. I travelled around WA - as far east as the SA border and as far north as Port Hedland - fixing automatic weather stations, radars, communications equipment, and the hydrogen systems used to fill weather balloons. Critical infrastructure most people never think about, in some remote places, with a huge range of people.

Digital agencies

Then a decade or so as a programmer and system administrator for digital marketing agencies in Perth. Agencies as small as three people and as large as sixty in one office. I built websites and web applications for Synergy, HBF, 96FM, IKEA Perth, Murdoch University, and plenty of others; ran the servers they lived on; and was the person the client rang directly when they wanted something changed.

One project I still point to: a sports tipping system I rebuilt from scratch. The old version had no automated tests, and every year there was a dispute about the results. The rebuild had tests covering 90% of the code and simulated entire seasons before going live. First year with no contested results. It then ran for nine years with virtually no changes, because it was done properly the first time.

Foote and Flame - my own business

For nine years (2015 to 2024) I ran Foote and Flame, making personalised homewares and gifts with laser cutters, CNC routers, and UV printers, in a 225 square metre commercial workshop, shipping nationally every day. Over 30,000 orders, over 1,000 five star reviews, and a single 4 star review (the customer didn't like the 20 font choices - you can't please everyone).

I did everything: designed the products, ran and repaired the machines, hired and managed up to three staff, did the books, packed the boxes - and wrote the entire computer system that held it all together.

What I wasn't good at was sales and marketing. The business grew by word of mouth, and when cost-of-living pressures hit, word of mouth alone wasn't enough to keep decorative, optional purchases flowing. I could invest heavily in marketing, or close up debt-free and move on. I made the harder call and closed at the end of 2024.

Transdigital

Lead developer for a company that makes fire alarm signalling equipment - the boxes that connect a building's fire panel to emergency services. I rewrote their core cloud platform, led a small team, and wrote over 300 pages of documentation so the next person could pick it up. Highly regulated, safety-critical work, compliant with Australian Standards. The detail matters when someone's life might depend on an alarm getting through.

Pathology laboratory

I've also worked in a Perth pathology lab doing data entry and chain of custody processing. While there I built a proof of concept AI assistant for reading paper forms, and designed 3D printed sample handling trays that the lab uses day to day.

Neurodivergent, and done masking

I'm neurodivergent. The full extent of it I'm still working out, because I spent most of my life trying to conform to a neurotypical world and masking my true nature. I'm done doing that. Here's what it means for you, as someone I'm working with:

I hold myself and my work to the highest possible standards. I'm my own harshest critic.
I'm honest to a fault. I don't sugarcoat problems or hide mistakes. If I make one, I own it, fix it, and change my process so it doesn't happen again.
I work fast without compromising quality. That leaves time to polish things properly, and I tend to find problems early while there's still time to deal with them.
I don't do bored. If I run out of things to do, I'll ask for more, or find ways to be useful. It can come across as keen - that's just how I'm wired.
I'll ask hard questions. Not to be difficult, but because I want to properly understand your problem before I suggest a solution.
Give me a hard problem and I'll turn it over for days, and often land on the answer somewhere unexpected - in the shower, on a walk, in a dream.
I'm risk averse. I'll do things safely, for me and for you.
I document everything, on the principle that someone else has to be able to pick up where I left off.
I'm a little shy initially, and I don't like bothering people. Once the ice is broken, I'm very happy in person - and I'd rather learn your story face to face than over email.
I'm mostly self-taught. I have an Advanced Diploma in Electronics and an unfinished Computer Science degree (full time work got in the way, but I did pick up the Vice Chancellor's Academic Excellence Award along the way). When I need to learn something new, I go deep until I properly understand it.

Why I started this business

I've always left jobs on my own terms, with my head held high, and with the company in a better place than when I arrived. But I've left a lot of them, and for the same three reasons every time: I burned myself out giving 110%, I got bored in a culture where being idle was normal, or I landed somewhere that stifled my ideas.

Knowing that, I can build the environment that works for me: solving real problems for real people, at my own pace, to my own quality standards. If I can't find the right job, I'll make it.

That's Systems Automation Workshop. Rather than force myself into a round hole, I've built my own square one.

My goals, plainly

Build a sustainable environment where I can bring my problem solving to help other people.
Help your business run smoother, and protect what matters most: your staff and your reputation.
Make enough to feed, house, and educate my family.

That's it. That's the whole motivation. If that sounds like someone you'd like to work with, let's chat.