Tom Ulman

I'm Tom — Dad. Designer. Digital product tinker

Tom Ulman with Julian

Full-time in developer support at Algolia, two kids under five, living on the south coast of NSW.

Ten-plus years shipping design and development across startups and enterprise — scalable work from early-stage teams through to larger org constraints.

Since the kids arrived, I've retired from partying; nights and weekends mostly go to consulting and building digital products. AI Done Right is my AI consulting work for Australian SMBs. I write b55, a personal newsletter and build log. The Creature Club is a parent–child wildlife newsletter, and Antlytics is lightweight web analytics for sites and apps.

GitHub · LinkedIn · X

Work

  • Algolia
    Senior Developer Support Engineer
    Nov 2021 → Present

    Developer-facing support for a global search platform: triage and own cases from first contact through resolution across web and email. Troubleshoot implementations across APIs, SDKs, indexing pipelines, and front-end integrations. Partner with Product and Engineering on reproducible bugs, escalations, and customer-impacting issues. Improve internal and external documentation for faster resolution and self-service. Work with Customer Success to align technical outcomes with customer goals. Focus on clear, empathetic communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders.

  • Reading Eggs
    Technical Solutions Lead
    Jul 2021 → 2025

    Technical solutions, integrations, and implementation for a large Australian educational platform. Led a CMS migration that reduced publishing time by 40% and improved page speed by about 30%. Documented processes for building Contentful components with GraphQL migration updates. Shipped Family Dashboard redesign work that reduced the number of steps parents took to reach core actions. Established structured user testing (40%+ opt-in for feedback sessions). Supported API integrations and production troubleshooting with JavaScript/TypeScript, React, and Next.js.

  • Reading Eggs
    Marketing Engineer
    Jul 2020 → Jul 2021

    Technical implementation and support for user-facing systems. Built integrated lead-generation flows with solid data handling (1000s of leads monthly). Shipped internal automation saving 128+ team hours annually. Ran A/B tests supporting redesigns that lifted conversion rates by roughly 10–15%.

  • Partnerize
    Technical Solutions Engineer
    Apr 2018 → Nov 2019

    Integrations and data troubleshooting on a global affiliate marketing SaaS platform. Led complex integrations and Tier 2 support for enterprise clients including The Iconic. SQL, Postman, and Python for investigations, migrations, and fixes. Built a post-implementation feedback system and the supporting documentation, so integration issues surfaced earlier and the next engineer had a reference to work from. Partnered with engineering on bugs and production issues. Advised customers on REST APIs and integration best practices.

  • TIKS
    Product Experience Engineer
    Jun 2016 → Dec 2017

    Technical implementation for an enterprise visitor management system for clients including NAB, Foxtel, and Virgin Australia. Backend work to support research-led UI changes. Documentation and design-system-style standards for consistent delivery.

  • Thought Vessel
    Web Designer & Developer
    Apr 2015 → Jun 2016

    End-to-end websites with WordPress and Webflow, branding and UI work, and conversion-focused, user-centred experiences.

Education & other learning: Bachelor of Design (UNSW). Mentoring at General Assembly (2017–2023). Startup Founders (Blackbird Giants, 2023). Google Analytics (Skillshop, 2023). Python (Udemy, 2021). UX (Academy Xi, 2020). Software Engineering Immersive (General Assembly, 2016). XD Product (Thoughtworks, 2016).

Projects & repos

  • AI Done Right2026

    AI consulting for Australian SMBs — free opportunity calls, written plans, and implementation support. Next.js marketing site.

  • b55

    Personal newsletter and build log — what I'm shipping, learning, and thinking about product and AI.

  • The Creature Club

    Weekly parent–child wildlife newsletter — curated nature content designed to read together.

  • Antlytics

    Simple web analytics for sites and apps — installed with help from your AI assistant.

  • AI receptionist (AI Agent)2025

    Technical lead on backend architecture for an AI receptionist product: FastAPI middleware integrating Bland.ai with multiple CMS platforms, webhook-driven validation and sanitisation, structured logging and error handling.

  • waitlist.email2023–2025

    Next.js product: subscription APIs, migration from Prisma to Railway, reliability refactors, and ongoing backend work.

  • SupportRoadmap

    Free, community-driven roadmap for people starting out in customer support and levelling up — content and product build in small, consistent steps.

  • Task Summon

    Habits and gamification on top of Google Tasks — streaks, XP, and daily dashboards (Next.js, shadcn/ui, Vercel).

  • Fitas

    Mobile-first fitness tracker: workouts, meals, macros, body metrics, cardio — Next.js App Router, shadcn/ui, Recharts.

  • CRO Test

    Two-page A/B test tool with URL or event conversions, embeddable scripts, domain allowlists, and multi-user experiments (Next.js, MongoDB, OAuth).

  • Biosite (AlgiBank)

    Next.js app with API routes integrating upstream Drupal data for algae banking workflows; environment-driven config and webhook-style data paths.

  • ulman.au

    This site — Next.js app router, documentation-style layout, and homepage you are reading.

Stack

  • Cursor
  • TypeScript
  • Python
  • React
  • Next.js
  • GraphQL
  • REST APIs
  • PostgreSQL
  • Prisma
  • Railway
  • Vercel
  • Contentful
  • Figma
  • Postman