Curriculum Vitae

For updates to this C.V., and latest contact details please visit

Tertiary: University of Canterbury (1989 - 1993)                   

            B.E. Hons (Electrical and Electronic)             

 A highly productive and professional electronic engineer with a broad range of skills covering all aspects of the hardware and software product development cycles. Technical skills are complemented by sound project and people management experience in addition to market and commercial awareness.

Mitchell currently seeks contract and freelance roles, providing is services via his UK limited company [snip]. 

 MIET : Member of The Institution of Engineering and Technology ( UK )

PMI : Member of The Project Management Institute (USA)
 

 The numbers shown in [] indicate the number of years experience I have in each of these skills.

Digital Electronics Design     [14]

Printed Circuit Design           [14] SMT, single sided, MBGA, multilayer, (, Altium, Protel, PADS, Mentor Graphics, Orcad, Cadence).

Procurement                           [11]

Project Management             [8]

Design for Manufacture.       [10]

Pre-compliance testing          [8] Electromagnetic compatibility, Telecom PTC Standards, Electrical Safety Standards, Automotive standards

Languages:                             -C/C++[9], VB [6], Modula 2[2], Pascal[1]

Embedded Software               -C[12], Assembler[7], (Motorola, Intel, XA, microchip, Zilog)

DSP Programming                 -TMS320[1]

Web                                        -HTML[6], ASP[2], Apache [2], JAVA, [1], .NET,

Database Design                   -MS Access[7], Embedded database applications[2]

                                                -SQL Server[2].

                                                -INFORMIX[0.5]

OOA/OOD                             -Object oriented analysis and design techniques, including UML [4].                 

[snip] ( Nov 2005 – Present )

Director, Freelance electronics and software design. 

[snip] ( Nov 2004 – Present )

ISO 9001 : CMM 2 

Lead Hardware Engineer (Contract)

Contracted as the Lead Hardware Engineer for [snip] on the Redhill (UK) site. This role involved hardware development and design for manufacture on many varied development projects. The projects range from proof of concept and product research to full production new product development. 

Example project : Lead Engineer amBX peripherals.

This was a new PC peripheral product development from initial concept to high volume manufacture including technology transfer to manufacturing partners in Asia. During this project Mitchell was the product architect responsible for overall system design in hardware, embedded and application software. At the peak of activity this 18 month development spanned teams in UK, Belgium, Malaysia, Taiwan and China. 

[snip]  Aug 2001 – Nov 2004

ISO 9001, VPDS, CMMi 4 

Development Manager [Mobile Electronics] ( Sep 2002 – Nov 2004 )

My technical and engineering management skills have been called upon in the role of Product Development Manager for the Mobile Electronics group. The Visteon Mobile Electronics group, develop automotive video infotainment systems for OEM customers. 

In this role I was responsible for many development projects for the growing OEM customer base. I provide top level system design and technical direction for the business unit, while managing a cross functional development team of 12 UK based direct reports and another 7 project based engineers in China and India. I also actively participate in the companies’ global product platform and development planning. I have created the groups 3 year product platform architecture and development plan. In this platform I made extensive use of Object Oriented Design principals applied to both software and hardware. The key aim of my design approach was to maximize re-use between differing customer projects,  reducing the burden of maintenance and testing while speeding time to market for new product variants.

My strategic product planning abilities are also in demand by our OEM customers seeking to refine their specific product offerings. 

Lead Engineer ( March 2002 – Sep 2002 )

My performance in the position of System Design Engineer provided considerable growth in business with the OEM customer. This lead to my promotion to Lead Engineer. In the role of Lead Engineer I was responsible for a number of software and hardware development projects for this OEM customer. I continued to act as design engineer and program manager on a number of high profile projects. These projects incorporate digital hardware and real time embedded software design ( C, C++, Asm) using CAN and MOST bus protocols. This was also a client facing role in which I provided on-site sales and engineering support to automotive manufacturers throughout Europe.  

System Design Engineer    (Aug 2001 – March 2002)

In this contract position I was employed to lead the development of leading edge automotive electronic products. In this role I was personally responsible for one vehicle Video entertainment system providing both system level design and implementation. This implementation was largely embedded software development with some minor hardware modifications. In this role I was largely self directed representing Visteon at customer technical reviews. 

Technical Snapshot:               Embedded software ; C, C++ (Motorola, ST9, Renasas, Atmel, TMS470)

                                                Electronic Design ;  Protel 98SE, Mentor Graphics

                                                Project management ; CMMi

[snip] ( Managing Director )                   Dec 1998 – March 2002

I setup [snip] to work as an independent consultant in the fields of Hardware design, Embedded software, Database and Application development. 

I have completed a wide range of contracts.  These contracts have included hardware design, embedded software, database and application design, design for manufacture and project management.  As project requirements have increased, MCT has employed and managed other contractors to provide multiple project teams to meet customers time and quality requirements. Please refer to separate MCT project experience[1] document for a list of all projects completed by [snip]. 

Technical Snapshot:               MS Access, VB, JAVA, ASP, MTS, SQL Server 7, Modula 2, Embedded software (Motorola, Zilog, Microchip, Atmel, Intel, Philips XA, TMS320),  

[snip] (Development Engineer) Feb 1998 – March 1999  

Pulse Data International develop and distribute medical products and electronic aids for the visually impaired. The company has its head office, development and manufacturing in Christchurch, and five overseas distribution offices. Current product lines include synthetic speech on PC and embedded systems, digital resolution enhancement, and productivity aids for visually impaired.

I was employed as a development engineer to support, develop and expand existing product lines. 

Projects :

·         Migrating synthetic speech to Microsoft NT, including SAPI support and NT Device driver.

·         Contract work including digital electronic design and embedded software.

·         Analog and digital video processing hardware for CCTV using CCD cameras.

·         Design of custom hardware for a WinCE HPC. 

Technical Snapshot:               MS Access, VB, C++, NT, SAPI, Embedded software (Zilog), 6 Layer PCB Design using Micro Ball Grid Array 

[snip] ( Consultant )         Sep. 1994 – Feb 1998

[snip] is a multi-disciplined team, and therefore projects commonly contain elements of hardware design, embedded software, communication protocols and application software.  My involvement covered most aspects of the project, from concept to production.

While the company benefits from the cross-pollination of software and hardware skills, I also feel I have an advantage by understanding the two disciplines myself.  This means that while I can work on the entire project, I can also fully understand issues faced by other members on team projects. 

Typical projects:

·         Design and development of auto-dialer telemetry devices including voice storage (Hardware design and code in C)

·         RF data transmission, up to 25 kbps using Plessey and Temic devices (Hardware Design and Code in Assembler, 8051)

·         Radio software (Assembler/C Motorola)

·         Low power systems (Hardware design Low voltage and current)

·         DTMF transceiver devices (Hardware design & code in C/Assembler )

·         Multi-channel modems using Rockwell chipsets ( Hardware Design )

·         Home automation (Hardware Design, code in Jade and C)

·         Maintenance of packet radio systems (C++)

·         Web development (HTML, MS Frontpage97)

·         Implementation of paperless ISO 9001 quality systems (MS Access Database)

·         Design and development of project management systems (MS Access Database)

·         Design and development of financial management packages (MS Access Database)

·         Responsible for Holliday Group’s ISO 9001 quality system, including writing procedures, reviewing corrective actions, conducting internal quality audits and presenting the system for external audits.

·         As the hardware representative on the operations committee, I assisted in resource and project planning.   

Technical Snapshot:               MS Access, HTML, Frontpage97,ASP, VB, C/C++, NT, Embedded software (Atmel, Motorola, ), Telecom PCB Design, ASK and FM Digital Radio Transmission, ISO9001 

[snip] ( Graduate Engineer)                                (Dec. 1993 - June 1994)

I joined the hardware development group, responsible for design of micro-processor based digital systems. This team developed unique systems from initial concepts to full production and implementation.  While at [snip] I personally followed three projects through the following stages of production; design and layout, production of gerber files for manufacture, assembly, testing, modification, servicing. 

During my time with [snip] I learned much about electronic design and production. 

Technical Snapshot:               MS Access, VB, C/C++, Embedded software (Motorola), PCB Design