Clarity over cleverness
Code and tooling should be easy to read and understand — for the next person, and for yourself six months later.
What I do
< Control Systems, Scientific Software & Validation Engineering />
I'm a credentialed Ignition integrator and Python systems engineer — a rare combination that bridges industrial control systems and scientific software. I build SCADA/HMI and automation systems alongside the validation, configuration-safety, and developer tooling that keep them reliable, predictable, and easy to maintain.
I work especially well where software meets instrumentation: research and laboratory automation, scientific data systems, and control environments that demand correctness. My focus is reducing invalid states, improving debugging clarity, and making complex systems legible to the people who depend on them.
Available for integration and consulting engagements as well as remote or hybrid roles — and able to travel for on-site work. Whether you need an Ignition build, a validation-focused tooling review, or an engineer who can move between control systems and Python, I'd be glad to talk.
Ignition SCADA / HMI integration • Scientific & lab automation • Control systems
Python backend & developer tooling • Schema-driven validation • Configuration safety
CI/CD reliability • Open source collaboration • Clear technical documentation
Engagements & Roles
Ignition Integrator • Scientific Software Engineer • Python Backend Engineer • Systems Reliability / DevEx Engineer • Automation & Validation Consultant
Ignition Integrator • Scientific Software Engineer • Python Backend Engineer • Systems Reliability / DevEx Engineer • Automation & Validation Consultant
< Professional Profile />
⚧️ Pronouns: He/Him
Doby Baxter — credentialed Ignition integrator and Python systems engineer, specializing in validation, reliability, and the space where control systems meet scientific software.
I build systems that prevent invalid states, improve error clarity, and make complex configurations easier to reason about — from Ignition Perspective SCADA and PLC control (Siemens TIA Portal, CODESYS) to schema-driven Python tooling and developer-facing platforms.
Contributor to ESA Pyxel, where I improved validation, reliability, and developer experience within a scientific detector-simulation framework — the same correctness-first mindset I bring to industrial and laboratory automation.
I work in Git-based environments with an emphasis on maintainability, clear documentation, and systems that are easy to understand, debug, and hand off.
| < Technical Competencies /> | |
|---|---|
| Credential | Credentialed & Registered Ignition Integrator — Inductive Automation (Ignition 8.3), listed in the official Inductive Automation integrator directory. |
| PLC & Industrial Automation | Ignition SCADA (Perspective) • Siemens TIA Portal • CODESYS • Ladder Logic • Motor Control • PLC Simulation & Debugging |
| Programming | Python • TypeScript • JavaScript • Node.js • Bash |
| Validation & Configuration | JSON • YAML • JSON Schema Design • AJV Validation • Schema-Driven Architecture • Configuration Validation • Deterministic Workflows |
| DevOps & Tooling | Git • GitLab CI/CD • Docker • PyPI • CLI Tooling • OpenTelemetry (distributed tracing, metrics & logs) |
| Security & Systems | Input Validation • Secure Configuration • Network Analysis (Wireshark, Nmap) • System Inspection & Debugging |
| Documentation & Communication | Technical Writing • Architecture Documentation • Open Source Collaboration • Async Remote Communication |
| Engineering Experience |
|
< Professional Endorsement />
"Doby has demonstrated strong technical skills, thoughtful system-level thinking, and a clear focus on usability and maintainability. He played a key role in developing innovative tooling driven by real user and community needs. He is proactive, reliable, and communicates clearly, particularly when working on complex or cross-cutting features."
– Mission Payload Senior Software Engineer, European Space Agency
< How I think about building />
A few principles I try to keep in mind when working on tooling, configuration, and developer-facing systems.
Catch problems early
Good configuration handling and clear error messages make it much easier to spot mistakes before they become bigger issues.
Predictable behavior
Tools that behave consistently are easier to trust, debug, and hand off to someone else.
Useful errors
When something goes wrong, the error should tell you what happened and ideally point you toward fixing it.
< Work With Me />
Industrial Automation
< Top PLC Projects />
A selection of featured projects in industrial automation, SCADA, and PLC programming — focused on control systems, HMI design, and modular machine architecture.
< Featured Projects />
Pyxel Config Lab
A schema-aware YAML configuration system for ESA Pyxel simulation modes, designed to reduce misconfiguration risk in scientific workflows. Implements guided configuration flows, integrated validation, and contextual error handling to enforce structural correctness and improve usability in complex detector simulation environments.
▶ Visit
ESA Pyxel Contributions
A structured contribution index documenting system-level improvements to a scientific detector simulation framework, including validation architecture, simulation models, and developer tooling. Highlights clarity-driven design, reduction of configuration ambiguity, and improvements to reliability and developer experience.
▶ Visit
Pyxel Assistive Reading Companion
A browser extension designed to enhance comprehension of scientific documentation through inline semantic augmentation. Introduces a layered concept system that detects domain-specific terminology and provides contextual explanations directly within the reading flow. Emphasizes cognitive accessibility, reduced context-switching, and a scalable architecture.
▶ Visit
Multi-Scale Earth Observation
A full-stack geospatial application integrating a FastAPI backend with the Copernicus Sentinel Hub API for real-time Sentinel-2 imagery, NDVI computation, and statistical aggregation. Orbital mechanics are computed via Skyfield (SGP4 propagation) to contextualize satellite passes. The frontend uses CesiumJS to render an interactive 3D globe with toggleable data overlays. Render hosting the API.
▶ Visit
PLC Programming & Industrial Automation
A growing portfolio of PLC programming projects focused on industrial automation, control systems, and machine logic design. Includes motor control systems, latching circuits, sensor-based automation, and troubleshooting workflows using Ladder Logic and PLC simulation. Focused on reliable system behavior, fault isolation, and practical industrial problem-solving where software meets hardware.
▶ Visit
Open Telemetry and Second Order Cybernetics
An exploratory contribution site documenting my journey into OpenTelemetry - the open source standard for distributed observability - alongside the ideas that drew me to it. Frames observability as a second-order cybernetic practice, where engineers, users, and the systems they build all sit inside the same feedback loop. A working notebook for contributions, reflections, and the long-term question of what it means to make complex systems legible to the humans who depend on them.
▶ Visit
SentinelPi — CLI Cyberlab
A Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W–based systems lab for network analysis, monitoring, and security experimentation within a constrained hardware environment. Designed for hands-on exploration of system behavior, service configuration, and command-line automation under real-world resource limitations.
▶ Visit Repo
GitLab Systems Contributions
A technical portfolio of contributions across backend, frontend, and documentation within the GitLab ecosystem. Focused on validation, data integrity, and preventing invalid system states through safer parsing, input constraints, and improved API clarity in large-scale production systems.
▶ Visit
Lumenoid-AI
An AI systems architecture framework exploring bounded, human-centered design. Focuses on deterministic workflows, structural safeguards, and transparent system behavior to preserve human agency and accountability in AI-assisted environments.
▶ Visit< 🌐 Browse All Projects />
< LLM Workflow Router />
A structured workflow engine for LLM pipelines — built around the same principles that run through all my work: predictable execution, validated configuration, and clear failure states. YAML-driven, cycle-safe, and designed to make complex AI workflows easier to reason about, debug, and hand off.
Deterministic workflow execution
YAML-based workflow configuration
Workflow structure validation
Cycle detection and safe re-entry handling
CLI tools for analysis and logging
The repository is publicly available for inspection and non-commercial use. Commercial or production deployment requires a license — starting from £249 for single-project usage, with team and enterprise options available. If you're building something with it, feel free to reach out.
Includes a commercial license grant, packaged Python wheel (.whl), and usage & integration instructions.
< My Soft Skills Journey />
A living constellation of personal growth – from empathy to confidence, advocacy to connection. Click or hover to expand the details for each milestone.
☀️ Solar Journey (Playable Demo)
Explore the Solar System in a pixel-art spaceship made in PICO-8!
< A Note on Perseverance />
- I am disabled and neurodivergent, and my path through education and work has been shaped more by the absence of accommodation than by any lack of ability.
- I left university because the environment was not built for the way I learn and recover, and the same pattern followed into employment: burnout, health flare-ups, and inaccessible spaces made long-term stability hard, even when the technical work itself was never the problem.
- At one point, severe burnout left me unable to work for nearly two years. That experience reshaped how I think about systems, sustainability, and what meaningful support actually looks like.
- It also made something impossible to ignore: too much of the industry is still built around narrow definitions of who gets to participate. Talent is filtered through rigid expectations that quietly exclude disabled, neurodivergent, and nontraditional people, not for lack of ability, but because the system was never designed with them in mind.
- This is why I care so much about validation, maintainability, and developer experience. Clearer systems, better tooling, and predictable workflows are not just technical improvements, they are forms of accessibility. They reduce friction and make participation more possible.
- I have always been capable. I have not always been allowed to participate.
- Like a rover on Mars, arrival does not automatically create belonging. For me, belonging comes through curiosity, imagination, and building structures that help people move forward, together.
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