Software Engineer & Builder

Jordan
Havard

Head of Engineering building compliance SaaS at scale for Australian government. Operator of QVirtual — Australia's largest virtual airline. Passionate about PHP, Laravel, Linux infrastructure, and the intersection of aviation and software.

Current role Head of Eng.
At Octfolio since 2022
QVirtual lead dev 2019
Stack PHP / Laravel / React
2022 — Present
Head of Engineering
Octfolio

Leading engineering on a multi-tenant asbestos compliance SaaS platform serving Australian and New Zealand government agencies and enterprise clients. Led an incremental, zero-downtime migration from a legacy PHP 7.2 system to PHP 8.4 + Laravel + React — including an LLM-powered natural language query layer, React Native mobile app (iOS & Android), and complete Azure infrastructure migration.

PHP / Laravel React React Native Azure MySQL LLM / AI NGINX
2019 — Present
CEO & Lead Developer
QVirtual

Took over development of Australia's largest virtual airline (est. 2011), rebuilding and scaling it on a fully custom PHP/Laravel platform. Flight planning API integrations, automated PIREP acceptance, ACARS/SimConnect flight tracking, and a full gamified pilot economy. AMDB integration is next on the roadmap.

PHP / Laravel SimConnect ACARS Electron Linux
Laracon Australia 2025 — Conference Speaker
Legacy to Laravel: Wrapping a Legacy PHP Codebase into a Modern, Tested Application
Presented live at Laracon AU on wrapping a legacy PHP codebase with Laravel — from zero tests and whack-a-mole deploys to shipping daily with confidence.
▶ Watch Talk
Stratos
Desktop flight tracking Electron app for QVirtual pilots. Dark utilitarian UI, SimConnect integration, live telemetry display.
PackagePilot
GitHub App automating Composer lock-file updates for PHP/Laravel developers. Zero-friction dependency hygiene.
Outercom
Customer support CRM, an alternative to Intercom. In progress.
ChessDefender
Chess training app focused on defensive play against aggressive openings. Built in React, in progress.

Flight simulation isn't a hobby — it's a second engineering domain. I've spent years building production software for virtual aviators, and the tools I use as a simmer directly inform what I build as a developer.

Through QVirtual, I have hands-on experience with flight planning APIs — OFP ingestion, dispatch validation, and automated flight plan workflows running in production today.

Fenix A320 Airbus Narrowbody · MSFS
PMDG 777 Boeing Widebody · MSFS
FlyByWire A380X Airbus Ultra-long · MSFS
Integrations & Platform
SimBrief API
OFP ingestion, dispatch automation, pre-flight validation — live in QVirtual production
Navigraph
AMDB integration on the QVirtual roadmap
SimConnect / ACARS
Real-time touchdown detection and flight telemetry logging
Automated PIREP Acceptance
Validates and approves/rejects pilot flight reports with reasoning
VATSIM
Client integration architecture for live ATC connectivity