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Speculative application · Affinda Group EOI · 13 May 2026

Builder-shaped roles · Affinda Group

Affinda Group · Melbourne CBD. Four wholly-owned subsidiaries solving complex business problems with AI: Affinda (intelligent document processing), Pathfindr (executive AI education and adoption), Draftable (document comparison software), Vesparum Capital (founder-led capital advisory). 100 people. 2,000+ customers across 80+ countries. This page is the case for a Career systems builder slotting into the Group at senior IC calibration.

Group Affinda Group · privately held · founded by Tim & Ben Toner HQ Melbourne CBD (opposite Fed Square) Scale ~100 staff · 2,000+ customers · 80+ countries Profile Deloitte Tech Fast 50 #26 (2024) · 364% growth since 2022 Subsidiaries Affinda · Pathfindr · Draftable · Vesparum Capital Apply via affindagroup.applytojob.com · Expressions of Interest channel
Calibration note

Builder-shaped roles at Group level

This expression of interest is submitted at the Group level — addressed to where Affinda Group is heading rather than to a specific currently-posted seat. The Group operates four AI-shaped businesses and is capital-raising with the stated ambition of becoming "an Australian AI company of globally significant proportions." Companies at that inflection need senior builders — people who design the architecture, ship the implementation, and demonstrate the methodology from first principles. The Saputo DOT seven-layer architecture, the Pacific Brands six-ERP centralised engine, and two years of Anthropic's Claude as a genuine engineering partner sit in front of you on this site. Section 05 sets out the strengths I'd bring — where they land inside the Group is your call.

One disclosure up front: I am Warrnambool-based, 100% remote since 2019, AEST. Three hours from Melbourne. If Affinda Group needs CBD-onsite four or five days a week, this is a mismatch. If remote-primary with planned monthly travel is on the table, the body of this dashboard sets out why I fit.

01Mandate vs Approach

five Group-level work surfaces · paired
Affinda Group stated mandate
"The market doesn't need more product features; it needs outcomes." — Ben Toner. Pair products (Affinda doc AI) with services (Pathfindr enablement) so the underlying business problem actually gets solved. Capability uplift, automation, and adoption as a single offer.
What I bring
Two centralised platforms across the Career, both built as architecture + governance together. At Pacific Brands the six-ERP centralised planning engine shipped with mandatory CEO sign-off governance baked in. At Saputo the seven-layer DOT architecture shipped with three thematic Power BI Service workspaces, supplier scorecards, and S&OP decks. Outcomes-first build is the only kind I have done. The product-and-service marriage Affinda Group is now formalising is the operating discipline I have practised throughout my Career.
Affinda · doc AI platform
Intelligent document processing across 56 languages and 400+ enterprise system integrations. AI agents extracting structured data from resumes, invoices, contracts, IDs, forms. SEEK, Deloitte, Korn Ferry, Northline as named customers. New agentic platform launched alongside the Pathfindr acquisition.
What I bring
Seven-layer ETL architecture on SAP ECC, designed and built solo at Saputo. Source → staging → lookups → transformation → KPI → presentation → governance. Layers 5–7 and the KIM pegging engine built with Anthropic's Claude as engineering partner from 2024 — RAG over operational metadata, agentic exception handling, prompt-chained reconciliation. Source-agnostic architecture transfers to any document or data type; the discipline is the deliverable.
Pathfindr · AI adoption
Executive AI education, training, and hands-on delivery support. Founded 2023 by Dawid Naude (ex-Accenture AI Technology MD in Australia). Victorian Government, Honey Insurance on the client roster. The "people side" of the Group's AI transformation thesis.
What I bring
Adjacent expertise, not target role. 70+ versioned skill files codifying how I work with Claude on enterprise builds — the artefact of two years training myself in AI-augmented methodology. That methodology is what Pathfindr's customers are paying to learn. The right placement is upstream of Pathfindr — building the Group's own AI capability internally, or designing the implementation patterns that Pathfindr then teaches. Not the Delivery Lead seat.
Draftable · document comparison
Document comparison software for law firms and legal teams. Mature product. Engineering-led. Ben Toner's other founded company before Affinda. The discipline of a software product team shipping versioned releases to enterprise customers.
What I bring
The discipline transfers. Nine-year Saputo DOT build cycle, zero architectural rewrite required across six structural revisions. Version-controlled across 50+ workbooks. Multi-layer integration, refresh management, performance discipline. The maintenance shape of an enterprise product is the maintenance shape I have run solo, just on a different domain. Where Draftable needs a builder who understands the difference between a shipped feature and an adopted one, that is my track record exactly.
Vesparum · capital advisory
Independent advisory firm helping founder-led Australian companies raise capital. The Affinda doc AI business was originally incubated out of Vesparum. The "financial discipline" arm of the Group; the muscle that runs the upcoming Affinda Group capital raise.
What I bring
A Career of S&OP governance running into CEOs and CFOs. At Pacific Brands the supplier-order & cash-flow numbers I built fed three divisional CEOs with mandatory sign-off. Comfort presenting board-level operational and financial data is the day job. Not pitching this as the primary fit, but the financial-discipline muscle is part of the package; useful context if Vesparum-adjacent work emerges at the Group level.

02Why Affinda Group · why me

four anchor angles
ANGLE 01

A builder culture at the top — Ben Toner is Chief Scientist, not CRO

The Toner brothers ran the business with one as CEO (Tim) and the other as Chief Scientist (Ben). That is a builder org chart. The companies that operate this way — founder-engineer at the top of the technical line, founder-CEO at the top of the commercial line — are the ones where a senior IC builder gets to actually build and be heard. Three management tiers above where I sit today, at Pacific Brands, I had a CEO who signed off on S&OP outputs because the work was credible. Same shape.

ANGLE 02

Capital-raise scale = senior builders, not enterprise account managers

Affinda Group is currently capital-raising following the $15M Pathfindr acquisition, with stated ambition to become an Australian AI company of "globally significant proportions." Companies at that inflection don't need more delivery seats; they need builders who can credibly demonstrate the methodology from first principles when investors and Tier-1 customers ask "what does an AI-augmented build actually look like end-to-end?" The Saputo DOT, the 70+ skill ecosystem, and this site itself answer that question with working artefacts.

ANGLE 03

"Pair products with services" is the build pattern I have lived

Tim Toner's framing — pair products (the platform) with services (the delivery) so the business problem actually gets solved — describes the way I have shipped every centralised platform. Pacific Brands wasn't a piece of software; it was a system, a process, a governance discipline, and a CEO sign-off ritual. Saputo DOT wasn't a Power BI report; it was a seven-layer architecture, three governance workspaces, and a daily operational rhythm. The architecture and the adoption are one piece of work. That's already how I think.

ANGLE 04

AI-augmented build methodology — working artefacts, not slide-deck claims

Two years of Anthropic's Claude as a genuine engineering partner on enterprise-scale architecture. The DOT layers 5–7, the KIM pegging engine, this site, the company-specific dashboards — all working artefacts of the AI-augmented build pattern. For a company building AI products and services, working artefacts are the credibility most candidates can't show. The methodology is the differentiator, and it's in your hands as you read this page.

03Skills match — Group surface to evidence

where the work could land
Affinda Group work surface
Evidence in my track record
Match
Solutions Architecture — document AI implementations at enterprise customers
Seven-layer DOT architecture for the Australian Saputo operation on SAP ECC: 970+ materials modelled, 231 Power BI visuals, 155 DAX measures, three thematic Power BI Service workspaces. Pacific Brands six-ERP centralised engine across three divisions with CEO sign-off governance. The architectural pattern transfers directly.
Direct
AI-augmented build methodology — reusable patterns, internal capability uplift
Two years Anthropic's Claude as a genuine engineering partner. 70+ versioned skill files codifying the methodology. The DOT layers 5–7, the KIM pegging engine, this site itself — all artefacts of the AI-augmented build pattern.
Direct
Data pipeline / ETL design — structured extraction at scale
Seven-layer ETL on SAP ECC. Power Query M, VBA orchestration, refresh management across 50+ workbooks. Nine-year build, zero architectural rewrite required. The discipline that keeps the architecture maintainable is the deliverable.
Direct
BI / analytics architecture — executive reporting platforms
231 Power BI visuals, 155 DAX measures, three thematic Power BI Service workspaces. S&OP decks modelled on the Pacific Brands CEO sign-off pattern. Reporting designed for executive decisions, not reporting that exists to satisfy a process.
Direct
Enterprise integration — multi-source, multi-format, multi-system
Six divisional ERPs unified at Pacific Brands Workwear Group. Dynamics AX at Australian Defence Apparel on regulated defence procurement. SAP ECC at Saputo. Three different ERPs in three industries — the Career muscle for closing platform gaps fast.
Direct
Product engineering on Affinda's Python/ML stack
Honest position: my production stack has been Microsoft-deep (DAX, M, VBA, T-SQL, Power Platform) plus hand-built vanilla HTML/CSS/JavaScript on Cloudflare Workers. Python / ML model deployment is a ramp, not a barrier — the architectural patterns transfer. First 60-day work, not first-week work.
Adjacent

04Build proof

two centralised systems · across the Career
Crown jewel · Pacific Brands Workwear Group

Six-ERP centralised planning engine

2011–2013 · Group-level · VIC / NSW / NZ · CEO governance

Built solo as the single planning systems builder at Workwear Group level — three management tiers above where I sit today. Harvested data from six divisional ERPs, auto-generated supplier orders, produced branded dashboards per division and S&OP decks for the three divisional CEOs with mandatory sign-off governance.

The relevant point for Affinda Group: this is the "platform plus services plus governance" Group operating model, executed at scale, more than a decade before the Group named that thesis. The pattern of one builder shipping for multiple business units is the agency/group pattern, demonstrated.

6ERPs unified
3Divisions · CEO sign-off
3Regions VIC/NSW/NZ
1Builder
Recent build · Saputo Dairy Australia

DOT — 7-layer planning architecture

2016–2025 · Australian operation · SAP ECC · Power BI · Claude

Solo design and build of the Demand & Operations Toolkit (DOT). Seven integrated layers: source ingestion, staging, lookups, transformation, KPI calculation, presentation and governance. Exactly the pattern Affinda's intelligent document processing platform sells — enterprise-grade architecture, configurable, deployable, integrating to source systems — on a different domain.

Layers 5–7 (the most recent) were built with Anthropic's Claude as a genuine engineering partner — RAG over operational metadata, agentic exception handling, prompt-chained reconciliation. The methodology is the differentiator; the artefacts are the proof.

970+Materials managed
231Power BI visuals
155DAX measures
2024Claude as partner

05Three strengths I'd bring

your call where they land
Strength 01

Customer-embedded systems delivery

FDE-style platform implementation

Designing and shipping enterprise systems inside customer environments — integration, configuration, adoption, governance. The pattern I have run across three industries and three different ERPs (Pacific Brands, ADA on Dynamics AX, Saputo on SAP ECC). Where the doc AI platform needs an architect alongside the customer during a Tier-1 implementation, that conversation is mine.

Strength 02

AI-augmented build methodology

two years of Claude as engineering partner

Two years of Anthropic's Claude as a genuine engineering partner on enterprise-scale architecture. 70+ versioned skill files codifying the methodology. The DOT layers 5–7, the KIM pegging engine, this site, the company-specific dashboards — working artefacts of the AI-augmented build pattern. The reusable-pattern library that internal capability uplift would draw from.

Strength 03

BI and data platform architecture

reporting estate at multi-site scale

231 visuals, 155 DAX measures, three thematic Power BI Service workspaces — designed for executive sign-off and operational rhythm. The reporting estate behind a 100-person, 2,000-customer, 80-country operation at capital-raise inflection is non-trivial, and the architectural muscle for that estate already exists in my track record.

Where any of these strengths land at Affinda Group — Solutions Architect, AI Engineer, BI Architect, something I haven't thought of — you're better positioned than I am to assess. You know the org map and the commercial AI landscape; I bring the methodology and the artefacts. If something fits, I would be glad to talk.

06Risks I'd raise myself

honest framing · before the interview
Location · CBD cadence
Affinda Group is at Federation Square, Melbourne CBD. I am Warrnambool-based, 100% remote since 2019. Three hours each way by car. Honest framing: if the preferred model is CBD-onsite four or five days a week, this is a mismatch. If remote-primary with planned monthly travel for board, customer, and team-rhythm meetings is workable, the rest of the dashboard sets out the fit.
Stack ramp · Python / ML
Affinda's production stack is Python / ML / vector / API-deep. My production stack has been Microsoft-deep (DAX, M, VBA, T-SQL, Power Platform) plus hand-built vanilla HTML/CSS/JS on Cloudflare Workers. Honest framing: Python deployment is a real ramp, not a "I know the language" claim. The architectural patterns I have shipped transfer; the specific framework discipline is first-60-day work. If the role on offer demands shipping production Python in week one, I am the wrong applicant. If the role is "architect the implementation, lead the customer engagement, build the methodology," I am exactly the right one.

07Industry pulse

Affinda Group context · doc AI & AU AI services signal
Affinda Group · scale ~100 staff · 4 subsidiaries
Customers · countries 2,000+ across 80+ countries
Affinda growth since 2022 364% Deloitte Tech Fast 50 #26
Pathfindr acquisition $15M all-scrip · Oct 2025
Doc AI platform languages 56 400+ enterprise integrations
Global IDP market 2024 ~$2.3B ~30% CAGR · MarketsandMarkets
AU businesses using AI 68% ≥1 function · McKinsey 2025
Claude as engineering partner 2 yrs DOT 5–7, KIM, this site
Builder-to-Group pitch: senior IC, Career track record, two years on the AI-augmented build methodology Affinda Group's thesis is now scaling. Remote-primary from Warrnambool with planned monthly CBD onsite.
robertmclark.dev · /company/affinda.html · v20 Robert M. Clark · Warrnambool VIC · AEST · Remote since 2019