Freelance Software Developer — Australia
I'm Matt Ratcliffe, an independent software developer and architect with more than twenty years of delivery behind me. I work with Australian businesses, health services and software vendors as a contractor — building systems, rescuing ones that are struggling, and taking architectural ownership where a team needs it. Remote-first from Ballarat, Victoria, on site where it helps.
What I do as a freelance developer
I am not a generalist body-shop resource. The work I take on tends to sit where the stakes are high and the requirements are unclear: integrations between systems that were never designed to talk, platforms carrying personal or payment data, AI features that have to behave predictably, and brownfield codebases where the original team has moved on.
My specialism is healthcare integration — HL7 v2 and FHIR, which is where most of my recent work sits. Outside healthcare I take on architecture, platform and product-engineering work across financial services and technology-first businesses.
Engagement models
Project delivery
A defined scope with a defined outcome — an integration, a platform component, a migration. Fixed price where the scope genuinely is fixed, day rate where it isn't.
Embedded contractor
Working inside your team on your board, at an agreed number of days per week. Usual shape for longer engagements where the roadmap changes as you learn.
Retained support
Ongoing ownership of something already built — interfaces, integrations, a platform — with agreed response expectations rather than a fixed number of hours.
Architecture & review
Short, high-leverage engagements: reviewing a design before you commit to it, auditing a system you've inherited, or arbitrating a decision the team is stuck on.
Fractional technical lead
Where a business needs senior technical judgement but not a full-time hire — vendor selection, technical due diligence, roadmap and hiring input.
Speaking & mentoring
Conference and meetup talks, team workshops, and one-to-one mentoring for engineers moving into architecture.
Working with an Australian contractor
I operate under ABN 93 220 523 504 and invoice in Australian dollars. Practically, that removes most of the friction that comes with engaging offshore: no time-zone gap to plan around, no currency conversion on every invoice, contracts under Australian law, and the ability to be in a room in Victoria when a workshop or a go-live needs it.
Australian business hours matter more than people expect. Integration work in particular involves a lot of coordination with third-party vendors, and being awake at the same time as everyone else routinely turns a two-week email thread into a two-day one.
Where I work
Almost all of my work is remote, with clients across Australia and internationally. For on-site work I am based in Ballarat and travel comfortably to Melbourne, Geelong and Bendigo. Beyond that, I am happy to travel for workshops, discovery and delivery milestones where being in person genuinely changes the outcome.
Rates and availability
I work on day rates for time-and-materials engagements and fixed price for well-defined scopes. Rates depend on the engagement length, how much architectural ownership sits with me, and whether there is an on-call or production-support component. Availability changes — the honest answer to "can you start next week?" is usually "tell me what it is and I'll tell you when I can".
Looking for a contract developer in Australia? Describe the work and I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right person for it. My full resume and past projects are both here if you want the detail first.