JOHN CLARY
I'm a Brooklyn-based engineering and product leader who helps cities build, buy, and manage technology. My roots are in mobility data and geospatial systems, but I love working on any problem that lets government agencies better serve the public.
Contact me if you're interested in working together.
Services
Launch a new digital service or fix a broken one
Scope, design, and deliver a new digital service — or rescue one that's stalled.
Lead a team through change
Adopt AI-assisted workflows, level up product operations, and train or recruit for new skills.
Deal with a legacy system
Build or procure a replacement, or chart a path forward that works around its limitations.
Get more from your vendors
Evaluate proposals, hold vendors accountable for delivery, and keep ownership of your systems and data.
Do something other cities haven't tried yet
Scope a low-risk pilot for emerging tech, and make the internal case for scaling it — or scrapping it.
Resume
Principal
I provide consulting for government — mobility data, geospatial systems, digital services.
Vision Zero Platform Manager
I lead product and engineering for the City's crash data platform — building the data architecture that unifies police, EMS, and hospital records, shipping features in two-week cycles, and forging cross-agency partnerships that turn siloed data into shared insight.
Head of Data & Technology
Founded and led Austin Transportation's 18-person digital services team, establishing the city as a national leader in open transportation data and modernizing enterprise systems — from traffic signals to curb management — through low-code tools and user-centered delivery. Served on the Open Mobility Foundation board, chairing its Privacy, Security, and Transparency Committee and leading authorship of the MDS Privacy Guide for Cities.
Senior Application Developer
Procured and built a division-wide asset and work management system for Austin Transportation, integrating IT systems with Python/Docker-based ETL pipelines and delivering custom web maps and dashboards in JavaScript.
Senior Geospatial Analyst
Conducted geospatial analyses in ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Online, and produced dashboards and reports with business intelligence and data visualization tools.
Teaching Assistant
Assisted instruction for undergraduate courses in the Department of Geography.
Senior Solution Consultant
Managed customer implementations of enterprise software solutions.
Resources
How to Provide People-Oriented Services
I was interviewed for this guide to state and local governments. Read it here.
MDS Privacy Guide for Cities
I led authorship of the Open Mobility Foundation's privacy guidance for cities using the Mobility Data Specification. Read it here.
Austin Transportation makes strides for transparent project data
2020 Austin Monitor story covering my team's effort to build the mobility project tracking platform that would become Moped. Read the story.
Databases, Dashboards & Death to Paper
2019 talk at School of Data. Read the slides.
Launching Alternatives to Legacy IT
2019 Civic Futures Summit Honoree. My team was recognized for replacing a hulking asset management system with a low-code alternative. Read more.
Hack the Traffic
2017 traffic hackathon that that I organized with colleagues at The University of Texas Center for Transportation Research.
Web Mapping With Open Data
2016 presentation at the GeoRodeo. Read the slides.
Spatial Austin
Maps and data visualizations exploring space and place in Austin, TX. Visit the site.