About · The operator

The person on the callis the person on thebrief, the code, the room.

One operator. No account manager between us. The voice on the call is the voice on the document is the voice on the code.

Daniel Paul Xuereb · Sydney

A note from Daniel

What this site is, and what it is not.

I'm Daniel Xuereb. Sydney. I started my senior delivery career at Westpac in 2016, and from there ran programs across financial services, utilities, energy, industrials, and startups, and got properly hands-on with AI in 2023. Since then I have shipped small AI tools myself, run program work as a senior operator, and watched a lot of vendor pitches fall apart in five minutes.

This site exists because I do not want to sell you a discovery call to find out what I cost. There are three ways to engage me and all three are on this page: fixed price for a defined output, a base plus a share of the value we create together, or equity if you are a startup I believe in. What you will never get is a day rate, because a day rate pays me for time whether or not anything lands.

If we are a fit, the work starts. If we are not, I will tell you that too, and I will tell you what I would actually do in your shoes. The fit check below takes two minutes and is honest in both directions.

— Daniel Xuereb

Daniel Paul Xuereb · Sydney

The arc

Westpac to today, in four chapters.

I · 2016
Started at Westpac.
Senior delivery on a big bank's biggest programs. Learned what good governance looks like, and what bad governance feels like to live inside. The shape of how I run program work today was set in those rooms.
II · 2018 to 2022
Financial services, utilities, energy, industrials.
Programs across industries that do not forgive sloppy delivery, plus startups on the side. SteerCos that meant something. Replans that triggered real re-baselines. The lesson that landed across all of them: frameworks do not run programs, decisions do, and decisions need an owner.
III · 2023
Hands-on with the model layer.
Got properly hands-on with AI: the SDKs, the agent patterns, the long-context tradeoffs, what actually ships and what is theatre. Started building small tools myself instead of writing decks about them.
IV · 2026
Now: Daniel Paul Xuereb.
Senior program work for corporates that need structure. Hands-on AI builds for founders. Four self-service tools already live on this site. Same operating model end-to-end: defined output, fixed price, date in writing.

Where the work has lived

Industries that don’t forgive sloppy delivery.

Programs and AI work across the sectors below. Named examples travel by email on request.

Financial services

Banking, insurance, wealth, regtech.

Utilities & energy

Grid, retail, generation, the transition.

Industrials

Mining, heavy industry, transport, logistics.

Media & advertising

Newsrooms, ad platforms, content ops.

Health & biotech

Care delivery, devices, research data.

Startups

From first sketch to seed and beyond.

Where I sit

Chief Operating Officer at Life and Passing Digital.

Design, engineering and AI under one roof since 2014. The team behind the work that ships on these tools and in these engagements.

See the studio

How I work

Plain rules, said up front.

Paid on outcomes.

Three models, all on this page: fixed price per output, base plus a share of measured value, or equity for startups. What I never charge is a day rate, because a day rate pays me for time whether or not anything lands.

Fixed priceValue shareEquity

One thing at a time.

One value-share program at a time. One build at a time. The cost of working with me is access; the benefit is that nothing gets handed to a junior and nothing competes for my Tuesday.

One programOne buildNo queue

I write, I build, I ship.

No account manager between us. I write the brief, do the work, and run the handover. The voice on the call is the voice on the document is the voice on the code.

BriefCodeHandover

What I will not do.

Day rates. Generic AI strategy decks. Pilots that exist to make someone look busy. Briefs without a defined output or a measurable prize. Work where my name does not go on what ships.

Day ratesStrategy decksTheatre pilots

Free · Two minutes · Honest both ways

You read the arc.You know the rules.Now run the fit check.

Six questions. The score is honest in both directions.

Run the fit check Or read what I’ve written