TECHNOLOGY WITH A LITTLE MAGIC

CTO · AGENTIC AI · ENGINEERING LEADER · PRODUCT FOUNDER

A little magic.
A lot of
engineering

I’m Chris. I connect strategy, engineering and a healthy sense of possibility to turn ambitious ideas into products and services people actually use.

Explore my work
Build something together
Chris’s wizard avatar, hand drawn by Illustrator Chloe Cheetham. Holding a glowing cyan orb in a teal robe against violet energy.
THE WIZARD CTOMaking the complex possible.

Ideas are good.
Shipping is better.

15+ yearsProduct and Engineering
50+Projects Shipped
8M+Users Reached
✧Software. Hardware. Games.
And the space between.

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Different worlds.
The same builder.

Games, connected products, intelligent systems.
A few things I’ve helped bring into the world.

Grub Lab experiences including Smurfs, Jurassic World, NFL Catch and Shrek
EXPERIENCES
INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCES01 / 03

Serious engineering.
Millions of moments of play.

Grub Lab2018—2026

Leading a 15 person team to connect brands, venues and families through physical and digital play. More than 20 games and experiences, built upon my reusable game composition engine/platform.

Engineering leadershipWebGLGame platforms
5 million+Playthroughs across 20+ Experiences
RCT-V5.2 Rotary Compression Tester kit with handheld unit, case and sensor
PRODUCT
HARDWARE & PRODUCT02 / 03

From a circuit on the bench
to a product in the world.

Rotary Compression Tester2016—2017

Co-founding a diagnostic hardware venture and taking a compact rotary engine compression tester from concept and prototype through production, international sales and exit.

ElectronicsEmbedded systemsProduct development
$1 million+in product sales before a successful exit
NCC-S2 smart-city sensor node with antennas and environmental sensors
IoT | INFRA | CLOUD
CONNECTED SYSTEMS03 / 03

Big ideas, connected
to the real world.

University & Smart CitiesSELECTED WORK

From connected devices, VR/AR/MR and transport integrations to university cloud migration and petabyte scale storage. Technology that works beyond the demo.

IoT & firmwareCloud infrastructureProgram delivery
Hardware → cloudA practical view of the whole system

A few pieces of my magic.

HOW I WORK

Curiosity starts it.
Craft gets it shipped.

I work across the decisions, the details
and the people who make it happen.

Find the right problem.

Connect the technical possibilities to the product and commercial context. Work out what matters before choosing what to build.

STRATEGY & DIRECTION

Get into the details.

Move between architecture and hands-on work. Prototype the uncertain parts, make thoughtful trade-offs and build for the real world.

ENGINEERING & INVENTION

Bring people with you.

Give teams clarity, room to do good work and a shared understanding of the outcome. Keep technical decisions connected to delivery.

LEADERSHIP & DELIVERY

CURRENT FOCUS

AI that earns its place.

Practical agentic AI and AI-assisted workflows.
Built around reliability, useful outcomes and commercial value.

Talk AI with me

A FEW MORE PROJECTS...

Experiences you can step into.

From a stadium full of fans to a room that hasn’t been built yet. A closer look at work I’ve helped create with teams and partners.

Phoenix mascot and a young fan on the basketball court during the stadium activation.
STADIUM ACTIVATIONS

A game for the whole arena

An interactive halftime game for the South East Melbourne Phoenix’s 100th home game.

Explore the project
A game for the whole arena
A fan uses a phone to reveal an AFL mascot in augmented reality.
AUGMENTED REALITY

AFL mascots, out in the world

An AR treasure hunt that turned AFL Gather Round into a search for life size team mascots in augmented reality.

Explore the project
AFL mascots, out in the world
Jurassic World dinosaur imagery at Universal, as featured in the supplied portfolio.
BRANDED EXPERIENCES

Dinosaurs in your surroundings

An AR experience for the launch of Jurassic World Dominion, bringing film dinosaurs into fans’ own spaces.

Explore the project
Dinosaurs in your surroundings
A phone displays a Ghostbusters augmented reality game above a physical activity pack.
PHYSICAL & DIGITAL PLAY

Ghostbusters: Mini Puft Blast

Physical activity packs and AR play for celebrating the launch of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.

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Ghostbusters: Mini Puft Blast
A learner wearing HoloLens explores a pregnancy visualisation with an instructor.
IMMERSIVE LEARNING

A new perspective on birth

Mixed reality training for midwives, delivered through HoloLens and iPad.

Explore the project
A new perspective on birth
A virtual home interior showing a dining area and lounge in the property VR experience.
VIRTUAL REALITY

Walk through a home before it exists

Room scale VR that let buyers explore and personalise their future homes.

Explore the project
Walk through a home before it exists
CONNECTING THE DOTS.THEN BUILDING THE THING.

THE PERSON BEHIND THE WIZARD

A serious builder.
An open mind.

I’m Chris Hildebrandt, a technology leader and product founder based in Newcastle, Australia.

Over more than a decade, I’ve worked across interactive experiences, embedded electronics, connected cities and cloud infrastructure. I’ve led engineering teams, co-founded ventures and stayed close to the work of building.

The thread through it all? Curiosity about what’s possible, and the persistence to make it useful.

CONTACT

Something difficult
worth building?

For technology leadership, a product challenge
or an interesting possibility. Let’s talk.