About
Square V
About Square V
Square V was started by Vicki Lane and Stephen van Rees in 2014 to fill a gap in the market for a software development company that understands agriculture.
Working with businesses across Australia and internationally, Square V is a software development consultancy building world-class software from our office in Bendigo in regional Victoria. Our team of 9 staff work across software development, user experience, software testing and agricultural liaison, and are passionate about building robust and practical software that is easy to use and gets the job done.
Our reputation across the industry is for asking smart questions and using the answers to build reliable software that does exactly what it needs to, delivering on time and within budget.
Our History
With an agronomist for a father and tight ties to the Birchip Cropping Group and farming community, Stephen van Rees grew up around agriculture, including some stints as an unwilling teenage farmhand in rural WA! After graduating from university and working in software development for a number of years both within Australia and internationally, Stephen and partner Vicki kept getting the same question from family friends and contacts of the Birchip Cropping Group: "I need some software, can you build this for me?" It became clear that knowledge and understanding of agriculture was not something that was easy to find in a software developer, leading Stephen and Vicki to think "hey, maybe there's a business here!". With this in mind, Square V was founded in 2014.
Our initial work was in cropping-based research projects across Australia, and in building and maintaining the Birchip Cropping Group's flagship decision-management tool Yield Prophet. Since then we have expanded to take on large and small corporate clients across Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales, even including some work in Papua New Guinea. From our start in broadacre cropping, we've also expanded our knowledge to cover a wide range of agricultural commodities and agribusinesses, including work in livestock, various types of horticulture and irrigated cropping. We're always keen to learn more about different areas of farming, and we love visiting our clients and discovering the amazing diversity of Australia's rural and regional areas, even if the drives are a bit long sometimes.
In Our Community
Square V is a proud sponsor of the Bendigo Triathlon Club, Bendigo Botanic Gardens parkrun and the Active Farmers Run for Resilience in Bridgewater VIC.
Employment at Square V
Square V is an equal opportunity and disability aware employer. We do not offshore work, and are proud to provide professional technical jobs in our regional town. Square V regularly provides paid internships to help student software developers gain practical experience in software development. If you're interested in interning with us, please contact us.
Our Team
Vicki Lane
Director/User Experience Lead
Vicki is a User Experience Specialist and Founder of Square V. She has worked professionally as both a User Experience Consultant and a Software Developer, and holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons)(Software) from the University of Queensland and a Graduate Diploma in Psychology from Deakin University. She specialises in using on-farm research to design software that is simple and easy to use, and loves learning about all different types of farming through hands-on research or over a cup of tea.
When she's not at work, you'll often find Vicki swimming, cycling and running to train for triathlons, or crocheting while crashed out on the couch recovering from workouts.
Stephen van Rees
Director/Technical Architect
Stephen is a Technical Architect and Founder of Square V. Stephen has 16 years of professional software development experience, working on a variety of projects from mission-critical industrial petrochemical computer software to business automation software. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons)(Computer Systems) and a Bachelor of Business Administration with Distinction from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Stephen provides technical leadership across all of our projects and is adept at understanding complex problems and explaining them in plain English.
Stephen's a keen marathon runner, and when he's not at work, you can find him running around various parts of Bendigo.
Daniel Pitson
Senior Software Developer
Daniel is a Software Developer who initially joined the Square V team as an intern in 2018 and progressed to a permanent role after his graduation. He holds a Bachelor of Information Technology (Professional) from LaTrobe University. Daniel is expert at development for the web and apps (although he much prefers web), and enjoys the end-to-end experience of bringing a new product to life from nothing.
When he's not working at Square V, Daniel enjoys playing tennis and riding his mountain bike.
Mark Hutchins
Senior Software Developer
Mark joined the Square V team in 2019 as a Software Developer holding a Bachelor of Information Technology (Professional) and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from La Trobe University as well as a Graduate Diploma of Education from the University of Western Australia. He spent several years teaching Politics and Law to Year 11 and 12 students before shifting to a more technical career. So far, he finds managing unruly code a bit less stressful than managing unruly teenagers.
Mark is interested in embedded hardware systems programming and development of technology for creative installations. When Mark is not programming for work he is often programming for pleasure as a hobby video game developer or, otherwise, working on music.
Nicole Woods
Software Testing and Support
Nicole provides software testing and support for all of Square V's products. She joined Square V in July 2020 and discovered a passion for breaking software in creative and interesting ways which she brings to the job each day.
When she's not working at Square V, you'll find her running around after her 3 sons, and exploring life adventures with her partner.
David Zhang
Senior Software Developer
David joined the Square V team in early 2022 as a Software Developer. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanics) from Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology and a Master of Information Technology from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. David enjoys solving complicated problems in all sorts of languages and environments.
In his spare time, David enjoys spending time with his young family and building electronic toys with arduinos and 3D printing.
Elyse Moore
Software Testing and Support
Elyse joined the Square V team in 2022 in a software testing and support role. She is currently working towards her Bachelor of Information Technology at La Trobe University. Elyse enjoys the methodical process of breaking software, and stretching her writing muscles with documentation.
In her spare time, Elyse likes to go on long walks with her dogs and run around hitting people for fun with the local LARP group.
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Vicki Lane
DIRECTOR/USER EXPERIENCE LEAD
Vicki is a User Experience Specialist and Founder of Square V. She has worked professionally as both a User Experience Consultant and a Software Developer, and holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons)(Software) from the University of Queensland and a Graduate Diploma in Psychology from Deakin University. She specialises in using on-farm research to design software that is simple and easy to use, and loves learning about all different types of farming through hands-on research or over a cup of tea.
When she's not at work, you'll often find Vicki swimming, cycling and running to train for triathlons, or crocheting while crashed out on the couch recovering from workouts.
Stephen van Rees
DIRECTOR/TECHNICAL ARCHITECT
Stephen is a Technical Architect and Founder of Square V. Stephen has 16 years of professional software development experience, working on a variety of projects from mission-critical industrial petrochemical computer software to business automation software. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons)(Computer Systems) and a Bachelor of Business Administration with Distinction from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Stephen provides technical leadership across all of our projects and is adept at understanding complex problems and explaining them in plain English.
Stephen's a keen marathon runner, and when he's not at work, you can find him running around various parts of Bendigo.
Daniel Pitson
SENIOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPER
Daniel is a Software Developer who initially joined the Square V team as an intern in 2018 and progressed to a permanent role after his graduation. He holds a Bachelor of Information Technology (Professional) from LaTrobe University. Daniel is expert at both web and app development (although he much prefers web), and enjoys the end-to-end experience of bringing a new product to life from nothing.
When he's not working at Square V, Daniel enjoys playing tennis, and dodging kangaroos on his mountain bike.
Mark Hutchins
SENIOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPER
Mark joined the Square V team in 2019 as a Software Developer holding a Bachelor of Information Technology (Professional) and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from La Trobe University as well as a Graduate Diploma of Education from the University of Western Australia. He spent several years teaching Politics and Law to Year 11 and 12 students before shifting to a more technical career. So far, he finds managing unruly code a bit less stressful than managing unruly teenagers.
When Mark is not programming for work he is often programming for pleasure as a hobby video game developer or, otherwise, working on music.
Nicole Woods
SOFTWARE TESTING AND SUPPORT
Nicole provides software testing and support for all of Square V's products. She joined Square V in 2020 and discovered a passion for breaking software in creative and interesting ways which she brings to the job each day.
When she's not working at Square V, you'll find her running around after her 3 sons, and exploring life adventures with her partner.
David Zhang
SENIOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPER
David joined the Square V team in early 2022 as a Software Developer. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanics) from Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology and a Master of Information Technology from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. David enjoys solving complicated problems in all sorts of languages and environments.
In his spare time, David enjoys spending time with his young family and building electronic toys with Arduinos and 3D printing.
Elyse Moore
SOFTWARE TESTING AND SUPPORT
Elyse joined the Square V team in 2022 in a software testing and support role. She is currently working towards her Bachelor of Information Technology at La Trobe University. Elyse enjoys the methodical process of breaking software, and stretching her writing muscles with documentation.
In her spare time, Elyse likes to go on long walks with her dogs and run around hitting people for fun with the local LARP group.