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Welcome Shivan
Salsarian since July 2022
Salsa is thrilled to welcome Shivan Jaikaran to the Salsa Digital team. Shivan is an accomplished Drupal tech lead, senior Drupal engineer and documentation specialist.
As our Drupal trainer, Shivan conducts GovCMS and Drupal content administration and site builder courses, providing essential skills to our teams.
Shivan’s talents extend to Salsa project work, notably with CivicTheme. CivicTheme is an open source design system showcasing a library of production-ready feature components.
Shivan also works with the GovCMS App Support team, which includes working on any tough Drupal-related tickets.
Additionally, Shivan keeps the GovCMS training manuals and Knowledge Base documents updated with the latest technical information.
His expertise spans both backend and frontend development. As a backend developer, Shivan navigates various languages and programs to create and customise the Drupal content management system. As a frontend developer, Shivan uses his coding skills to transform visual designs into webpage layouts.
Shivan is highly skilled in translating Drupal’s technical language for non-technical audiences. This skill, combined with his extensive development and customer relationship experience, makes Shivan an ideal Drupal trainer, bridging the gap between technical jargon and accessible learning.
He has gained this from past projects involving mentoring junior developers and conducting internal-training related activities and conferences, such as the recent Wellington (NZ) 2023 Drupal Meetup.
Outside of Drupal, although closely related, Shivan is an expert technical and content SEO strategist, staying on top of the latest trends and site optimisations. The source of all things SEO comes straight from the horse’s mouth (Google’s engineers) and applied directly to Drupal sites, in some cases evolving into patches for contrib modules/themes.
About Shivan
Shivan is a seasoned Drupal developer with an impressive 18 years of experience (starting with Drupal 4.6!). His journey has included various roles, from a Drupal technical writer to a Drupal tech lead, shaping projects for organisations such as Bright Solutions, United Nations, TVO, York University and Aviva Canada (via Onx).
Shivan shines as a Drupal tech lead. He thrives on agile projects, working with both large and small teams across different time zones on high-traffic websites. He has also had other random roles including, but not limited to, Toronto Uber driver, Toronto Airbnb superhost (10 years consecutively), bartending, stand-up comedy and DJ-ing.
Outside of his professional life, Shivan enjoys stand-up comedy, both as an audience member and performer. He likes music and reading about Drupal and web technologies. He’s also an adventurer at heart, enjoying biking, travelling, camping, beaches, mountains and stargazing through giant telescopes.
Shivan’s love for experimentation extends to the culinary world. He has combined Drupal and his love for food into a recipe website, — where he marries his passion for food and technology.
Why Salsa?
After exploring the job market, specifically looking for a Drupal trainer role, Shivan stumbled on Salsa’s job post and applied immediately. After our standard hiring process, he was hired.
“I prefer to work with tech startups such as Salsa, as it’s an ever-challenging road ahead, and ideas are encouraged to flourish. In the process of helping a company grow, it goes hand-in-hand with personal growth. Additionally, the open source concept aligns perfectly as Salsa deeply adopts this concept.”
Shivan’s favourite things about working at Salsa are working with Drupal, the Salsa team, and the flexibility of working from anywhere.
“The single most important thing is that I get to work with Drupal and its related technologies. In doing so, we’re giving back to the Drupal open source community, which improves every single Drupal website out there. I am able to connect with brilliant minds and exchange knowledge, which is a win-win for everyone.”
Shivan lives in Bangkok, Thailand, and holds both Canadian and Trinidad and Tobago citizenship, and speaks fluent English. He loves to take short trips to different cities around the world (especially those with sun, sand and sea). He also loves to tell a good ‘dad joke’ even though he’s not a dad!
Welcome, Shivan! View Shivan’s Salsa profile