Jon BirkbeckTechnology & development

Technical leadership · XR · Simulation

Useful technology.
Teams that can deliver it.

I’m Jon. I develop XR applications, lead technical teams and build the shared systems that help good ideas become useful products.

Explore my work
An edited panoramic visual of a mixed reality fire-response experience, with an extinguisher spray directed towards a virtual fire in a real courtyard.
Mixed reality fire response · Visual adapted from an application capture
Based in Monza, ItalyPermanent leadership roles & consultancy

Build

Stay close to the work.

Application development, prototypes, multiplayer interactions and assessments. I stay involved in the technical decisions and watch people use what we build.

Explore development work

Lead

Bring people together.

Develop the team, shape work with customers, assess feasibility and guide delivery. That includes managing internal projects and coordinating external development.

See the delivery story

Make it repeatable

Leave a stronger system.

Shared templates, authoring wizards, reusable mechanics and practical guidance help the whole team deliver consistently, with less dependence on one developer.

Explore the shared foundation

01 / Selected work

The decisions behind
the finished experience.

Three examples of how I connect people, technology and delivery.

01

Development leadership / Shared systems

From separate projects
to a shared way of working.

A common Unity foundation, reusable tools and a delivery process the whole team can use.

Team autonomyUnity & Meta SDKEngineering practices
Read the case study

The starting point

Each application began with an empty Unity project. Player rigs, movement, interactions and design decisions were recreated independently, with little carrying forward into the next project.

My contribution

I built, tested and documented a common template around the Meta SDK, standardising the player rig, movement, teleportation, grabbing, buttons and interactions. It became the agreed starting point for new projects.

Reusable quizzes, review mechanics and assessment systems followed. Course-building wizards allowed non-developers to set up content, while developers concentrated on more technical work. Useful new capabilities were added back into the shared foundation.

Making it work for people

I explained why we were choosing a common system, including its limitations. Familiar constraints helped the team become more proficient and gave the business clearer choices: use an established capability, or allow time to build something new. Written guides, videos and demonstrations supported different ways of learning.

What changed

The team spent less time discussing the basics, prototyped more quickly and delivered more consistent courses. Project teams shared a clear process for setup, testing, deployment, bug reports and progress tracking. Routine course delivery became largely independent, while I continued to focus on prototypes and new technical challenges.

For one anonymous utilities client, a familiar interaction model let planners and developers recommend a solution confidently within the available budget. It became one of our cleanest and quickest projects, substantially reducing development time compared with similar early work.

02

Product development / Applied XR

A short expo demo.
A commercial opportunity.

A mixed reality fire-response experience that grew from an approachable exhibition demo into a commercially released product.

Concept to releaseMixed realityHardware integration
Read the case study

Why mixed reality?

The original brief was a short expo demonstration. Visitors could see the real space around them, and experience the demo in one or two minutes. A tracked physical extinguisher, virtual fire and smoke-scent feedback made the interaction immediately tangible.

My contribution

I conceived, designed and developed the experience. It combined passthrough mixed reality, physical interaction, Depth API occlusion and a Scentient device for smoke-scent feedback.

From demonstration to product

Visitor feedback suggested a market beyond the expo. We added more selectable objects so users could customise the experience and simplified setup before commercial release.

The practical value

The experience supports discovering a fire, finding an extinguisher, carrying it and responding without exposure to an actual fire. It does not reproduce heat or every condition of a real incident. The experience is commercially released.

Fire Fighting MR Demo · Watch on YouTube ↗
03

Client delivery / Risk awareness

Making warehouse risk
personal and recognisable.

A story-led VR experience for a major drinks brand, built around its own distribution centre and everyday pedestrian risks.

Six-month projectCustomer collaborationExperience design
Read the case study

The customer’s challenge

The customer wanted people to recognise risks around forklift traffic: leaving pedestrian routes, entering blind spots without checking and becoming distracted by a phone. They reported that previous videos, talks and presentations had not achieved the response they wanted.

My contribution

I led the project over six months, working closely with the customer on the initial concept, development and experience strategy. The environment recreated their warehouse, making the setting and situations recognisable.

A familiar story, with consequences

Participants began in their own changing room. A preparation routine introduced the controls, and a mirror helped establish a sense of embodiment. Warehouse sections offered a safe route; failures triggered feedback and a repeat of that section. A deliberately unpleasant collision made the consequence of a mistake immediate.

What we know

The customer reported that one participant removed the headset after a single virtual collision and said the next day that they saw the risk in a new light. This is anecdotal participant feedback relayed by the customer, rather than a measured claim of improved safety or behaviour change.

02 / Across the portfolio

A broad body of work.
A practical thread.

I’ve developed applications, managed delivery and built shared tools across safety training, simulation, multiplayer and first-time VR experiences.

Catalogue illustration for mixed reality firefighting

Mixed Reality Firefighting

Developed & owned
Driving Risk Awareness trailer thumbnail

Driving Risk Awareness

Developed & owned
Catalogue illustration for warehouse risk awareness

Warehouse Risk Awareness

Developed & owned
Catalogue illustration for chemical spill response

Chemical Spill Response

Developed & owned
Catalogue illustration for basic life support and defibrillation

Life Support & Defibrillation

Managed external development

Catalogue imagery: Virtual Safety Lab

Multiplayer, onboarding & exhibitions

The Safe Escape, a welcoming first-time VR tutorial and a guided five-minute expo showcase.

Bespoke customer experiences

Warehouse behaviour, non-linear height assessments, agricultural risk, utilities training and naval recruitment.

A wider safety programme

Development and project management across driving, fire safety, manual handling, machinery, wellbeing, supervision and ergonomics.

Across projects / Shared capability

The work that makes
the next project easier.

Alongside individual applications, I’ve developed common systems that carry useful work forward into the next experience.

Interaction foundation

Meta SDK player rig, movement, teleportation, grabbing, buttons and a standard driving mechanic.

Course and assessment tools

Quizzes, review and reporting sections, linear and non-linear assessment, plus authoring wizards that non-developers can use.

Simulation and integration

Reusable crash, fall and injury sequences, Scentient device connections, licensing services and LMS API connections.

The management behind the systems

I recruit and develop people, explain the reasoning behind standards, and provide written guides, videos and demonstrations. Shared planning, testing, release practices and progress reporting give project teams a common way to work and more independence in delivery.

03 / How I work

Start with the purpose.
Work backwards.

I’m interested in technology when it adds something useful. Before choosing XR, I ask why the experience belongs there and what it offers beyond another platform.

01

Make the right thing.

Start with the customer need and the finished experience. Investigate feasibility, options and the business case before committing to an approach.

02

Watch people use it.

Test in the headset, involve the team and observe other people. If an interaction is unclear, improve it until it feels natural or needs only a little guidance.

03

Help the team own it.

Explain the reasons, share knowledge in different formats and make useful discoveries repeatable through common tools and clear working practices.

A decision in practice / Driving Risk

The goal was risk awareness, rather than teaching someone to drive. I simplified the main interaction to acceleration and braking, kept steering optional and included an outside-the-vehicle spectator perspective for people who may find the in-vehicle view uncomfortable.

04 / Background

Technical depth.
A wider business perspective.

My work brings together software development, people leadership and commercial experience.

Since 2023 I’ve led XR development at Virtual Safety Lab on a consultancy basis, working directly with the CEO and senior leadership. My earlier career spans European e-commerce leadership, building and running my own business, and international enterprise IT.

Across separate IT roles, I worked in local government, education, pharmaceuticals and a national parliament. Responsibilities grew from desktop support and systems engineering into infrastructure management and team leadership, alongside work supporting international operations.

I enjoy a mix of ongoing products and bespoke projects: refining an experience through deeper customer understanding, and testing established approaches against a new problem.

05 / Blog

Notes from
the work.

Small tools, practical experiments and things I’ve learned along the way.

Let’s talk

A useful problem.
A team to bring together.

I’m open to permanent technology and development leadership roles, and consultancy work. XR is my specialism; the customer’s purpose determines the platform.

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