Principal Software Engineerat brightwheelFebruary 2017 - April 2023Remote

Started as the 2nd backend engineer, doing product development. Over time, shifted focus to SRE work, strategic planning, scaling efforts, infrastructure, team efficiency, and hiring. Promoted three times to Senior, Staff, and Principal.

2022 Principal Software Engineer

• Lead technical planning & implementation efforts for a new business product line, working closely with business strategists, product managers, and engineers to plan for an ambiguously-framed project
• Migrated entire AWS environment to use CloudFormation for GitOps
• Lead company-wide effort to implement and roll out 2-factor authentication with minimal customer disruption and high satisfaction
• Lead technical due diligence on a company we looked at acquiring
• Kubernetes, Flux, AWS, Postgres, CloudFormation, Redshift, Airflow

2021 Staff Software Engineer

• Revamped interview process; replaced coding "puzzle" challenge with a much-fairer session where the candidate extends their own take-home exercise
• Planned and implemented new authentication (OAuth) + authorization (RBAC) system for internal tools, allowing business to securely use external contractor labor during busy seasons
• Migrated Kubernetes to use Flux for GitOps, for production, staging, and ephemeral environments
• Ruby (Rails), Postgres, AWS, Kubernetes

2019 Senior Software Engineer

• Owned application and infrastructure scaling efforts for annual high-growth business cycle; improved main Postgres database metrics (CPU, RAM, IOPS) by ~50%
• Rewrote main billing product, contributing to massive revenue growth, better customer satisfaction, and huge scale (over $1B processed)
• Lead a multitude of process and tooling improvements: feature flags, continuous integration, project documentation process, product development process
• Migrated all infrastructure from Heroku to AWS to meet scaling needs
• Ruby (Rails), Postgres, Redis, Heroku, AWS

2017 Software Engineer

• Owned application and infrastructure scaling efforts for annual high-growth business cycle; improved main Postgres database metrics by ~50%
• Developed customer-facing features across all product verticals: billing, messaging, timecards, student information system, media, notifications, reporting, etc.
• Ruby (Rails), Postgres, Redis, React, Heroku

Software Engineerat eBayNovember 2014 - April 2016San Jose, CA + Remote

Worked full-time developing software in support of the storage operation team.

• Member of a small team of three developers supporting storage operation team of about 15
• Worked as main developer on storage insight platform, consisting of collection software (vanilla Python), API (Django), and UI (Angular)
• Built environment-specific build tool for production deployments using Docker and Fabric
• Modernized JavaScript development practices on the development team (build process, modularization)

Software Development Internat Spectra LogicJune 2013 - September 2013Boulder, CO

Worked mainly on the admin web UI written in Backbone with a Ruby on Rails backend, and the underlying Ruby worker code.

• Adapted entire existing web UI to be responsive on mobile devices
• Created new CLI functionality by extending existing classes
• Wrote new classes and associated unit tests
• Fixed miscellaneous bugs in Ruby and JavaScript
• Worked full-time in 2-week sprint cycles

Technical Co-Founderat Fashion Feather LLCFebruary 2011 - September 2011Longmont, CO

Started an online business selling hair feathers, a hot fashion trend during the 2011 summer. This was the second website I ever made, and my first real business.

• Facilitated over $100k in gross sales on custom PHP website with Google Checkout integration
• Designed and optimized order fulfillment and shipping workflow
• Managed Google AdWords account (which drove the vast majority of sales)
• Managed company finances as Treasurer
• Hired and managed 10 part-time employees for order fulfillment

monAItor (source)

• Web app that monitors websites for specific changes, using LLMs for flexibility (currently personal use only)
• For example, this monitor will notify me once this website says the new bike path construction is complete
• Ruby (Sinatra) web app backed by Postgres, deployed to my personal Kubernetes cluster (via Flux). Uses headless browser bindings to get website screenshot and text, which are both fed to an LLM for analysis.

AskSMS (source)

• Small personal tool that uses LLMs (Perplexity) to search, summarize, and return information via 160-character SMS messages that are compatible with T-Mobile Starlink. This allows information to be looked up while deep in the backcountry where there is no cell coverage.
• Ruby (Sinatra) web app, deployed to my personal Kubernetes cluster (via Flux). SMS via Twilio.

Home Assistant

• Reverse-engineered IR codes for my heat pump remotes (I don't have a thermostat), allowing for me to control my rental unit's temperature with automation, while away from home, and little Zigbee buttons I have next to my door/bed
• Made a virtual sunrise lamp for better mornings. Goes from a deep red to a bright daylight over 30 minutes, coinciding with the natural sunrise each morning.

SmartMarker (gallery) [WIP]

• Making a "ruler" to draw volumetric markings on SmartWater bottles. These are popular among backpackers for their skinny cross-section, light weight, durability, and availability. But, they lack the markings like Nalgenes have to measure out water for rehydrating freeze-dried meals.
• The design is defined using OpenSCAD, a CAD-as-code tool (closed-source)
• Prototyping on paperboard (non-baffled cardboard) using the laser cuter at a local makerspace
• Completed trial run of different materials (steel/aluminum) and finishes (power/anodized) from SendCutSend which I then etched markings into with the laser cutter

Santa Clara UniversityBachelor of Science, Bioengineering

• Class of 2014, University Honors Program
• Major GPA: 3.466
• Taught myself how to code in the library on party nights
• Resident Assistant for 2 years