Summary
I am an experienced, pragmatic software developer with a love for code quality, collaboration, and continuous improvement. I excel at breaking down complex engineering problems and building applications that deliver value across a diverse set of business domains.
Work Experience
Staff Software Engineer
Ideon | January 2023 - October 2023
At Ideon, I expanded our enrollments platform to connect benefit administration providers with a diverse set of insurance carriers.
- Led integration and onboarding of a new carriers to expand insurance benefit offerings and realize additional Q4 revenue
- Improved platform reliability by focusing on a behavioral testing approach that exposed bugs and allowed for better regression prevention
- Organized and led a bi-weekly cross-functional engineering meeting to showcase team achievements and share technology trends
- Mentored other engineers through focused pair-programming sessions and code reviews
Principal Engineer
KindHealth | February 2021 - December 2022
At KindHealth, I built technology solutions to help scale their growing brokerage business.
- Reworked critical pieces of their PostgreSQL database schema which improved data integrity and allowed us to capture more commission revenue
- Simplified operational complexity by migrating from a SQS / serverless setup to a proven Redis-backed queuing solution that provided better resilience at their smaller scale
- Improved the stability of their core platform through the addition of an integration test layer which allowed the team to more quickly develop features and squash bugs
- Built a shared data access library that provided a migration pathway away from an untested legacy Express / JavaScript backend towards a modern Nest.js / TypeScript backend
- Fostered an engineering culture of constant improvement through thoughtful code reviews, tech-focused presentations, and one-on-one remote pairing sessions with other engineers
Staff Engineer: Platform
Gloo | November 2019 - January 2021
As Staff Engineer, I architected and built several HTTP-based microservices in support of various in-market applications.
- Improved the quality and delivery of a variety of TypeScript microservices through better API design, thorough testing, and meaningful code reviews
- Helped scale an existing Rails API by directing database reads to be performed against our read-only Aurora replica to handle unique traffic spikes
- Led bi-weekly meetings that provided a venue for engineers to share best practices for application development, demonstrate platform observability features, and keep the team up-to-date on relevant technologies
- Coordinated and directed contractor teams in assisting with feature planning and bug fixes for critical in-market products and supporting microservices
Development Director
Viget | June 2005 - November 2019
In addition to my work developing applications for a variety of clients, I also:
- Helped grow the company’s presence in Boulder from a single person co-working outpost into a full-fledged office
- Created and refined our engineering hiring process in order to provide consistency in evaluation and ensure that only the top candidates were considered for in-person evaluations
- Established, planned, and led the engineering team’s bi-annual offsite meetings as a means to connect personally and improve professionally
- Improved software delivery by introducing agile methods that included iteration planning, acceptance test-driven development, and iteration retrospectives
Applications Technologist
Viget | November 2000 - June 2005
- Administered internal and client servers running a variety of operating systems, web servers, and databases
- Developed custom database-backed web applications for clients using a variety of languages, databases, and deployment configurations
- Provided technical leadership in the areas of payment systems integration and application performance
- Advocated and implemented development standards that included the use of version control, API documentation, and automated unit and integration testing
- Developed a reusable MVC framework written in PHP that streamlined the application development process
Senior Web Developer
Millennium Health Communications | April 2000 - October 2000
- Developed sweeping enhancements to the existing medical auction site using ASP with a SQL Server back-end - this included creating an online RFP service from the ground up
- Configured and deployed a Linux server for use as an internal web, database, DNS, and file server
- Developed a custom syndication engine in VBScript/ASP that used XML to provide health news to content subscribers
- Developed an internal PHP application to serve as a lightweight CMS for the organization
Software Engineer
Dyncorp Information Systems | June 1999 - April 2000
- Helped develop the interface for a web-based stock trading system that hooked into proprietary server-side software components
- Developed enhancements to the OpenView network monitoring system deployed to the NYSE
Selected Client Work
- 2018 - 2019 – Modernized the ticket purchasing experience for visitors to the Shedd Aquarium website by providing a deep integration with their existing ticketing software (Ruby, Rails, PostgreSQL, API Integration)
- 2017 - 2018 – Worked closely with the web team at Bethesda Softworks to re-platform microsites for their popular game titles (Fallout / Elder Scrolls / Quake) using a custom-built PHP library to fetch content from the Contentful API in time for a major E3 announcement (PHP, Laravel, API Integration)
- 2016 - 2017 – Launched the new “Best States” microsite for US News which allowed users to perform multi-faceted rankings comparisons between US states with data delivered from a major publisher as flat files (Python, Django, PostgreSQL, Custom API)
- 2012 - 2015 – Re-platformed the main Shure North America web presence which improved product promotion and provided better integration of custom tools (Ruby, Rails, MySQL, Redis, API Integration)
Selected Software Projects
- PostgreSQL Migrator (Rust) – A basic migrator library that will apply SQL files to a PostgreSQL database
- Fleakr (Ruby) – A full-featured API client for Flickr photostreams
- Blog Service (TypeScript) – An Express application for managing posts to a blog
- dnsimple (Python) – Re-imagining improved ergonomics for interacting with the DNSimple API
- minecraft-server (Ansible / Python) – Simplifying setup and teardown of family Minecraft servers
Publications
- Advanced Rails Recipes / Pragmatic Bookshelf / 2009 (Contributing Author)
- A Practical Guide to WinCVS and SSH / CvsGui Project / 2002
- Using Oracle With PHP / WebMonkey (Wired Digital) / 2001
Presentations
- Coding with Confidence: Adding TDD to Your Toolset / CMAP Fall Code Camp / 2009
- Effective Testing for Rails Projects / Ruby Hack Day / 2009
- Make Everyone a Tester: Natural Language Acceptance Testing / Developer Day DC & CVREG / 2009
- Changing Your Mindset: Getting Started with Test-Driven Development / Lone Star Ruby Conference / 2007
- Mockfight! Flexmock v. Mocha / NovaRUG / 2007
Education
Bachelor’s Degree, Computer Science
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA