Resume

Career Profile

Dynamic and innovative Engineering Leader with over a decade of experience in the tech industry, specializing in software development, team leadership, and strategic business development. Proven track record of driving engineering projects from conception to deployment, leveraging expertise in Ruby on Rails, and modern software engineering practices. Skilled in leading cross-functional teams to deliver high-quality software solutions that meet complex business requirements.

Adept at fostering a culture of continuous improvement and learning, I have mentored numerous engineers towards excellence, leading to highly efficient and collaborative team environments. With a passion for operational excellence, I have streamlined processes, integrated state-of-the-art technologies, and implemented agile methodologies to enhance productivity and product quality.

As a forward-thinking problem solver, I’ve successfully navigated companies through rapid growth phases, fundraising stages, and technology pivots. My approach combines hands-on technical skills with strategic business acumen to drive innovation, growth, and success in competitive markets.

Medallion, San Francisco, CA (Remote) — Engineering Manager

2022 - PRESENT - $450M Series C Healthcare SaaS Startup - Python/Django Postgres Docker AWS

Leadership

• Responsible for 12 engineers spanning two teams
• Successfully mentored two underperforming engineers to be high performers with one eventually taking on their own team.
• Develop clear criteria with product for managing in-quarter customer commitments with minimal roadmap disruption leading to on time delivery across the board without engineering overtime.

Engineering

• Developed OpenAI integration in python and ruby while working across the org to explain prompt engineering, embeddings and multi-shot prompts leading to our first advanced OCR infrastructure
• Developed postgres counter-query alerting through Metabase averting multiple incidents.
• Provided ad-hoc data-analytics in postgres, Datadog and Fullstory to drive product and engineering outcomes based on data instead of theoretical engineering concerns.

Engineering Culture

• Developed a standardized practice for testing and proliferating technology across the org leading to adoption of a Datadog E2E test suite and GraphQL as an internal API.
• Provided growth opportunities for mid-level engineers to flex into senior roles through mentorship, large project ownership and team tech-talks.
• Actively paired with engineers to improve python/django coding patterns and practices.

Tegus, Chicago, IL (Hybrid) — Engineering Manager

2021 - 2022 - $1B Series B Fintech Startup - Ruby/Rails Postgres Typescript DataDog AWS Docker

Leadership

• Responsible for 10 engineers spanning three teams
• Lead project planning, roadmapping and development while product org was rebuilding from scratch
• Mentored mid-level devs by delegating feature scoping

Operations

• Migrated entire tech team from Trello to Jira
• Handle quarterly review cycles justifying promotions and bonus opportunities
• Consistently document and track developer performance, sourcing feedback from peers and developing clear growth plans
• Own product support team that acts as a promotion path for boot camp devs to become full-time developers
• Active Heap and postgres data validation to direct efforts and impact of changes

Engineering

• Regularly perform deep dives into the Ruby on Rails codebase and postgres database to assist in project constraints and scoping
• Contribute code improvements when possible and actively participate in hackathon projects
• Regularly pair with developers to unblock work and technically mentor

Active Campaign, Chicago, IL (Remote) — Senior Engineer & Eng. Mgr.

2020 - 2021 - $3B Series C Customer Experience Automation Startup - JavaScript AWS SQS/SNS Datadog Git

Engineering

• Designed, developed and deployed an automation next step recommendation PHP API to help users quickly develop workflows partnering with data science to ensure a design that would scale for users.
• Researched and instrumented automation processing system with Datadog identifying critical AWS scaling issues.

Leadership

• Stepped up to take over two teams totaling 12 Engineers when the existing manager departed.
• Developed a go-forward plan with the engineering team for migrating the main automation app from jQuery and Ember to a React application.
• Re-leveled multiple female developers that had been systematically passed over for promotion.
• Guided and organized re-architecture planning for the primary automations processing system.

Clearcover, Chicago, IL — Tech Lead and Engineering Manager

2017 - 2020 - $105M Series C Insurtech Startup - Ruby/Rails TDD Postgres AWS Domain Driven Design React Sumologic Docker Git

Engineering

• Third Ruby backend developer at the company.
• Responsible for technical planning, delegation and execution of productizing consumer Acquisition Api.
• Expanded use of contract driven development practices internally and across teams using Pact and Arvo.
• Managed sequencing of multiple projects to optimize developer time.
• Responsible for designing, planning and executing pre-release software to launch the company in California.
• Instituted a standardized framework for structured logging via AWS and Sumologic and error handling, significantly reducing bug triaging time and enhancing system reliability across multiple vendors.

Operations

• Championed an Async-documentation first approach to daily ceremonies reducing developer-product friction and improving remote worker happiness.
• Maintained the lowest volatility team in engineering even while onboarding multiple product owners and supporting a junior dev with full time pairing.
• Developed an interview and hiring plan for evaluating high quality engineers that measured both coding ability and cultural fit.

Leadership

• Responsible for the largest production team at the company.
• Provided oversight and guidance to two other sub-teams that work in the existing monolith codebase.
• Earned the “Empowering Others” core value award for cross functional support and extensive documentation for how the business operates.
• Worked with struggling devs to improve performance, level set expectations, and become invaluable members to the team avoiding a critical layoff.

Industry Research

• Deep dive into insurance operations, claims, filings and jargon.
• Balanced the needs of compliance with engineering requirements.

Trunk Club, Chicago, IL — Software Engineer

2014 - 2017 - $500M Styling Service for Men and Women - Ruby/Sinatra Microservices Kafka Sidekiq CircleCI Docker React Splunk Git

Engineering

• Designed, developed and deployed a ruby experimentation framework allowing for an arbitrary number of simultaneously tests with a holdout group available as an option.
• Designed, developed, deployed and maintained a Kafka based ruby-sinatra activity feed service that exposes events across 40+ micro-services to help stylists better understand their client base.
• Built out a near real time multistage Kafka-sidekiq-elasticsearch ingestion pipeline for bringing Nordstrom product/availability/pricing into the Trunk Club system first to launch the women’s business and transition fulfillment to Nordstrom warehouses.

Industry Research

• Assisted in discovery of on-site manufacturing, defined a minimum viable product with appropriate vendors lights that would be capable of fulfilling the desired goal of a sub 3-hour garment produced while a client is in an appointment.

Utilivate Technologies, Chicago, IL — Energy Engineer

2013

• Engineering and Management consulting firm - Consulting Services

Science & Engineering

• Created and developed tools for improving energy auditing data collection for multi-site projects.
• Perform on-site energy audits for commercial, residential and government buildings and created reports for future actions.

Operations

• Transitioned company to online expense reporting for improved tracking and reliable invoicing.
• Planned, presented, and deployed online testing website using moodle for a key contract improving test scores of students from a 30% pass rate to a 90% pass rate.

Business Development & Industry Research

• Charged with developing and implementing financial, logistical, engineering, sales and marketing strategy of a new home auditing and contracting business unit.

ForeLight, Chicago, IL — Founding Partner/COO

2009 - 2012

• Algae Biomanufacturing Startup - Ruby/Rails C/C++

Science & Engineering

• Invented advanced spherical, submersible high power light source optimized for algae derived products.
• Designed, developed and manufactured initial 1-liter concept prototype to a 4,000-liter pilot scale facility in less than twelve months to prove commercial feasibility of the technology.
• Designed and implemented a software database system for monitoring feeding and health of culture in Ruby on Rails.
• Prototyped system for network controlled real-time feedback of bioreactors in C/C++.

Commercialization & Intellectual Property

• Completed initial capital raise of a net $250k valuing company at $3.3M, preparing for Series A raise of $3M at a $9M valuation.
• Developed 18-month project timeline, in conjunction with investment bankers for raising venture capital funding, detailing a financial pro-forma including budgeting, scheduling and hiring.

Business Development & Industry Research

• Developed and implemented a business strategy for transitioning from high value oils to ultra-high value medical dye which involved exhaustive market research and analysis.

Operations

• Managed daily operations including relationship management, taxes, billing, and procurement.
• Included taking lead negotiator status for pricing of new materials contracts.

CookTek, Chicago, IL — Research & Development Engineer

2007 - 2009

• Induction Cooktop Appliance Manufacturer - C/C++ SVN

Engineering & Manufacturing

• Designed and developed embedded software on a Freescale platform for new production products and trade show prototypes.
• Collaborated with manufacturers and customers to create a four-month development cycle from creation to sale.
• PCB layout of induction cooking related products and controls.

Business Development

• Traveled internationally to perform on-site repair of defective units saving the company over $100k in avoided future costs.
• Streamlined inventory management and documentation of ongoing projects.