I’m a technology lead that has been building and managing software for the web for nearly 20 years. During that time, I’ve held a number of titles – developer, consultant. architect, etc. – but have been focused on building and managing web experiences.
A few recent career highlights:
- I am currently a “Digital Architect” for the John Deere Intelligent Services Group (ISG). My work at ISG so far is focused on improving the streaming platform that powers data analysis from the Gen 4 Command Center displays used to control and report machine and agronomic data to our data platform.
- Previously, I lead teams focused mainly on building interactive experiences for employers and recruiters using Dice.com and maintaining the infrastructure and reliability of the overall Dice experience.
- I built and managed a team that migrated the entire infrastructure of Dice.com (a site that sees roughly two million unique visitors per month to a cloud based (in our case, Amazon Web Services) environment. This was an 18th month, $1.5 million project that reduced the operational cost of Dice.com by nearly one half while fostering a new environment for product innovation. Along the way. we built skills on the team with a mix of systems engineers, software artisans and a lot of elbow grease. In the end, we completed the project, delivered on budget goals and did so without hiring a single proclaimed or certified AWS expert.
- I lead efforts to both migrate and automate cloud environments for our Dice International (now defunct) and Workdigital properties that have been folded into Dice.com and search platforms. Along the way, I introduced the organization to deploying infrastructure as code using tools such as Terraform and Puppet.
- I was lead for a number of years with Dice.com / DHI in managing and implementing technology solutions as both an individual contributor and team lead. In that role, I improved the stability and reliability of web and search applications – automating and implementing observability on complex systems.
- I’ve written a few things along the way, including the publication of a book filled with recipes and tips for implementing Vagrant into development workflows.
- I’ve also recorded some online training and short technology tips for O’Reilly Media.
- A few years ago, I was a technology lead on an academic study focused on the use of computational science in learning. That experience changed how I approach learning and mentoring in the workplace.
Outside of a life as a technologist, I’ve also served a term as a church council president , occasionally play a tuba, and spend quite a bit of time being a personal Uber service for an active family.
