Stack & Steel
Summary
A seasoned senior software engineer and system architect with over 17 years of experience designing, implementing, and managing robust software solutions and IT infrastructure. Passionate about innovation and shaping the future of technology, thriving in high-paced environments by leading technical initiatives and delivering impactful, measurable results. Proven ability in full-stack development, cloud migration, system modernization, and team leadership.
Experience
Senior Software Engineer & IT Consultant
October 2024 — CurrentFreelance
- Provided comprehensive IT and software engineering services to multiple clients, focusing on system modernization, cloud integration, custom application development, project management, and infrastructure stability.
- Spearheaded the modernization and ongoing maintenance of client IT infrastructure and systems, improving overall stability and performance across various engagements.
- Developed and executed robust backup strategies for production servers using Borg Backup, enhancing data protection, reducing potential downtime, and enabling faster, more efficient backups.
- Designed and executed cloud migration strategies, successfully moving critical data from on-premise systems to AWS S3 instances with minimal disruption.
- Deployed centralized password management systems to significantly improve client security posture.
- For Eduity (eduity.net): Provided project management, deployed and managed IT services (e.g., NextCloud), maintained infrastructure, and contributed backend/frontend development for their job skill mapping and workforce placement platform using the Laravel framework.
- For The Fluent Society (thefluentsociety.com): Architected and developed a full-stack web application (Go, Goravel, HTMX, Alpine.js, Tailwind CSS) enabling native Portuguese speakers to enhance English proficiency through interactive online book clubs and personalized video tutoring; deployed platform on DigitalOcean using Kubernetes.
- Developed necessary code changes (PHP, Go) across projects to ensure seamless integration between core applications and cloud or infrastructure resources.
- Developed a robust database schema migration tool with integrated seeding capabilities, streamlining database management and reducing deployment time for testing environments.
Senior Software Engineer
August 2025 — October 2025HeartCloud
- Developed real-time integrations between healthcare provider and patient- facing portals and 3rd-party APIs developed in PHP and Laravel, pulling in patient health metrics and making them viewable in both portals.
- Developed an SMS-based therapeutic monitoring system, sending a survey to patients with certain medical conditions that are enrolled in monitoring, and allowing their healthcare provider to see the results of these surveys for easy diagnosis and monitoring.
- Pushed for the adoption of clean code and best practices to be adopted as part of the coding standard used by the team.
Sr PHP Developer
April 2024 — June 2024MedSuite
- Developed elegant and efficient PHP code adhering to contemporary best practices for new feature implementation.
- Maintained and modernized existing Laravel codebases, improving maintainability and performance.
- Identified and presented innovative solutions to complex technical challenges, demonstrating strong problem-solving abilities within an Agile environment.
Lead Developer | System Architect
October 2016 — March 2024Utiliflex
- Led the design, implementation, and deployment of all company software, managing the development team and integrating with third-party devices and systems.
- Architected and executed the porting and refactoring of a monolithic PHP codebase to a modern client-server model (PHP handling the presentation layer, Golang backend API, and Golang microservices), resulting in a 2x decrease in response times and increasing code readability.
- Built two installable progressive web applications (PWAs) using Laravel, Vue.js, and Bootstrap, enhancing user accessibility and engagement.
- Managed cloud infrastructure on GCP and DigitalOcean, optimizing resource utilization and ensuring high availability.
- Implemented robust monitoring and performance optimization strategies across applications and infrastructure.
Senior Software Engineer
July 2013 — October 2016Code Journeymen
- Developed responsive web applications utilizing Drupal (versions 6 through 8) and PHP for various clients.
- Engaged in systems development, leveraging Golang for backend services and tooling.
- Configured Apache Solr search and implemented Varnish caching, significantly improving search performance and site load times for Oak Ridge National Laboratories.
- Administered MongoDB, MySQL and PostgreSQL databases, including strategic planning and execution of database and system migrations.
- Created custom Drupal themes/sub-themes and developed custom modules leveraging Drupal's API to deliver novel features.
Lead Developer
March 2013 — July 2013Iron Gaming
- Developed backend application programming interfaces (APIs) using Golang with a mix of MongoDB and MySQL Cluster for high availability, deployed on Rackspace cloud infrastructure.
- Developed and deployed a web application frontend on Google App Engine (PaaS).
- Focused on API design, performance optimization, and scalable architecture for a gaming platform.
Technical Operations Manager
November 2009 — May 2013Utiliflex
- Managed system development, integration, and application/web development (PHP, Perl, Golang, MySQL, PostgreSQL).
- Scripted integrations with multiple banks, reliably handling over 1,000 daily financial transactions with an accuracy rate of 98%.
- Developed a client-server application managing communications with numerous Windows mobile devices in the field.
- Developed a concurrent server application (Golang) handling communications with smart grid metering devices.
- Managed Git repositories and QEMU/KVM virtualization infrastructure.
Education
Bachelors, Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
University of Phoenix-Online Campus
2024 —
2026
Associate, Computer Networking, Information Security
Cleveland State Community College
2008 —
2010
Activities: CSCC Repairs, Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Student Member
Affiliations & Community Involvement
Chadev
Community Organizer
February 2015—Current
Chattanooga Python User Group
Lead Organizer
February 2014—December 2014
Google Developer Group (GDG) Gigcity
Lead Community Organizer
October 2013—August 2018
Chattanooga Unix Gnu Android Linux Users Group
President
August 2012, May 2011