I am an Engineering Manager at Snap, where I lead Snap's CloudOps group, which includes 3 engineering domains: Reliability Engineering, Observability Platform, & FinOps. I also lead the partnerships with GCP & AWS for these domains to improve cloud reliability and optimization, leadership alignment, cross-functional development, and beta feature pilots. These partner relationships represent billions of dollars in investments. I create and execute my team’s roadmap to exceed Snap’s performance and cost goals.The Observability Team I lead runs a Tier 0 platform that ingests, optimizes, and vends Snap’s operational telemetry for application clients and backend systems. We provide critical metrics to thousands of operators and run one of the world's largest OSS metrics platforms.The Reliability Engineering team I lead builds tooling, measurements, best-practice automation, and solutions that standardize resiliency and reduce toil for Snap’s multi-cloud global-scale infrastructure. In addition, I lead Snap’s weekly critical Service Operations Program (SOP), which addresses ambiguous and chronic reliability issues. I have developed this forum to drive system-wide resiliency across all Tier 0 & 1 services. The FinOps team I lead manages a custom cost pipeline that accurately forecasts and attributes infrastructure and vendor costs. It is the source-of-truth for business decisions. We build tools to identify and prevent cost regressions as well as empower teams to make strategic-cost decisions.

In my role as a Principal NoSQL Specialist SA, I worked hands-on with the largest and most strategic DynamoDB customers as they built global-scale applications. I led data platform projects in collaboration with executives, managers, and software engineers. Drawing on my extensive experience with customers across business verticals, I proposed, and owned, two initiatives that were incorporated into the 2020 DynamoDB business plan. I drove a cross-service project at AWS that made it possible for security-sensitive industries (such as healthcare and finance) to adopt DynamoDB. I guided engineering teams through internet-scale events that required months of planning for peak capacity and operational readiness. I trained thousands of engineers at Amazon.com, AWS, and DynamoDB customers. As a highly-rated Amazon certified public speaker, I was a frequently requested technical speaker and trainer both nationally and globally. In 2019, I received the highest customer survey scores at all three DynamoDB Days in the Americas. To build a network of experts, I created and ran a cross-organizational DynamoDB mentoring program and community. My mentoring bootstrapped the first Specialist NoSQL SA team in Europe.I also created an organization-changing tool that scales NoSQL design training for AWS customers. This self-service resource provides non-specialist solutions architects with NoSQL design training, reference material, and a DynamoDB community support group. To further scale my technical expertise, I designed the first hands-on NoSQL data model lab. I also conceived of and co-created a public lab, www.amazon-dynamodb-labs.com, which includes an opensource repo. I wrote AWS database blogs and reviewed blogs for technical accuracy. Based on my global leadership and impact, I was promoted from Senior (L6) to Principal (L7) at AWS in 2020.

As a Senior Technical Account Manager on the AWS strategic accounts team, I worked with global leaders in media and entertainment, social media, ad tech, data analytics, and gaming. I also owned the AWS operations and relationships of an AWS strategic startup customer who publicly signed a $1 billion AWS partnership. I was a leader on a core AWS team that managed the initial projects and phases of one of the largest cross-cloud migrations. The migration scope included a decomposition from a monolithic application to a service-oriented architecture. To facilitate this unprecedented migration, I collaborated with executives, managers, and engineers to design projects, solutions, and deliver results. As part of this collaboration, I worked across customer and AWS engineering teams, wrote executive briefings, planned feature migrations, ran performance tests, created and delivered cloud architecture training, and responded to critical operations and security incidents.

FPA is a managed service provider that specializes in financial services, investment advisory councils, non-profits, and manufacturing. As a TAM at FPA, I oversaw the technology lifecycle and client relationships of more than 20 businesses. I steered my clients through all stages of their partnerships with FPA: from the initial technology assessment and client on-boarding to project design and management, and from quarterly review meetings to incident response. I served as my clients’ primary senior technical consultant and advocate. On a daily basis, I advised C-level officers at each of my clients’ organizations, developed project plans for engineers, and communicated my clients’ needs to senior management at FPA. Many of my clients at FPA had industry security requirements including SEC regulations, PCI DSS, as well as DoD mandated NIST baselines. During my tenure at FPA, I received the award for the “2016 Most Reliable Employee,” and the “2016 FPA Way: Client Management Team” award for exemplifying the highest standards.

In June 2015, I was recruited to FPA as a Network Engineer. Due to my success managing client relationships and my exceptional technical skills, I was almost immediately promoted to the position of Technical Account Manager.

Clearfuze is a boutique managed service provider. As a network engineer at Clearfuze, I built and managed network solutions for high-profile customers and celebrities. I collaborated with the CEO of Clearfuze to design and implement custom solutions for small and midsize companies—including record labels, law firms, medical practices, and architectural firms. In addition to creating new platforms, I assessed and resolved incoming network issues in direct consultation with clients. My work included the following areas of specialization: local & hosted Microsoft Server, Exchange, SQL, VMware, mesh Wi-Fi, RAID, networking, and VOIP. I also used my experience in sales to bring in new projects and clientele.

Technology has been a passion for me since I taught myself BASIC from science magazines as a child on my CompuAdd 386sx computer. In high school, I was the primary engineer of the school’s first network, which we built from recycled parts received from an external grant. I also co-foundered Iowa Mennonite School’s first IT department, which included a FIOS circuit, file sharing, printer sharing, and secure user authentication. I also co-designed the school’s first website, built 150+ computers from recycled components, and configured an integrated faculty email service. In addition, I provided technical instruction to teachers and other students.