The Professional

Senior Engineering Leader | Software Development Manager | Engineer and Product Mentor | Engineering Excellence Trainer | Writing Coach | Software Developer | Software Architect

Proven engineering leader with extensive experience and success as both an engineer and manager on software engineering teams, driving impact across environments ranging from large-scale enterprises to startups. Passionate about mentoring and developing talent, including service as a Bar Raiser at Amazon. Recognized as a trusted advisor to engineers, technical project managers, product managers, and senior leaders. Skilled at building high-performing teams, operating within any development lifecycle, implementing innovative solutions, championing operational excellence, and leading cross-functional collaboration to deliver measurable results. A career defined by a unique combination of technical depth, engineering leadership, and a relentless focus on the customer.

SKILLS – ENGINEERING LEADERSHIP

Team Management

12+ years’ experience as an engineering manager
Delivered projects of all levels and complexity as engineering manager on behalf of customers from simple content upgrades to multiyear migration projects to new feature sets.
Defined mission and vision statements and charters for engineering and operations, including tenets for decision making.
Reviewed design documents and technical artifacts at all levels, providing high value direction and feedback.
Worked with technical stakeholders including other engineering teams as well as data science, machine learning, and business intelligence teams.
Managed single teams of engineers and testers.
Managed multiple teams with organizations as large as 30+ people, including engineers, QA and QA managers, technical project managers, and engineering managers reporting to me.

Product Management

Managed multiple product lines, systems, and portals concurrently, including support and operations.
Managed roadmaps and backlogs numbering 15-20+ concurrent projects, including ongoing operational excellence, support, and maintenance.
Wrote and evaluated requirements as needed; worked with product owners and visual designers to arrive at achievable, effective solutions for customers.

Process Management and Planning

Proficient in Agile, including Scrum and Kanban processes. Led ceremonies and ensured proper team process compliance.
Ensured the process in place is the best one for the team based on team construction, size and type of roadmap, team chemistry, and geographic location.
Led Scrum of Scrum style processes across multiple teams as a senior team leader.
Designed, implemented, and managed quarterly planning cycles involving multiple teams and backlogs to ensure cross-team coordination and delivery over time.

Hiring and Team Development

Conducted over 100 cross team hiring interviews at Amazon for all roles, including engineers, managers, testers, product owners, and technical project managers, leading to effective hiring decisions as hiring manager or interview participant.
Drove successful promotions at all engineering levels; executed successful team member role shifts from engineer to management roles or other roles.
Participated in junior developer and intern programs; successfully hired both roles onto my teams; involved in the creation of a Junior Business Intelligence engineer program at Amazon.

Mentoring Others

Held a Software Development Manager Bar Raiser role; involved in creation of the Engineering Excellence training program content; led cohorts of new managers where I directly trained more than 50 new Amazonian managers.
Mentored several Amazonians in multiple roles; directly coached team members as well as peers.

Communication

Excellent verbal communicator with a linear, thorough, easy to understand style.
Comfortable communicating at all levels of the organization, including senior leadership.
Excellent written communicator; held a Document Bar Raiser role at Amazon, where I was a team lead; developed the first process for the program; developed training cohort process for the program; led cohorts where I trained more than 100 new document reviewers; reviewed documents weekly; audited current reviewers to ensure review bar was maintained.
Conducted writing workshops where I trained more than 2500 Amazonians on our writing culture.
Presented at several large Amazon events, include one Kindle All Hands and several virtual conferences with audiences of more than a thousand attendees.

SKILLS – ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

10+ years’ experience as an engineer
Delivered projects of all levels and complexity as web developer, full stack engineer, principal engineer and architect, from simple content upgrades to full redesigns and new features.
Led teams while staying involved in engineering, both as manager and as principal engineer and architect.
Held technical roles as web developer, senior engineer, and principal engineer / architect.
Designed dozens of systems and features at various levels of complexity and scale.
Implemented dozens of features as an engineer, routinely taking on the most difficult tasks.
Participated in code reviews, providing guidance and feedback while maintaining standards
Experience working in both front-end and back-end code, API first systems, and systems at Amazon scale.
Delivered many technical projects including portals, APIs, n-tier systems, distributed systems, and data storage.
As an engineer, had a reputation for high-quality, low-bug rate delivery at a high speed.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Amazon, San Luis Obispo, CA

April 2017 – October 2018, October 2019 – present

Software Development Manager III

Software Development Manager Bar Raiser | Engineering Excellence Contributor | Document Bar Raiser Team Lead

As a software development manager, I led high functioning engineering teams of up to 25 engineers and managers as they built and maintained features, committed to operational excellence, collaborated with product and technical stakeholders, and delivered for customers.

Scientific Drilling, San Luis Obispo, CA

January 2019 – October 2019

Senior Software Engineer

I developed technology on the Microsoft.NET platform in C#. This included several large projects, such as the incorporation of remote desktop functionality into the company’s Windows application suite, allowing for control of company Windows laptops in extremely remote conditions, and a rewrite of software controlling drill depth calculations accounting for pressure underground.

CoStar Group, San Luis Obispo, CA

January 2011 – October 2016

Senior Technical Manager

Managed three diverse Development and QA teams across three of CoStar Group’s Marketplace Verticals, BizBuySell, BizQuest, and LandAndFarm, along with providing technical expertise where requested across the entire enterprise, including our other assets such as Apartments.com, LoopNet, and Lands Of America.

LoopNet, Monrovia, CA

July 2001 – July 2006, June 2008 – January 2011

Principal Engineer | Senior Web Developer

Responsible for all software architecture, design, and operations, from receiving the requirements to deployments of releases, in a Microsoft Internet/Intranet environment. Participated in development of features and participated in maintenance cycles.

Cuesta Community College, San Luis Obispo, CA

October 2012 – May 2017

Instructor, Computer Information Systems Pool

I was a member of a pool of instructors teaching introductory level courses in computer systems and programming.

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, Information Technology – Software Emphasis

Western Governors University, Salt Lake City, UT

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Rob Hope