Experience
senior software engineer, acuity platform
squarespace · remote · maryland
may 2022—present
building go-based SOA on EKS that powers 5 production services. author of 19 ADRs/RFCs spanning architecture, observability, and incident response.
platform architecture & infrastructure
- architected the production backstage template (EKS, CI/CD, monitoring) and foundational ESO secrets layer for the acuity SOA platform — reached GA, now powers 5 production go services.
- spearheaded the opinionated go service template and local-dev tooling giving product teams a repeatable path from `service init` to staging deploy.
- productionized the SOA DB provisioning lambda, drove ULID adoption as the primary-key standard, authored the foundational service architecture RFC.
developer experience & enablement
- spearheaded service creation day across 2 sessions for 17 engineers from 8 product teams — 94.1% reported increased platform confidence, 100% rated experiment-service creation as easy, walkthrough rated 4.47/5.
- partnered with 5 SOA service teams (email unsubscribe — first production SOA service — commerce, text customization, forms, waitlist) as embedded technical advisor.
- mentored a new hire and an internal transfer onto the SOA platform; sole go reviewer for the initial acuity-commerce service.
observability & operational excellence
- architected acuity's tracing standardization via a custom go instrumentation library and the acuity custom instrumentation ADR — now followed by every SOA team.
- established the datadog champions program — a network of team-level datadog experts built through bi-weekly deep dives, labs, and Q&A.
- migrated the statsig event-log queue to a go-backed sidecar, decoupling event delivery from monolith deploys.
security & incident response
- deployed AWS WAF targeted bot control during a live spam incident — eliminated ~25% above-normal traffic, rule promoted to permanent block mode.
- spearheaded incident tabletop exercises for 37 cross-functional responders — +1.48 avg competency gain (2.93 → 4.41), 9.03/10 exercise effectiveness, 100% rated overall quality ≥ 4/5.
- architected acuity's dedicated transactional email domain (route53/ACM/ALB + sendgrid with SPF/DKIM/DMARC), isolating client traffic and protecting sender reputation.
Selected ADRs/RFCs: acuity service architecture · SOA secrets management (ESO) · ULID for SOA primary keys · AWS WAF targeted bot control · acuity custom instrumentation · incident tabletop exercises · datadog champions
Stack: go, aws (eks, lambda, sns/sqs), kubernetes, terraform, datadog, aurora mysql
engineering manager · tech lead · senior software engineer
kion · fulton, MD
jan 2020—may 2022
- architected an AWS EC2 reserved-instance dashboard tracking usage across many accounts sharing reservations — enabled finance teams to right-size commitments (go / angular 2+ / mysql).
- productionized a cloud compliance scanning feature surfacing policy violations across customer AWS accounts.
- contributed to the cloud custodian open-source project (python) — unblocked azure govcloud support for enterprise customers.
Stack: go, angular, python, mysql, aws
software engineer sr.
lockheed martin · space systems · rockville, MD
mar 2014—jan 2020
- engineered PHP application features for space systems mission tooling, supporting cross-program operations at scale.
- authored technical writing and security review documentation (HP fortify) adopted across the program for compliance.
Stack: php, mysql, hp fortify
Skills
- languages
- go, php, python, typescript, sql
- cloud & platform
- aws, eks, lambda, sns/sqs, kubernetes, helm, argocd, terraform, drone ci, backstage
- observability & incident
- datadog, pagerduty, rootly, SLO / MTTD / MTTR
- ai tooling
- claude code, cursor, custom skills & slash commands, MCPs
- patterns & infra
- SOA, microservices, event-driven, REST, docker
- email & identity
- sendgrid, SPF / DKIM / DMARC, stripe, twilio
Selected Projects
argus · in progress · 2026
a dashboard of everything i use to get better at working with AI.
argus is a single dashboard for tracking the half-dozen feeds i check throughout the day. named after the hundred-eyed watchman because that's what a good dashboard is.
the project under the project is studying my own ai workflow — what claude is good at, what i should keep my hands on, where the seams are.
Tags: dashboard, claude code, self-tooling · Stack: go, react, postgres
beads ui · in progress · 2026
jira-shaped ticketing with a built-in agent that executes the tickets.
beads ui is a frontend for a small ticketing system with one twist: an agent embedded in the workflow that can pick up a ticket, propose a plan, and execute it. the UI is the seam between human-managed work and agent-executed work.
the open question is what controls a ticketing system needs when half the assignees are agents. plan approval, diff review on completion, audit trails. still figuring it out.
Tags: react, agents, tooling · Stack: typescript, react, agent runtime
mommy's little app · shipped · 2026
a postpartum nutrition + fitness tracker i built for my wife — north star is protecting milk supply, not weight loss.
a single-user, mobile-first postpartum nutrition and fitness tracker i built for my wife while she was exclusively breastfeeding. its north star is protecting milk supply — not weight loss — so the whole thing is dark-first, calm, and built to never be guilt-inducing.
full-stack on cloudflare: a react + vite PWA talking to a hono worker backed by D1 (sqlite), end to end typescript. signup is allow-listed and the deploy is single-user by design — it lives at mommy.davevan.dev but is locked down so only she can get in. the repo stays private; this one was built for an audience of one.
Tags: full-stack, pwa, personal · Stack: react, hono, cloudflare d1
dmv housing hub · shipped · 2026
publicly-available housing data for DC, maryland, and virginia — in one place.
an information hub that pulls together publicly-available housing data across the DC / maryland / virginia area into a single navigable surface. originally built because the existing references were scattered across a dozen government PDFs.
the design goal was navigability over comprehensiveness — a person looking for first-time buyer programs should not have to read a fifty-page document to know where to start.
Tags: civic, data, next.js · Stack: next.js, typescript, postgres
contraction tracker · shipped · 2026
tracked my wife's contractions on the way to the hospital.
a one-screen web app for timing the duration and frequency of contractions, with a big tap target, large readable timing, and an export-as-csv button.
created the app right before my wife started active labor. shipped because someone else may find it useful.
Tags: pwa, tiny, personal · Stack: react, pwa, localstorage
charades generator · shipped · 2025
family charades, with score and time tracked.
a small web app that gives you a fresh charades prompt with a single tap, keeps score, and runs the round timer. built because the family plays charades from time to time and tracking score on a napkin gets old.
no accounts, no ads, no analytics. opens fast, works offline.
Tags: web, family, tiny · Stack: react, vanilla