Staff Backend Engineer
I build the distributed systems that don't fail — and the teams that keep them that way.
20+ years designing, shipping, and operating distributed systems and event-driven architectures. Expert in reliability, reconciliation, and observability at scale, with deep experience in payment data handling and production data privacy. Based in the Salt Lake City area.
Now: building payments infrastructure at pmtbox, in the Salt Lake City area.
How I work
Six values that guide my teams
Getting Things Done
Progress over perfection — we ship reliable MVPs, iterate in motion, and build momentum that compounds.
Reliability
Systems that work every day, not just on launch day — designed to fail safely and recover gracefully.
Monitoring
Signal over noise — observable systems tell you what they're doing and why they failed when they do.
Teamwork
Collaboration with alignment — we pull in every perspective, trust each other to speak up, and build together.
Growth
Small, consistent improvements every day — growth compounds when people feel safe learning in public.
Communication
Honesty, clarity, and space to think out loud — communication is the thread that holds every other value together.
Core strengths
Distributed Systems
Event-driven architectures, Kafka, SQS, idempotency patterns, and DLQ strategies for high-integrity data flows.
Payments & Settlement
ACH, card, virtual card, and alternative payment methods. Reconciliation, ledger schemas, and operational safety at scale.
Reliability & Observability
Structured logging, distributed tracing, SLOs, and on-call culture. Systems that tell you when something is wrong — before you find out the hard way.