Backend Software Engineer | JVM, Kotlin, Kafka, Search, Distributed
Systems
Experience
Software Developer IIJul 2020–Present
Previously: Software Developer I, Jul 2018–Jul
2020Ridgeland, MS
C Spire
Develop, maintain, and support 200+ JVM-based middleware services
across Java, Scala, and Kotlin, integrating with Kafka, Solr, Redis,
Oracle databases, vendor APIs, and internal business systems.
Lead technical design and coordinate implementation across projects
involving up to four other developers; mentor new employees and interns
through onboarding, architecture training, and hands-on project
work.
Led a four-person effort to replace an hourly Solr 4.x
customer-indexing process with an event-driven Kafka, Kafka Connect, and
Solr 8 platform, reducing search-data latency from up to one hour to
near real time across web, POS, and backend systems.
Built an Akka-based reindexing service that streams and combines
100M+ source records across multiple Oracle databases, reducing a
complete rebuild from more than two days to approximately 90
minutes.
Built the team’s first production service using Kotlin, Ktor, and
Gradle and established an implementation pattern supporting an ongoing
migration away from Scala, Akka HTTP, and Maven.
Helped design and build a UI-configurable wireless promotion engine
using Java, Scala, Spring, Oracle, and Drools, replacing manually coded
rules with a durable decision-tree model later reused for Home-service
promotions and still operating without fundamental redesign six years
after launch.
Independently built a searchable Git and Markdown based developer
knowledge platform used by approximately 50 developers and later
selected as the foundation for a company-wide developer AI knowledge
base.
Founded C Spire’s open-source working group, secured CIO sponsorship
and funding, and partnered with Legal and Cyber Security to establish
the company’s first license and contribution processes; multiple
employee patches have since been accepted upstream.
Participate in rotating production on-call coverage and serve as an
escalation point for complex incidents across customer search, ordering,
billing, and integration systems.
Implemented OAuth-secured Akka HTTP APIs connecting Microsoft and
Idemia’s eSIM activation flow with internal account,
device-registration, service-plan, and billing systems.
Sublime Text plugin implementing Helix-inspired modal editing with
normal, insert, select, and view modes and mode-aware keybindings.
Built movement and selection commands, registers, yank/delete/change
operations, paste behavior, plugin-state management, and reusable
abstractions over Sublime Text APIs.