Coforma
Senior Director of Engineering
09/2022 - Present
Also Director of Engineering, Principal Software Engineer
Engineering Leadership & Team Growth
- Directing a 53-person engineering team at a health and public interest technology consulting firm, directly managing 6 reports of engineering directors, principal software engineers, and senior data scientists with a total of 11 in my reporting structure.
- Cultivating individualized long-term career mentorship, leading to the promotion of one Senior SWE to Director of Engineering and three mid-level SWEs to Senior roles.
- Grew the team from 39 to 53 full-time staff by establishing and optimizing comprehensive policies for interviewing, recruiting, onboarding, promoting, and performance management.
My Career NJ (mycareer.nj.gov)
- Directed the creation of an award-nominated digital platform for the State of New Jersey that empowers over 1.2 million yearly users to find job training, get personalized career recommendations, and explore pathways in high-demand industries.
- Oversaw the integration of three distinct, powerful tools to provide a cohesive career management experience for state residents:
- NJ Career Navigator: An AI-powered tool that provides personalized job and training recommendations after a user uploads their resume. It uses machine learning to match existing skills to best-fit job opportunities and potential new career paths.
- NJ Training Explorer: A comprehensive, searchable database of over 4,000 training programs and certifications across New Jersey, allowing users to filter and compare options by cost, location, and format.
- NJ Career Pathways: An exploratory tool that maps the education, training, and skills needed to enter and advance within New Jersey's high-growth industries like manufacturing, healthcare, and logistics.
Architecture & Modernization
- Directed the architecture of a multi-tier platform featuring a full-stack TypeScript monolith with a Next.js frontend and Express.js backend.
- Integrated the monolith with federal APIs, including O*NET Web API and Career OneStop, to enrich platform data.
- Spearheaded a major technical overhaul by migrating the frontend from Create React App (CRA) to Next.js, significantly improving performance and SEO.
- Currently leading the strategic migration from a legacy system using manual, emailed CSV files to a modern, API-based integration with Credential Engine.
AI & Machine Learning
- Delivered personalized career recommendations powered by a production ML platform with a Python FastAPI backend.
- The recommendation engine computes similarity using Euclidean distance for skill-based matching, Z-score normalization for variables, and weighted composite match ratings that factor in skill alignment, job availability, and user preferences.
- Utilized custom Natural Language Processing (NLP) for complex tasks including resume parsing, job title normalization, and multilingual translations.
- Engineered the backend with Python scripts using NumPy, Pandas, and SciPy for data processing, and utilized Elasticsearch/OpenSearch for scalable indexing and querying of job data at massive scale.
Infrastructure & DevOps
- Directed a production-ready DevOps pipeline and planned the unification of all CI/CD processes into GitHub Actions, including migrating workflows between different NJ state GitHub Enterprise instances.
- Orchestrated a multi-environment CI/CD pipeline featuring manual approval gates using AWS CodePipeline, AWS CodeBuild, and CircleCI.
- Managed infrastructure as code using Terraform, with a comprehensive automated testing suite including Jest, React Testing Library, and Cypress.
Strategic & Business Development
- As the Engineering Business Development Lead, facilitated the capture of $74M in prime contracts in 2024, maintaining a >70% win rate on competitive bids.
- Formulated and disseminated engineering best practices and diverse industry resources to encourage team-wide discussion and experimentation across data and AI.
- Led synchronous training sessions and authored a comprehensive knowledge base and documentation for the engineering organization.