Engineering leader making solid software by building teams worth being on.
About
I started in QA, not engineering. My job was to find the problems before they became someone else's emergency. You develop a habit of asking “what could go wrong?” before anything happens. That habit never left me.
When I moved into engineering leadership, I brought it with me. Instead of testing code, I started applying it to teams: where are the gaps in how we work? What are we going to regret in six months if we don't say something now?
I think like an engineer. I just don't write the code, and I've never tried to pretend otherwise. Some days I still walk into a room full of engineers and feel the imposter syndrome kick in. But I've come to see that as an advantage. I hire people who are sharper than me at the craft, I rely on them, and I stay out of their way.
These days I lead the billing team at CallRail. Before that I led engineering and QA teams across different domains and company sizes, always with the same approach. Be clear about what matters, give people room to do their best work, and say the thing that needs to be said.
How I Lead
- People are the product. What you ship today will change. The team you build will outlast it. That's where your energy belongs. I've promoted 10 engineers over the years, two of them into management.
- Quality starts before the code. If you're finding bugs after you've shipped, you've already lost. Teams work the same way. Most conflicts, bottlenecks, and misalignment are preventable. Say the thing early.
- The Goldilocks process. Too little process is chaos. Too much is just management covering its own ass. The right amount gives people clarity without treating them like they can't think for themselves.
- No surprises. When someone is struggling I say it in a 1:1 first, plainly. If it doesn't change the conversation gets more direct. If it still doesn't change it becomes formal. I've had to let someone go for performance, and the part I care about is that it was never a surprise to them. People deserve to know where they stand while they still have room to do something about it.
- Absorb the noise. When a project goes sideways my job is to communicate early and often upward, and to keep as much of that off the team as I can. Decision makers need clear expectations to plan around. Engineers need room to focus. I sit between those two things.
- If you rest, you rust. I read, I ask questions, I try to be better than I was last quarter. I hold my teams to the same expectation. Not because growth is a KPI, but because stagnation is contagious.
Getting It Wrong
My first hire quit after one day.
I hired him because I liked him. I didn't know how to actually interview someone yet, so I mistook a good conversation for a good fit. It's the most useful mistake I've made, because it taught me early that whether you like someone and whether they'll do the job are two entirely separate questions.
I calibrate for senior engineers.
Most of my career I've managed senior people who wanted to be handed a problem and left alone, and that's where my instincts are tuned. Junior engineers need something different from me. More structure, more frequent check-ins, more explicit direction. I know that about myself, and it's the thing I have to actively work at instead of defaulting to what's comfortable.
Work
| Oct 2024 — Present | CallRail Engineering Manager, Billing I lead a 6-person billing team ranging from Engineer I to Principal, and I've promoted 4 of the 6. We ship one or two major projects a quarter, including the rearchitecture that moved the company from a single product to a full platform and migrated the entire existing customer base. Billing used to come up at board meetings as a blocker. It doesn't anymore. MarTechSaaSBilling |
| Oct 2022 — Oct 2024 | Eleven Software Engineering Manager Led 4 cross-functional engineering teams including 2 offshore contracting teams. Shipped over 27 projects, implemented DORA metric tracking across the engineering org, maintained 99.95% uptime SLA, and reduced AWS costs by ~20%. Network ManagementHospitalityPropTech |
| May 2021 — Sep 2022 | Consumer Cellular Sr. Engineering Manager Mentored 3 engineering managers whose teams covered e-commerce, customer communications, and network operator integrations. Drove org-level initiatives to improve process, technology, and team capability. TelecomE-commerce |
| Jan 2019 — May 2021 | AltSource Engineering Manager Owned delivery for a full-stack team, from large-scale projects down to individual features. Established the code review, testing, and engineering standards. Managed risk across QA, DevOps, UX, and Data. TelecomE-commerceConsulting |
| Dec 2017 — Jan 2019 | AltSource QA Engineer Sole QA on an engineering team. Where the transition from tester to leader started. TelecomE-commerceConsulting |
| May 2014 — Nov 2017 | Amtrust QA Analyst Supervisor / QA Analyst Led 2 teams totaling 14 SQA analysts, building automated testing for multi-million dollar systems and owning the release process. InsuranceFinancial Services |
What my teams build with
Ruby · TypeScript · Node.js · React · Next.js · PostgreSQL · AWS · Prisma · Zuora · Stripe · Datadog
Beyond Work
Most of my time outside work belongs to a toddler who is somehow both completely exhausting and the best thing I've ever done. Everything else gets fit in around that.
Homebrewing
I've been homebrewing on and off for years. Some batches work out better than others, but that's half the fun.
Woodworking
There's something satisfying about working with your hands after a day of abstract problems. You end up with something tangible that either works or it doesn't.
Biking
I ride and I build them. There's something satisfying about knowing exactly how the machine you're on works. Being able to fix it when it doesn't is even better.
Logic puzzles
Crosswords, logic puzzles, strategy games. I love problems that have a clean answer. Good counterbalance to the ones that don't.
Also: guitar & ukulele, travel, home improvement, cooking, reading, dogs.
Contact
If something here resonates, or you think I've got it wrong, get in touch. I respond quickly and I won't waste your time.