MIKE HALL Staff Software Engineer / Platform & Enablement Lead Chicago, IL Email: mike@just3ws.com Phone: (847) 877-3825 Website: https://www.just3ws.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/just3ws/ GitHub: https://github.com/just3ws ================================================================================ PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY ================================================================================ Staff Software Engineer and Platform Lead who multiplies engineering velocity and system reliability. Proven track record of merging attrition-impacted teams into high-performing units, founding developer enablement teams, building automated verification gates, and unblocking product teams from technical debt friction. ================================================================================ CORE SKILLS ================================================================================ Platform Enablement & Developer Productivity, Team Consolidation, Mentorship & Attrition Rescue, Automated Verification Gates & CI/CD Pipelines, Architecture Discovery & Technical Debt Reduction, Distributed Tracing & Service Legibility, Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL & Event-Driven Systems, Test-Driven Development (TDD) & Clean Refactoring, Incident Leadership & Blameless Post-Mortems ================================================================================ EXPERIENCE ================================================================================ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, STAFF ENGINEER OneMain Financial | Remote January 2021 - February 2026 Merged two attrition-impacted teams into one unified delivery unit in the Acquisition Lane; founded ACQ Enablement to insulate core engineering health, documentation, and PII/fraud remediation from feature roadmap pressure. Key Outcomes: * Technical Leadership & Team Consolidation: Progressed from Digital Origination Team Lead to Software Architect for the Acquisition Lane, merging two attrition-impacted teams into a unified, high-functioning engineering unit before converting to Associate Director, Staff Engineer upon corporate architecture track restructuring. * ACQ Enablement Founding & Engineering Mandates: Founded and technically led the ACQ Enablement team to protect core engineering concerns from product feature pressure: driving platform stabilization, legacy modernization, system process mapping, architecture documentation, PII remediation, and fraud investigations. * Observability & Enterprise Trace: Founded and led the OpenTelemetry Working Group (OTel WG) to establish the Enterprise Trace across high-volume customer acquisition flows, connecting a complex Rails distributed monolith, MuleSoft, and IBM mainframe backends to eliminate blind spots and align engineering around real-time service maps. * AI-Augmented Systems Investigation: Introduced privacy-conscious local AI workflows for legacy code analysis and engineering support, expanding investigative capacity while keeping human review, security constraints, and source evidence explicit. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DEVELOPMENT MANAGER — FOUNDER TRANSITION & ACQUISITION HANDOFF EMR-Bear, a MedSuite company | Remote May 2026 - August 2026 Established deployment verification gates blocking unvalidated changes prior to HIPAA review; unified distributed U.S.-Mexico engineering rhythms. Key Outcomes: * Architecture Discovery & Operational Risk Assessment: Built a rapid 90-day system inventory and risk model spanning application codepaths, infrastructure dependencies, access boundaries, and operational risks. * Production & Compliance Governance: Established release verification gates across the deployment pipeline of a platform servicing 130+ clinics, blocking unvalidated changes prior to HIPAA compliance review and business sign-off. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SENIOR BACKEND DEVELOPER SK Holdings, Inc. | Chicago, IL January 2019 - December 2020 Standardized asynchronous Sidekiq delivery pipelines and automated CI/CD deployment routines. Key Outcomes: * Search Infrastructure Simplification: Replaced legacy external search clusters (Sphinx) with native MySQL full-text search and optimized relational indices, eliminating external service dependencies and reducing platform infrastructure footprint. * Zero-Downtime Platform Upgrades: Led Ruby and Rails framework upgrades across multiple core applications, sequencing database migrations and dependency updates to maintain uptime during platform modernization. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT Tandem | Chicago, IL August 2018 - August 2018 Led client architecture modernizations, pairing and mentoring engineering teams in TDD, automated testing discipline, and continuous delivery. Key Outcomes: * Conducted an on-site, end-to-end operational walkthrough at military processing facilities (Des Plaines MEPS), identifying critical disconnects between enlistment workflows and proposed software models. * Evaluated program viability and delivered definitive architectural recommendations directly to executive leadership, mitigating severe contractual and delivery risks. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOFTWARE ENGINEER Obtiva | Chicago, IL August 2009 - July 2011 Delivered high-stakes consulting architectures, training client teams in Ruby on Rails, agile delivery rhythms, and software craftsmanship. Key Outcomes: * Built self-service reporting platforms for Leapfrog Online, allowing business stakeholders to query and export data warehouse analytics without engineering bottlenecks. * Developed commercial B2B sales and product catalog services for Sears, opening new enterprise revenue channels. * Engineered deal-processing services and fraud analysis pipelines at Groupon, stabilizing backend transaction infrastructure during extreme hyper-growth. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Senior Software Developer | BenchPrep (March 2017 - February 2018) Owned enterprise assessment workflows, leading correctness and platform security in a high-concurrency environment. * Senior Software Developer | ReachLocal (March 2015 - November 2016) Owned API design and modernization strategy, leading incremental legacy migration for a high-volume digital marketing platform. * Open-Source Transition Lead | Coderwall (January 2014 - December 2014) Hired as a contractor by the founder to lead the open-source transition of the Coderwall developer reputation platform, a Y Combinator-backed professional network for software engineers (856 GitHub stars, 304 forks). Delivered security hardening, proprietary service extraction, infrastructure modernization, and community leadership as the top contributor to the open-source codebase. * Engineering Learning & Development Business Partner | Groupon (July 2011 - May 2013) Owned core backend systems for fraud and taxonomy, leading global engineering enablement during hyper-growth. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CAREER FOUNDATIONS 1999 - 2011 Built and operated enterprise integrations, transactional systems, and early web products across consulting and product organizations, establishing the production discipline and community-centered craftsmanship that still shape my leadership. * Revenue-critical commerce: Designed real-time inventory, locking, and fulfillment services for a high-volume ticket marketplace later acquired by a major industry operator. * Consulting and software craftsmanship: Delivered systems across client environments while mentoring engineers, adopting Ruby and Rails, and helping build Chicago's craftsmanship community. * Enterprise and operational systems: Built integration and operational software across large organizations, grounded in .NET, SQL, messaging, production support, and direct user needs. ================================================================================