Peter White - Hands-on Technology Executive

professional experience

Founder and Principal, Knowledgewerkz, Hayward, CA

5/2014-Present

I provide strategic and tactical thought leadership, transitional and interim management (CTO/CIO, VP, Director, and Manager Roles), and technology services (Dev, Ops, Big Data, Quality Engineering) to my clients. I also provide services to assess and address productivity and predictability issues. Please visit www.knowledgewerkz.com for more info.

Brief Hiatus

4/2014-4/2014

I enjoyed some time off with my family and worked on neglected personal projects while contemplating my next great adventure. The benefits package was unbeatable while it lasted:

Flexible Hours
Unlimited Vacation Days
Volunteer Days
Gym Membership
Opportunities to Do Meaningful Work
Presenting at Conferences

Head of Engineering, Servio/CrowdSource West, San Francisco, CA

9/2013-3/2014

Assumed responsibility for Servio engineering, technical operations, and IT; represented these functions and systems through all technology-related aspects of the acquisition by CrowdSource (now OneSpace), and continued to lead these functions as Head of Engineering for the CrowdSource west coast office.

Staffed and trained a small offshore DevOps team to mitigate risk from rapid pre-acquisition attrition, ensuring continued quality of service of the Servio "CloudCrowd" platform.
Assumed the primary/on-call site-ops role so the remaining engineering staff could focus on tight revenue-related deadlines.
Led the database scalability effort, consisting of table partitioning and offloading read-only queries to read-only slaves, for the CloudCrowd platform.
Represented Servio during the technical due diligence stage and worked with the patent attorneys to support and transfer Servio's in-progress patent applications to CrowdSource.
Worked closely with the executive, engineering, and marketing teams at CrowdSource HQ to:
- Rebrand all Servio corporate assets.
- Migrate all projects, workers, and integrated clients on Servio's CloudCrowd platform to the CrowdSource platform.
- Sunset the CloudCrowd platform and all related assets.
Implemented a CloudCrowd to CrowdSource API bridge so we could sunset the CloudCrowd platform before the final remaining CloudCrowd API consumer was ready to directly migrate their API client to the CrowdSource API.

Software Architect, Servio, San Francisco, CA

7/2012-8/2013

I was a swiss-army-knife in a small but talented engineering team that's responsible for development, test (automated & manual), deployment, tech/site ops, and production support. On any given day, I wrote code in some combination of Rails, Sinatra, MySQL/DataMapper, MongoDB/Mongoid, RabbitMQ, HTML5, JavaScript (jQuery & Underscore.js), and Twitter Bootstrap/CSS. This is just a small sampling of the projects I completed:

Designed and implemented regional data-center cutover capability for our cloud document store, along with a daemon for replicating OpenStack object-store containers across regions.
Added "boiler-plate" detection and enhanced filtering capabilities to our plagiarism detection service while improving the overall quality and maintainability of the legacy codebase.
Created the initial proof-of-concept for the cloudcrowd.com Rails 3.0 to 3.2 migration and UI overhaul based on Twitter Bootstrap's "responsive design" layout.
Built, imaged, snapshotted, replicated and restored MySQL master/slaves and MongoDB clusters, Nginx-based load balancers, and cloud-based corporate fileserver backups on multiple cloud providers.

Director of Quality Engineering, Box, Los Altos, CA

7/2010-7/2012

Responsible for all QA activities and the development, operation, and support of several test automation systems at Box. Introduced new tools, technologies, and process initiatives; resulting in improved product quality and increased individual and organizational productivity.

Built onsite Quality Assurance and "Tools & Frameworks" development teams virtually from scratch.
Changed offshore mobile QA to hybrid onsite/US-based crowdsourced QA model, resulting in increased testing capacity and quality. Negotiated volume pricing after successful test pilot with new crowdsourced test partner.
Renegotiated contract with pre-existing offshore QA partner and scaled offshore QA team 2x.
Conducted one-on-ones, employee goal setting, professional development, and semiannual performance evaluations.
Managed budget and established vision, priorities, and quarterly roadmaps for my organization.
Led the design, implementation, and adoption of a massively parallel and distributed cross-browser and cross-platform test automation platform.
Influenced the adoption of Scala as a production language at Box by implementing the test automation framework (TAF) in it, providing test authoring mentoring, and performing code reviews.
Promoted the Box brand to the developer community by presenting and co-organizing 5 Box presentations at Silicon Valley Code Camp '11.

Director, Software Engineering, Instill / iTradeNetwork, Pleasanton, CA

2/2008-7/2010

Responsible for the management of all development activities for the Spend Management operator solutions. Introduced new tools, technologies, processes, and initiatives; resulting in increased individual and organizational productivity via enhanced collaboration and knowledge transfer.

Successfully delivered Unit Purchasing Compliance 1.0 – 1.2, a critical project that has been well received by one of ITN's most demanding customers.
Actively managed a ten person development and testing team; conducted performance reviews, hiring, and mentoring of direct reports.
Contributed to product roadmap, negotiated release plans, drove the architecture, functional definition, development, and scheduling of multiple products, acting as a point of contact for cross-functional peer meetings.
Managed strategic OEM partnership with MicroStrategy.

Technical Lead/Architect, Third Pillar Systems, San Mateo, CA

7/2003-2/2008

Defined company-wide development process by selecting, installing and configuring version control, build automation, unit testing, continuous integration, and source formatting solutions. I also developed the core JSP tag and Flex component libraries and provided team-member training, support, and documentation on these solutions. As a senior technical resource, I led several development teams and provided technical assistance to others on an as-needed basis. These are just two example projects where I:

Took ownership of the design and implementation of the core framework and project-wide code quality.
Identified, documented, and established coding standards and best practices, improving code quality and consistency.
Mentored staff and performed informal code reviews to ensure that the coding standards and best practices were adhered to.

Impress (6 developers) – Role: Engineering/Project Manager, Architect, Lead Developer

Responsible for requirements analysis, functional and technical specifications, architecture, design and implementation of the company's next-generation core application platform (a fully internationalized and localized SOA-based WYSIWYG rapid application development and deployment platform).
Responsible for product road-map, scoping, planning, scheduling, and tracking.
Designed and implemented all common framework code shared by both the design (Eclipse RCP application) and runtime (WebWork/Spring-based J2EE webapp) environments – this included the object model, Hibernate mappings, and XML/XSD parsing, transformation, and data-binding as well as several custom SWT components.

LoanPath (30+ developers) – Role: Architect, Manager, Developer

Selected staff members from offshore development partners and managed them through their on-site counterparts.
Rewrote WebWork2's JSR168Dispatcher to support company's extremely unique design and workflow requirements.
Designed and implemented custom tab navigation framework with support for breadcrumbs.

Project Manager and Architect, Full Circle, SourceForge

4/2003-7/2003

Researched and prototyped with top up-and-coming web and ORM frameworks, settling on WebWork 2 beta & Hibernate 2 beta. I leveraged my experience with these frameworks and introduced them in my following role at Third Pillar Systems where they became cornerstones for all web development projects.
Created data model and all related CRUD screens for minimal viable product (MVP).

Senior Software Engineer, GT Nexus, Alameda, CA

1/2001-3/2003

Single-handedly designed and successfully delivered “GT Nexus Analytics 1.0” under tight schedule constraints.
Designed and implemented the architecture for carrier billing and reporting across all product suites.
Designed and implemented dynamic milestone model matching algorithms in Transact-SQL for determining the best milestone model and variation in the chosen model, for shipments within the "GT Nexus Orders 1.0" product suite.
Designed and implemented the architecture for carrier integration based on the EDI 315 "Status Details (Ocean)" spec.

Chief Architect and VP of Engineering,

companyfinance.com, Burlingame, CA

10/1999-1/2001

Staffed and mentored an engineering organization, consisting of 4 developers, 1 DBA and 1 quality assurance engineer.
Effectively led design and development of all company projects, consistently staying within schedule and budget constraints.
Designed, deployed, and maintained the multi-tenant Intelligent Lending Network (ILN) from conception to production.
Designed the private label architecture, enabling easier partner integration.
Evaluated, selected, and configured all tools used by the engineering organization, including source code control, IDE, and bug tracking system.
Evaluated, selected, and configured all hardware and software used in the production environment.

Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Zephyr Solutions, Hayward, CA

1/1998-10/1999

Successfully pivoted to providing outsourced SaaS development services, resulting in acqui-hire by companyfinance.com.
Founded company to provide world-class Remedy Customer Relationship Management (eCRM) consulting to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Designed, implemented, marketed, and sold Remedy AR System administration and data synchronization add-on tools.
Provided on-site Remedy consulting to enterprise customers, including Remedy (now BMC), Clorox, The San Francisco Newspaper Agency (now The San Francisco Chronicle), and Pacific Bell Wireless (now AT&T).

Technical Instructor, Remedy Corporation (BMC Remedy), Mountain View, CA

10/1993-1/1998

Presented courses from Basic to Advanced Topics and API programming designed to train employees, customers, and partners on implementing Remedy Action Request System solutions.
Course owner and developer of release 3.0 Advanced Topics class. I added new labs for direct database access, VBA/DDE integration with MS Word & Excel, and dynamic HTML generation for web integration.

Senior Technical Support Engineer, Remedy Corporation (BMC Remedy), Mountain View, CA

10/1993-1/1998

Viewed as a senior resource for n-tiered multi-platform client-server/web applications.
Created tech-notes and other internal training mechanisms to decrease the ramp up time for new support engineers.
Designed and implemented script-driven customer support test lab for Remedy Corporation.
Designed and implemented several key support applications such as fax-on-demand, BBS, interactive voice response system (IVR), automated customer satisfaction surveys, and dynamic tech-note publishing to the web.

Senior Systems Administrator and Developer, Silicon Graphics, Mountain View, CA

7/1991-10/1993

Developed business productivity tools in C++/Motif - announced at SIGGRAPH ’93 and MacWorld Expo ’93 as winner of the Silicon Graphics “IndigoGames” contest’s Business Tools Category.
Single-handedly supported an average user base of 700+ users providing network management and troubleshooting, maintaining all SGI platform machines (hardware and software) and departmental email aliases.

Highground Hackathon June '13	Implemented call center routing and schedules (using Twilio API & Rails) + HTML5 mobile client with Google Maps integration for submitting requests for assistance to Saviour, a platform for connecting "Good Samaritans" with people in need of assistance.
MongoDB San Francisco '13	Schema Design, Replication, Indexing & Query Optimization, Sharding, Data Modeling, Analytics, High Perf/High Scale MongoDB on AWS
Udacity Web Development (CS253)	Implemented simple blog application in Ruby/Sinatra with Redis for caching layer and completed course "With Highest Distinction". I particularly enjoyed the course's scaling and authentication modules.
Silicon Valley Code Camp '08 - '12	Various sessions on Scala, F#, Agile Adoption, Cloud Computing, Performance & Scalability, Mobile Development, JavaScript, Automated Testing, Continuous Delivery, Flash/Flex, Product Management, Semantic Web, Python
Scrum Alliance '09	Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
Software Development '09	Various sessions on agile processes and methods
BrainBench '03	OO Concepts Certification (top 5%), Systems Analysis Certification (top 2%)
JavaOne 2000 Conference	Variety of sessions, mostly covering XML, EJB, J2EE and rule engines
Software Development '97	Java Programming on the Internet, Leveraging the Standard C++ Library, Mastering Pointers and References in C++, Designing a Client/Server Architecture, Advanced GUI Design, Designing COM/ActiveX Controls
PowerSpeaking™	Presentation Skills Workshop

Strategies for building, managing, and scaling technology teams	Presented at Development 2014 Summit. The bullet points were mostly an outline for an interactive discussion I had with the attendees, and we focused the majority of our case study time on building and managing remote development teams due to an overwhelming majority of interest in this topic - I had a blast!
0 - 60: QA Automation @ Box	Co-authored and presented at Silicon Valley Code Camp '11. Describes the organization, culture, and tools that I led the development of as Director of Quality Engineering @ Box.
Achieving Cloud-Scale Test Automation @ Box	Presented by my team at Silicon Valley Code Camp '11. Describes multiple iterations of Box's test automation platforms along with the challenges involved at each stage.
Introduction to the Spring Framework	This is the slide deck that I used to kick-off the internal "Tech Talk" series I started at Instill Corporation. "Tech Talks" were 20 minute (roughly) informal technical presentations given by employees and management, with the goal of either introducing new technology to the organization or doing an expert-level deep-dive into a specific aspect of our core technologies.
Case Study with Peter White	The Code Generation Network did a case study on an early project I led at Third Pillar Systems.

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hands-on software development and it executive

qualification highlights