Avi Flax

Seeking Senior Software Architect Role*

I design, build, and operate software systems and teams that solve real problems and make a positive difference in the world.

I believe that values matter.

More Values

I believe that diversity and inclusion are crucial and create rich, healthy, sustainable, productive communities (companies).

I believe that DRY and the Rule of Three apply to docs just as much as code.

I believe that people can only do great work if they are healthy, growing, supported, and respected.

I believe that all great processes have one thing in common: they are regularly reviewed and refined.

I believe that the only thing that matters about any technology is its potential to solve problems.

I believe that technology is a phenomenally powerful tool that we humans have at our disposal to solve problems — if we so choose.

I believe that we humans do some of our best thinking while communicating — so let’s do more of that.

I believe that institutional/communal memory is critical to building sustainable organizations.

Current Position

2016–Present Principal Software Architect at Park Assist

Facilitating the company’s transition from execution phase to growth phase
Increasing collaboration and cohesion of the engineering team
Establishing roadmaps for all systems
Designing, building, and operating:
- streaming data pipelines conveying data from sites around the world to a central data center
- stream data topologies using Kafka and Kafka Streams to effect high-throughput and low-latency data-centric applications
Driving adoption of:
- infrastructure-as-code, configuration management, and immutable infrastructure with Terraform, Ansible, CircleCI, AWS, and Kubernetes
- consistent conventions around testing, documentation, code review, and continuous integration
Operating services with Terraform, Ansible, AWS, and Kubernetes, Datadog, Slack
Defining and executing new approaches to:
- engineering support
- team structure
- hiring
Create a culture of caring about sustainability, documentation, and maintainability
Introducing and championing new:
- development tools: GitHub, Terraform, CircleCI
- company-wide communication media: Slack, Discourse
Mentoring those new to software engineering

Prior Experience

2015: Timehop

Refactored a critical and complex system into a loosely-coupled stream-based system using Kinesis and Go (slides)
Designed and implemented sophisticated integration with Twilio for SMS-based signup
Designed and implemented a large-scale data processing tool to process billions of records very quickly

2014: Thinkful

Designed and implemented an event-driven system to automate Stripe subscription management

2013–2014: SFX Entertainment

SFX acquired Arc90 in 2013 to be its internal app design and development group
I initially adopted the title CTO, then recruited someone amazing to replace me and shifted to Chief Sofware Architect
I helped design and build an ambitious new-from-the-ground-up streaming music platform and integrate it with existing products
I helped shape the organization by helping craft its structure, practices, culture, goals, communication, and approach
I recruited key personnel

2005–2013: Arc90

Arc90 was a Web application design & development consultancy; it was acquired by SFX Entertainment in 2013
Wore many hats: developer, architect, team leader, partner, director
Worked with teams to design, build, and maintain sophisticated software platforms, including:
- A Web/SOA insurance platform covering all key aspects of policy origination and management
- A Web-based search engine and reference platform for engineers
- An API at the heart of a new-from-the-ground-up news distribution platform for Reuters
Conducted technical audits of clients’ acquisition targets
Helped manage the business as a partner
Managed client relationships
Invested much time and effort in recruiting and retaining exceptional team members
Started practice of regular company-wide code review

2001–2004: ADP

Refactored, enhanced, and maintained a sophisticated application for producing custom financial documents for on-demand printing

2001: Register.com

Team lead position for large high-traffic auction site
Responsibilities included designing, implementing, and maintaining features; and reengineering site technology and architecture
Created new internal tools and development procedures

2000: RewardsPlus

Maintained and enhanced a large-scale online employee benefits enrollment system for diverse clients with diverse needs

1998–2000: Words In Progress

Developed requirements and specifications for high traffic websites directly with clients; crafted application architecture and database design

1998: Ideal Computer Strategies

Worked with teams of designers, coders, and project managers to concurrently develop and deploy client websites with basic dynamic features

1997–1998: PCC Internet Design

Founded and managed a small web design shop in Pikesville, MD providing full-service web design and development to small companies in the Baltimore area

Examples

My current (stalled) side project is Omnia, a system to search multiple document silos at once. Warning: under construction!
A prior (stalled) side project is GitHub Digests, a system to aggregate GitHub notifications into daily email digests. (If you check it out, please keep in mind that it’s only 10% built and I was new to Ruby!)
Another prior side project was Three Things; I published a post telling its story.
I’ve been collecting resources for learning stream processing since August 2014.
In 2013 I published Resourceful, a Clojure library that provides a more concise and more RESTful alternative to declaring routes.
My last major project for Arc90 was to build a new platform for reuters.com:
- I created a diagram of the overall architecture of the “Reuters Next” platform
- I was asked to review a draft of the API spec; I provided these notes
- I developed a document to capture the culture and process of my team, so we could ramp new members up quickly and effectively
- I determined that the API codebase I had inherited needed to be refactored, and wrote this summary to explain why
- When I left the project I shared my parting thoughts with the team
I sometimes perform technical audits of existing applications or platforms. Here’s one example; I can provide more extensive examples upon request.
I sometimes write blog posts:
- Kafka Summit 2017 Talk Proposal
- Strange Loop 2016 Recap

I’d be happy provide more examples of my work, such as architecture diagrams and presentations, business analysis, code, etc. Just get in touch!

Key Skills

Problem analysis
Software design, architecture, construction, deployment, and operation
Deep expertise in the World Wide Web and HTTP
Web API design & development
Product design
Data engineering
Team/organizational leadership

Key Technologies

Around the Web

Additional Skills

Behavior Driven Development
Browser APIs
Business analysis
CoffeeScript
CouchDB
Datomic
DB Design
Django
ElasticSearch
Flask
Groovy
Information architecture
JavaScript
Markdown
MongoDB
Node
OmniGraffle
PostgreSQL
Restlet
SQL
Solr
Stripe
UX design
XML/XSL/XSD/XQuery

Hobbies

Thanks!

Thanks for scrolling all the way to the bottom of my résumé! I appreciate your interest. At this point, you might want to get in touch. Please do!

PDF Version

If you’d like to print or e-mail my résumé, you’re welcome to use the PDF version.