Hector Castro

Improved application observability and performance by integrating Datadog for unified log aggregation, metrics monitoring, and distributed tracing, enabling rapid identification and resolution of critical performance bottlenecks and significantly reducing mean time to recovery.

Established a structured approach to managing technical debt, creating clear prioritization processes that empowered engineers to proactively advocate for and implement improvements, resulting in greater application stability, maintainability, and long-term productivity.

Implemented a standardized, transparent framework for architectural decision-making, streamlining collaboration across teams and ensuring clear documentation of key engineering choices, which improved alignment, reduced ambiguity, and accelerated project execution.

Built strong, collaborative relationships with cross-functional teams, including Cybersecurity, Data Analytics, and upstream/downstream stakeholders, enabling efficient negotiation and management of dependencies, which accelerated delivery timelines and minimized integration challenges for complex feature sets.

Led the scaling of cloud-based lab operations software from a single instance to a nationally distributed, multi-instance architecture, directly enabling business growth and improved operational performance across multiple geographic regions.

Created automated tooling for consistent database schema migrations, significantly reducing manual errors, improving deployment reliability, and decreasing the risk of downtime across all lab software instances.

Implemented AWS Lambda-based workflows to automate centralized data aggregation, providing real-time, accurate data into a unified data lake, empowering analytics teams to rapidly derive actionable business insights.

Established an organization-wide framework for architecturally significant decision-making, improving transparency, alignment, and collaboration across engineering teams.

Transformed the engineering hiring process by introducing a structured apprenticeship program, standardized technical assessments, and improved interview practices, significantly enhancing hiring quality and consistency.

Led recruiting efforts for software engineers across multiple teams, conducted performance evaluations, and mentored engineers, strengthening team capabilities and refining my perspective on effective engineering leadership.

Launched cross-functional working groups addressing critical organizational initiatives, including business development and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), effectively reducing silos and fostering an inclusive, collaborative culture.

Implemented a clear and structured engineering career ladder, providing engineers with transparent growth pathways and significantly improving talent retention and organizational clarity.

Founded the company’s first dedicated web application infrastructure team, enabling scalable, resilient engineering operations and supporting rapid organizational growth.

Built reproducible software delivery pipelines leveraging immutable deployment artifacts, infrastructure-as-code (IaC), and standardized development environments, significantly increasing deployment reliability and reducing lead time.

Developed and maintained widely-used open-source Terraform and Ansible modules, enhancing infrastructure reuse, improving engineering efficiency, and supporting talent attraction through community engagement.

Established a structured, blameless incident response process, promoting transparency and continuous improvement by systematically capturing lessons learned and reducing recurrence of critical production issues.

Led technical pre-sales engagements with organizations nationwide, improving sales efficiency, shortening sales cycles, and driving higher customer adoption.

Maintained and enhanced official Chef cookbooks for Riak and Riak CS, providing standardized, reliable, and efficient deployment methods that significantly improved user experience and streamlined customer onboarding.

Developed tooling and integrations using Docker, Datomic, Omnibus, and Vagrant, simplifying the integration of Riak products into existing technology stacks, accelerating customer adoption, and improving community engagement.

Automated end-to-end data preparation and publishing processes for core datasets, significantly reducing manual effort and freeing resources to focus on developing more advanced, high-value data products.

Transformed a prototype SEC filings full-text search tool into a scalable, cloud-native service featuring a distributed ingestion pipeline and robust search indexing, successfully delivering the company’s first interactive data analytics product and driving new business opportunities.