Understand the business first
Reliable engineering starts with understanding what the data represents, how the source system behaves, what the business process is trying to accomplish, and what downstream users actually need.
About Me
I came to engineering by learning how real systems actually work.
My career did not begin in software engineering. I started on the business side of enterprise systems, learned how those systems supported real people and real processes, and gradually moved deeper into the data, software, and technology behind them.
That path eventually led through analytics, SQL development, product ownership, data engineering, integration, backend development, automation, and senior technical consulting. It gave me experience on both sides of the problem: understanding how organizations operate and building technical systems that accurately represent that reality.
Career Path
From business systems to engineering
I spent years working directly with Ellucian Banner before moving formally into analytics and development. That experience taught me that a database schema alone rarely tells the whole story. Business rules, operational workflows, historical decisions, and downstream dependencies all matter.
As I moved into increasingly technical roles, I worked with SQL, reporting, analytics, data extraction, relational modeling, integration, performance tuning, ETL/ELT, migration, validation, automation, and production troubleshooting. The deeper I went into the technology, the more useful that earlier business context became.
At Liberty University, I eventually became product owner and developer for Centralist, a PL/SQL- and Python-based marketing data application built on Ellucian Banner. At Unanet, I worked across complex ERP migrations, integrations, analytics, automation, and software development while serving as the primary architect and engineer for Nessie.
Nessie combined a Java backend with SQL, Python, PowerShell, REST APIs, structured JSON output, and a vanilla JavaScript frontend. It analyzed customer environments, refreshed a static analytics site daily, surfaced data-quality and configuration issues, and helped users move from identifying problems to correcting them through preformatted files compatible with Unanet import workflows.
A career built progressively
1
Enterprise-system user
2
Business-domain specialist
3
Data analyst
4
SQL / PL/SQL developer
5
Product owner
6
Data & analytics engineer
7
Integration & software engineer
8
Senior technical consultant
The progression matters to how I approach engineering today. I tend to think about data, applications, integrations, and analytics as parts of larger business systems rather than isolated technical components.
How I Think
I like understanding systems
What draws me to engineering is the systems-thinking aspect of the work. A data pipeline, API, application, report, or database rarely exists in isolation. Each sits within a larger network of applications, business processes, infrastructure, people, and decisions.
I enjoy understanding how those pieces interact, tracing a problem across boundaries, finding where the real complexity is coming from, and designing something simpler and more dependable in response.
That same interest extends beyond technology. I have a longstanding interest in economics, particularly the way incentives, constraints, feedback loops, and individual decisions combine to produce larger system-level outcomes.
How I Work
Engineering principles shaped by production work
Build for messy reality
Real systems contain incomplete documentation, inconsistent data, edge cases, historical decisions, and competing requirements. I design with those conditions in mind.
Make systems explainable
Good engineering should be understandable by the people who operate, maintain, troubleshoot, and depend on it. Clear logic, traceability, and documentation are part of the solution.
Outside of Work
There is life outside the terminal
Most of my time outside work is spent with my family and larger community. I also try to stay active, especially through running, and I enjoy projects that get me away from a screen, whether that means working in the yard, organizing my work shed, growing vegetables, or taking care of our chickens.
When I have some actual downtime, I am also a longtime Legend of Zelda fan.
See the engineering work
Explore professional and independent projects spanning data engineering, analytics, backend software, enterprise integration, and cloud-platform development.