Engineering leader scaling teams, processes, and AI capability at streaming scale. At Disney, I lead the 36-person organization behind the real-time operational insights platform for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN, and led its AI transformation: velocity up 225% year over year and production bugs down by half. That work catalyzed adjacent engineering, TPM, and product teams to build their own internal AI tools. I lead with integrity, making the call that’s right for the business and building the trust that lets teams ship hard things at scale. 10 years in engineering leadership and 9 as an IC before that, building high-performing, high-retention organizations and the platforms that serve hundreds of millions of viewers.
2024 - Present
2021 - 2024
2018 - 2021
2016 - 2018
2014 - 2016
2013 - 2014
Ann Arbor, MI
Enterprise backup and security appliances (18,000+ in production).
2013 - 2014
2009 - 2013
East Lansing, MI
Computing support for the Physics department.
2007 - 2009
B.A., Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media (coursework focus: Computer Science and Video Game Development) | ||
Machine Learning Certification |
Led the AI transformation of my engineering organization at Disney: velocity rose 225% year over year and production bugs fell 50% quarter over quarter. I set the strategy, hiring, and operating model, and held the rollout to a single pod until it proved itself. My teams delivered production GenAI operations tooling: AI incident prediction and triage, AI test-generation and PR-review tooling, an internal MCP server exposing platform APIs to LLM clients, and a conversational incident-triage agent.
The work didn’t stop at my team. I catalyzed AI tool-building across Disney, inspiring engineering, TPM, and product peers to build their own internal AI tools through hands-on onboarding, All Hands demos, and a TDD-scoring system that pushed the team to use LLMs for better technical design documents.
My teams build and evolve the business-critical operational insights platform that engineering teams and leaders rely on across Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN for real-time service health, incident response, and executive reporting.
It surfaces critical signals directly to Tech SVPs and the CTO during streaming incidents. My teams made it faster for service owners to open incidents, which helped the Support Center bring P1 detection and engagement under 60 minutes. Paired with an upstream data-quality and schema-enforcement layer that secures the integrity of the telemetry behind those real-time decisions.
Ground-up rebuild of Simon Fire. Pulled all of the original Arduino-based flame-effect electronics out of the towers and installed DMX512 receivers on each one, moving the project onto a standard lighting/effects protocol.
Started writing a new button (more detail TODO).
Brought Simon back to life after a decade in storage. Worked through the accumulated hardware decay from sitting after Burning Man (melted cable shielding, failed SD cards, and assorted bit-rot), then took the chance to improve it:
Deployed at a local fundraiser and at the regional Burn in 2025.
A 50 sq ft interactive fire art installation with four laser-etched capacitive touch towers driving live flame effects and LED animations. Funded by an Honoraria Art Grant from the Burning Man Organization; deployed at Burning Man 2015 and multiple Seattle regional events.
Media: drone footage on YouTube · Burning Man 2015 gallery · Critical NW 2015 gallery
Member of the Ignition Northwest grants committee, reviewing and awarding art grants to interactive and large-scale art projects in the Pacific Northwest regional Burning Man community.
Delivered the kickoff speech at the University of Washington’s Women In Informatics (WIFO) hackathon. Talked about Hulu’s core values, how we embraced fun while working hard, and how the team navigated the pandemic transition to remote work.
Covered family care and work-life balance, and the deliberate practices Hulu used to replace the social bonding that disappeared when offices closed: meeting-free days, intentional casual conversations, ramping up competition in product release demos, playing video games together, and cooking classes. Closed on Hulu’s ongoing investment in increasing diversity in hiring.
Volunteer speaker sharing engineering career paths and industry experience with students.
Mentor and interview coach for Ada cohorts, supporting women and gender-expansive adults transitioning into software engineering careers.
Rec hockey in two Seattle leagues since 2013; captain of several teams.
