JP Morgan Chase & Co.
1. Can you provide more details on specific challenges you faced while
developing the Arcus non-functional requirement evaluation and
accreditation microservices suite? How did you overcome them?
A: Arcus was my first Java project as a professional developer and I had to
learn a lot about how complex industrial Java programs. On the Arcus
project I had to learn how to develop Event Driven Architectures in the
Spring framework using Apache Kafka with managed containers in private
cloud environments. I also had to learn how to develop these microservices
using Reactor Core, which is a programming paradigm that I had never heard
of before and have never seen used. I over came these and other hurdles by
immersing myself and studying and prating. Arc's was a lot of firsts for me
in the world of software development, distributed systems, and cloud
architectures.
2. What technologies and tools did you use for the Environment as Code
(EaC) cloud infrastructure provisioning toolkit? Can you describe a
specific instance where this toolkit made a significant impact?
A: While Arcus was primarily using the Gaia cloud (an on-premises private
cloud solution), EaC is the core platform engineering teams solution to
public cloud adoption. I had to learn how to use Hashicorp's Terraform
infrastructure-as-code solution. Terraform uses a declarative domain
specific language (dsl) that describes the infrastructure that you want to
provision. EaC is a major push by the firm to move off of the Gaia private
cloud solution and into the public cloud space for a large number of our
app teams. I got to get more familiar with kubernetes as well, I hadn't
used kubernetes before. Most of my container development experience until
EaC had been with managed containers and docker but I got to learn how to
user kubernetes related tooling such as skafold, kustomize, podman,
builda, etc in order to streamline container development for our backend
system and command line interface. Both the CLI and backend api gateway and
API services are written in golang. I developed the backend and CLI and
assisted in training and onboarding a majority of the developers that were
new to writing in golang.
3. Did you collaborate with other teams or departments? If so, how did you
ensure effective communication and collaboration?
A: I collaborated in the development of several key features as well
and counseled the design and development of a majority of the features
developed by my team members. I lead workshops for event driven design
using the eventstorming method for rapid collaborative prototyping.
4. Were there any notable achievements or recognition you received during
your tenure?
During my time developing EaC, the product was awarded the 2023 Innovation
Award for most innovative product within the firm. EaC beat 19 other
products that were under consideration at JP Morgan Chase.
ScriptCare, Ltd.
1. Can you describe a particularly challenging project you worked on and
how you addressed the challenges?
A: Many of the projects I worked on for Scriptcare were legacy projects that
were written by the CTO that were in dire need of modernization. Many of
the applications were written Coldfusion and glued together with perl
scripts. I had to learn SQL Server, Golang, and Vue.js javascript in order
to build out these modernization for agent web administration dashboards,
client database admin consoles, and progressive whitelabel web applications
that used capacitor and the ionic framework to cross compile ios and
android mobile applications. I addressed thes challenges by studying and
practicing in my spare time to become better at using these tools and
techniques.
2. What were some key features or functionalities you implemented in the
Pharmacy Benefits Management (PBM) web applications?
A: My primary project at Scriptcare was in developing the companies web
console abstraction for managing their data. I built out their
authorization and authentication layer, administration layer, and their
database materialized views. These enabled the company to develop intra
net web portals for their third party agents, internal agents, and
pharmacists to account for and track inventory among other things.
3. How did you ensure the performance and scalability of the applications
you developed?
We kept track of timings end to end by conducting functional and
acceptance testing on simulated systems as well as through alpha testing
software that would release to a limited group of individuals in the
marketing department to test demonstrate and test. These timings and the
tester feedback was then incorporated into further enhancements.
4. Did you mentor or lead other team members? If so, how did you approach
this responsibility?
At this position, I did mentor a few people as there weren't many software
developers there. I generally approach mentor ship as an opportunity to
affirm my own knowledge and I often find that taking interest in other's
development often leads to me learning and growing more as well.
Ultra Electronics
1. Can you provide more details on the XML message processing for the
Universal Command and Control (UC2) protocol? What were the key challenges
and how did you address them?
A: I had never developed a layer 2 (data link) protocol before, and hadn't
had much experience in network programming at all until I worked on this
project. This being my first job as a professional software developer, I
had to learn a lot. I learned about vagrant, ansible, vmware (vsphere and
esxi), how to do inter-process communication, how to work effectively with
legacy systems and how to develop shared libraries and dynamic link
libraries. How to program immediate mode graphics, how to develop an
interpreted language, how to build an embedded system. So many things and I
just took it a day at a time, stayed curios, and committed my self to
dedicated practice to get better each day.
2. How did you ensure the accuracy and reliability of the sensor fusion and
common site picture distribution?
The accuracy of the our data was paramount to me as I was responsible for
the message processing portion of our implementation of the UC2 protocol. I
developed a test bench for evaluation messages received from the raw byte
streams that we would receive that we had transmitted over the network (so
we knew what their contents were) and it would evaluate the output of the
message translation code. Any time there were issues, I would triage
against the software specifications and the data sheets that were developed
to validate that our gateway applications, router, and transformer were
accurate.
3. Were there any specific projects or missions you worked on that had a
significant impact? Can you describe them?
Our implementation was used by the U.S. Marine Corp. at the Purple Guardian
joint exercise and was successful and receiving and emitting real time
messages of the theater during the exercise.
4. What was your role in the deployment and maintenance of the systems you
developed?
A: I was responsible for developing the message processing portion of the
protocol. This would receive a raw byte stream from the data distribution
service (DDS) which it a configurable tcp/udp network layer protocol that
was used to transmit and receive the byte streamed data. Our gateway
application received the data and routed it to the core logic of our system
which would then use the message processing library that I developed to
translate the data into a representation that could then be distributed
across our other supported communication channels. This is what we referred
to as sensor fusion as all of our supported hardware could do this and
therefore all of them could communicate over any of our supported network
protocols.
United States Navy
1. Can you provide more details on the tasks you performed as a Sonar
Technician? What were your key responsibilities?
I was responsible for the operating and maintaining the AN/SQQ-89/AV-15
sonar suite which consisted of a hull mounted sonar dome and a
multi-functional towed array. I had to conduct acoustic data analysis for
search, classification, and engagement of surface and sub-surface contacts.
2. How did you achieve the Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Medals? Can you
describe the accomplishments that led to these awards?
I received my first navy and marine corp achievement medal (NaM) by
completing all of the ships active sonar classification, tracking, and
engagements leading to the ships accreditation to conduct anti-submarine
warfare for our 2013 deployment to the south china sea.
3. Were there any particularly challenging situations you faced, and how
did you handle them?
This was probably the most difficult thing that I have done so far in my
life and it has set the foundations for many of the things that I have done
since. I had to come to terms with being an adult and having so much
responsibility. I had to learn to deal with people, how to operate in a
technical environment, how to think and act effectively and efficiently
with a team of people.
4. Did you receive any additional training or certifications during your
service?
During my time on my ship I received the enlisted surface warfare
specialist (ESWS) qualification that signifies the highest level of
expertise in maritime warfare aboard a surface ship.